Innovate UK

First Blade Walk by a Robot on a Wind Turbine

The UK has achieved the world's first blade walk by a robot on an offshore wind turbine, thanks to BladeBUG and the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult. Over two days in mid-October, the six-legged inspect-and-repair robot repeatedly scaled blades at ORE Catapult's 7MW Levenmouth Demonstration turbine off the coast of Fife.

New Projects to Explore use of Drones for Medical Delivery

There are over 2.5 million movements of medical supplies, samples and other items between hospitals and medical centres annually in the UK, with the majority of movements being undertaken by commissioned couriers on the country's road network.

Rolls Royce Completes Ground Testing of World's Fastest Electric Plane

Rolls-Royce has completed testing of the ground-breaking technology that will power the world's fastest all-electric plane. All the technology has been tested on a full-scale replica of the plane's core, called an 'ionBird', including a 500hp electric powertrain powerful enough to set world speed records and a battery with enough energy to supply 250 homes.

UK Takes the Next STEP in Curbside Electric Vehicle Charging

World-first technology that could unlock electric vehicle charging for people without driveways or garages is being trialed across London.

London Bus Garage Becomes World's Largest Vehicle-to-Grid Site

A North London bus garage is set to become a 'virtual power station', generating electricity from buses when not in use. Following a transformation to garage nearly 100 new zero-emission electric buses, Northumberland Park is now one of the biggest electric bus facilities in Europe. The project, called Bus2Grid, is believed to be the world's largest vehicle-to-grid trial site.

TG0

TG0 has developed a novel method of touch/pressure sensing, which relies on incorporating conductive material within injection molded plastic components. Touch location, gestures and pressure are then interpreted via signal processing and machine learning. Unlike other touch sensing methodologies multiple discrete electronic sensors are not needed.

Printed Electronics Ltd

Printed Electronics Ltd (PEL) is a UK company focused on integration, development and commercialization of processes and systems for fabrication of electronic circuits, structures and devices using digital, additive, screen printing and inkjet methods. They offer very rapid product development and small/medium volume manufacturing.

ZeroAvia Conducts UK's First Commercial-Scale Electric Flight

ZeroAvia conducted the first ever electric-powered flight of a commercial-scale aircraft carried out in the UK. The test flight is a significant milestone both for the UK's net zero and green aviation ambitions, and for ZeroAvia on the journey to demonstrating long-distance zero emission flights in large aircraft.

PST Sensors

PST Sensors manufacture printed, flexible, thin film temperature sensors based on a silicon nanoparticle composite ink. They are based in both the UK and South Africa, and also develop integrated sensing systems that utilize their printed thermistor technology.

Small Robot Company

Small Robot Company was established in 2017 in the UK. They have raised £2.5M so far and have 18 people. They wanted to enable the rise of small agricultural robots.

CPI Announces Smart-Labelling Using Battery-on-Circuit Technology

CPI announced a new collaborative project with Reelables to demonstrate a novel technology for printing smart Battery-on-Circuit labels, used to track shared objects in workspaces. This low-cost power source will eliminate the need for expensive and bulky external batteries for printed electronics, overcoming a key barrier to their widening application, mass production and industry growth.

Proteus Instruments

Proteus started out from its parent company RS Hydro. It is a trading division of RS Hydro and was formed on the back of an innovation project to develop a real-time BOD sensor. IDTechEx interviewed Hannah Gunter, technical research assistant and Michael Oswell, Sales Director.

Advanced Electric Machines Ltd

Advanced Electric Machines (AEM) produce a novel form of electric motor which has no reliance on rare-earths or copper windings. AEM have a partnership and applications within commerical vehicles and are looking to expand even further.

UK's First Electric Forecourt Under Construction, Opening Summer 2020

The first of a nationwide network of over 100 Electric Forecourts is now under construction and will open this summer. The Electric Forecourt near Braintree, Essex, can charge 24 electric vehicles at once with superchargers that can deliver up to 350kW of charging power, enabling people to charge vehicles within 20-30 minutes initially, and much faster in the future as battery technologies mature.

Robotic Crawler for Internal Repair of Pipelines

The development of the first ever FSWBot, Friction Stir Welding Robotic Crawler for internal repair and refurbishment of pipelines, is designed to transform the way industries deal with pipeline issues.

CPI Partners with Canadian SME and National Research Council of Canada

CPI has announced the successful development of a scalable purification process for graphene oxide production in partnership with Graphene Leaders Canada Inc. a Canadian SME, and the National Research Council of Canada. This will overcome a key barrier to future large-scale production of GO, reducing costs and facilitating the adoption of GO to improve performance of industrial products.

CPI Partners with LiNa Energy to Create Next-Gen Battery Technology

CPI announced the success of its £250,000 collaborative project with LiNa Energy and Lancaster University to demonstrate the proof-of-concept of LiNa's novel sodium-nickel-chloride battery technology.

Integrated Graphene

Integrated Graphene are a company that manufacture 3D graphene for sensing and energy storage applications. IDTechEx spoke to Alastair Carrington (commercial director).

Rolls-Royce Unveils All-electric Plane Targeting the Record Books

Rolls-Royce's ambitions to build the world's fastest all-electric aircraft have taken an important step forward with the unveiling of the plane at Gloucestershire Airport. Work will now begin on integrating the ground-breaking electrical propulsion system to enable the zero-emissions plane to make a run for the record books with a target speed of 300+ MPH.

Non-Chemical Weed Zapping With Rootwave

Small Robot Company announced the world's first non-chemical precision robotic weeding for cereal crops. Using electricity and artificial intelligence, the 'Dick' robot will zap individual weeds using commercially-proven RootWave weed zapping technology. Early field trials are due to commence in 2020.