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TECHNOLOGYSPOTLIGHT Industrial robot launch set to revolutionise the market
Advances in technology across industry
Portable lab for rapid diagnosis
T
he UK’s first ever industrial robot manufacturer has launched two new models, which are set to revolutionise the market by eradicating reliance on second-hand equipment and helping manufacturing businesses increase profitability. West Midlands-based Armstrong UEN, which specialises in improving manufacturing efficiencies, has developed an innovative and cost-effective turnkey gantry-style robot and a robotic arm, both of which can be purpose-built to complement the engineering and manufacturing sector. “Prohibitive costs have meant that many people rely on re-purposing second-hand robots which were often designed for much more complex tasks. This brings unnecessary expense, and complications to businesses,” explained Peter Richards, managing director at Armstrong UEN. “Following feedback from customers, Armstrong UEN has pioneered an easy-to-program gantrystyle palletising robot, and has also launched an innovative industrial robotic arm, both of which are quick and accurate solutions for a range of material handling applications,” Visit: www.armstronguenrobotics.com
D
o you remember James Bond film Casino Royale? After being poisoned, the agent uses a portable diagnostic kit to identify the toxic substance and alert his HQ in London. Such a type of technology is not fiction anymore. European researchers have developed a ground-breaking diagnostic system based on smart cards and skin patches combined with a portable reader. Test results can directly be sent to a remote computer, a tablet or a smartphone through a wireless connection. This small lab can already detect cocaine consumption, monitor colon cancer, identify bacteria in food and analyse environmental contamination. “13 partners in 8 countries worked for 4 years on the LABONFOIL project. They combined their
skills in microtechnology, molecular biology, materials and electronics to develop this novel technology for rapid and low-cost diagnosis,” explains Dr Ruano-López, the project coordinator based at the Basque research centre IK4-IKERLAN. Spanish company POC MicroSOLUTIONS – a spin-off created by IK4-IKERLAN thanks to the project – is industrialising one of the prototypes for possible launch on the market in 2015. The Irish company Biosensia is currently integrating new features to the LABONFOIL skin patch in order to create a skin patch industrial version. Meanwhile, DTU Nanotech in Denmark is opening a new line of business in the field of technologies for rapid onsite testing of food-based pathogens. Visit: www.cordis.europa.eu
A stretchable highway for light
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or futuristic applications like wearable body sensors and robotic skin, researchers need to ferry information along flexible routes. Electronics that bend and stretch have become possible in recent years, but similar work in the field of optics – communicating with light instead of electrons – has lagged behind. Particularly difficult to engineer have been optics that stretch, lengthening when someone wearing body sensors bends to tie their shoe, or when a robotic arm twists through a full range of motion. Now a team of Belgian researchers (Ghent University) reports progress on this front with what may be the first optical circuit that uses interconnections that are not only bendable, but also stretchable. These new interconnections, made of a rubbery transparent material called PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane), guide light along their path even when stretched up to 30% and when bent around an object the diameter of a human finger.
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Furthermore, by integrating these stretchy interconnections into a circuit – with a light source on one end and a detector on the other – the researchers created a miniature stretchable, bendable ‘link’ that could be incorporated into optical communications systems. Visit: www.osa.org
The new optical circuit works when bent around an object about the diameter of a human finger. Credit: Centre for Microsystems Technology/imec/ Ghent University.
