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Innvotek

Innvotek helps clients develop their ideas and processes through innovation.

TECHNOLOGY DELIVERY.

Building Industry 4.0

As a unique combination of innovation and engineering experts, Innvotek’s team offers extensive expertise in software and hardware development to drive forward collaborative R&D projects with our partners. We create bespoke solutions to overcome real-world challenges and revolutionise conventional processes and services in a wide range of industry sectors.

We also provide technical consultancy in the fields of robotics, automation, software development and data science. We can support all stages of our clients’ innovation cycle from the feasibility studies through to validation of prototype systems and product development.

Software & AI Design.

Inspiring a dialogue between humans and machines

Innvotek engineers create smarter machines using our extensive expertise in data science, software, and engineering.

We apply bespoke machine learning (ML) models to extract meaning from large, complex data sets. Our Software team build intelligent control systems which are able to learn from their environment. The tailored user interfaces that we develop, speed up workflows whether the data is stored on the cloud or a local server.

By exploiting our capabilities in Machine Learning, Data Mining, and Engineering Simulation, we support both industrial and R&D collaborations. We develop embedded software that can run on any operating system using a wide range of programming languages.

We provide assistance and feedback to our clients throughout the whole development process, including on-site demonstrations and end user training.

Big data

IoT and edge computing

Machine learning and Deep learning

Cloud computing

Apps

Digital twins and simulations

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Big Data

We design and deploy Big Data structures using state of the art tools to ensure security, scalability after deployment and content delivery in the most efficient and financially sustainable way.  We also provide technical consulting on the interpretation of patterns & trends, as well as data association related to your problem.

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Machine learning and Deep learning

We cover the entire cycle of machine learning design and development phases, from the preliminary analysis and filtering of the data to the design, fine-tuning and deployment of the model in your system pipeline.  We use data visualisation tools and analytics to translate the outcome into tangible and usable feedback.  We utilise machine learning frameworks like Keras, Tensorflow and PyTorch to achieve the best result based on the client needs or preferences.

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IoT and edge computing

We provide the expertise to cover the entire spectrum of this field. We design custom boards (PCB) to interface with any kind of sensor and optimise power consumption and scalability using real-time operating systems (RTOS). We have also adapted the edge computing paradigm, developing applications on edge (on the sensor’s controller) to enforce privacy and security and optimise communication bandwidth.

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Cloud computing

Cloud is present in every distributed computing system, and there are good reasons for that. We develop custom applications using technologies such as FaaS (function as a service), PaaS (platform as a service) and containers to create universal and scalable modules to boost your system productivity and extendibility. We design cloud clusters using popular platforms such as AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud, and DigitalOcean.

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Apps

We design and develop portable applications compatible with any kind of platforms, including MS Windows, Mac OS, Linux, iOS, Android or Web. We connect them in existing infrastructure or develop the necessary interfaces or microservices to feed them. In addition to that, we build graphical user interfaces (GUI) to interface custom hardware developments using either mainstream frameworks or custom approaches like LabView.

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Digital twins and simulations

Solution development is a complicated procedure including the risk assessment, increased complexity or oversimplifications. It is our common practice to develop advanced simulations using state of the art tools to give our clients confidence that the concepts are feasible for real-world implementation. On top of that, we ensure that the digital content will be reusable in a digital twin scenario where real-time control and predictive maintenance approaches can be developed to support advance asset management scenarios.

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Robotic & Automation Solutions.

Revolutionising the robotics field

Innvotek engineers have accumulated unique expertise in the development of bespoke robotic and automation platforms adjusted to customer requirements in offshore, oil and gas, maritime, and construction industries.

Whilst offering a significant reduction in the costs and the health and safety risks, our compact and remotely controlled robots reinvent conventional processes and services. We create reliable, mobile platforms which can operate on vertical surfaces, under-water or even in explosive environments allowing our customers to maintain their operations while our robots carry out inspection and maintenance.

We offer the following robotic and automation platforms:

Crawlers operating in explosive environments performing non-destructive testing (NDT) with ATEX certification

Robotic platforms that perform repetitive tasks on construction sites including asset mapping

Magnetic crawlers for cleaning and NDT inspection for offshore wind foundations and the oil & gas industry

Team of robots performing collaborative tasks when interventions are too complicated to be completed by a single system

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R&D Portfolio.

Meeting real-world challenges

At Innvotek, we have delivered over 70 multidisciplinary, collaborative European and national research projects with many notable successes. Some of our current key research projects are listed below.

EM-ReSt

Industry: Manufacturing
Technology: Robotics, NDT
Grant Award: £1,2 million

SmartGFA

Industry: Sustainable agriculture
Technology: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML)
Grant Award: £660k

SmartBridge

Industry: Infrastructure, Transport
Technology: Digital twin, 3D-modeling
Grant Award: £1,5 million

RadBlad

Industry: Offshore
Technology: Robotics, NDT
Grant Award: £1,2 million

FSWBot

Industry: Oil & Gas
Technology: Robotics, NDT
Grant Award: £1,5 million

ICELIP

Industry: Aerospace
Technology: Nanotechnology
Grant Award: £1 million

EM-ReSt

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Industry: Manufacturing

Technology: Robotics, NDT

Grant Award: £1,2 million

Challenge: Residual stresses and micro-cracks that occur during the additive manufacturing (AM) process can result in irreversible damage and structural failure of the object after its manufacturing. The nature of some AM methods means that not all non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques are effective in detecting residual stresses. Thermography, X-ray computed tomography (CT scan), or digital radiography are limited by the resolution of images, are bulky and costly (up to £100k) and are not suited to residual stress detection.

Solution: Development of the technology to overcome key limitations relating to final component quality in metal AM by improving the online monitoring and detection during the component manufacturing.

Deliverables:

  • more flexible and efficient processes
  • processes that enable faster and greater customisation of products
  • the production of more reliable and robust components and efficient manufacturing processes through the incorporation of Big Data and machine learning techniques
  • increased productivity, competitiveness, and growth for UK businesses by creating a UK-based supply chain of SMEs and opening a range of new applications across large industrial verticals (such aerospace, defence, automotive and medical)
  • a step-change in competitiveness and productivity for the SMEs involved in the project

RadBlad

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Industry: Offshore

Technology: Robotics, NDT

Grant Award: £1,2 million

Challenge: High stresses due to wind loading cause blade damage resulting in downtime and expensive repairs. An average of 3,800 blade failures annually are attributed to poor maintenance. Costing between £70,000 and £700,000 each, a preventative inspection every 3-4 months and maintenance every six months is necessary. Current NDT practice involves visual, thermography, acoustic emission, or ultrasound, requiring skilled personnel. An EWEA survey indicates an NDT technician shortage of 5,500 qualified staff in 2012 climbing to 28,000 by 2030. Manual inspection leads to a high number of accidents (1726 accidents from 1970 to May 2015 with fatalities accounting for 45% of the total number).

Solution: Development and implementation of the agile, mobile wall-climbing robots, portable radiography equipment and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to perform asset management of offshore wind farms located in extreme and challenging environments. Further development of the platform, including up-scaling of the robot system for field testing and manufacture, extension of the capabilities of the defect detection and recognition algorithm to real-world defects, the generation of in-field radiographic images on an in-service blade.

Deliverables:

  • improved quality of inspection as compared to manual ultrasound NDT
  • reduced inspection times and hence reducing the cost of inspecting hundreds of blades.

FSWBot

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Industry: Oil & Gas

Technology: Robotics, NDT

Grant Award: £1,5 million

Challenge: Pipelines constructed of carbon steel degrade due to the corrosive nature of the liquids they transport, such as crude oil, petroleum chemical and petrochemical raw materials. Corrosion and cracks can form over time leading to failure and leakage of the contents, resulting in severe economic losses and environmental pollution. To avoid any damage to the environment, inspection, evaluation, and repair activities are performed periodically. Internal cracks and areas of corrosion and metal loss are monitored using intelligent devices called ‘pigs’ which carry magnetic flux leakage sensors. Sections of pipeline that are found most likely to fail are reinforced using an externally applied bolt-on clamp which is both costly and has several drawbacks. Some pipelines are inaccessible, especially those which are installed in parallel groups where space around pipes is restricted.

Solution: Development of a robotic platform with a payload consisting of unique hydraulic friction stir welding equipment which produces no sparks from inside the pipe.

Deliverables:

  • provision of a driverless on-line, permanent integrity maintenance solution to internal corrosion and cracks prior to pipe failure
  • much cheaper and safer repair process: pipeline asset owners and their service providers are able to produce high-quality welds in steel pipelines without shutting down and purging petroleum pipelines, as well as the use of divers or surface vessels.

SmartGFA

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Industry: Sustainable agriculture

Technology: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML)

Grant Award: £660k

Challenge: In Africa, agribusiness has the potential to reduce poverty and drive economic growth more than any other sector. Achieving Africa’s agricultural growth potential will require a significant increase in historically low levels of productivity. Greenhouses are a solution, as they can lead to an increase of up to 10x in yield and profitability compared to open field farming techniques. But greenhouses require careful, time-consuming management of the internal environment, irrigation optimisation and avoidance of overheating or high humidity.

Solution: Development of a low-cost greenhouse management system with real-time data to provide a farmer with intel (i.e. environmental conditions, yield prediction, crop condition, action recommendations) using AI and ML.

Deliverables:

  • optimisation of greenhouse growing conditions on a per-crop basis
  • minimised water consumption & fertiliser use
  • reduction of yield-reducing human error during the growing process
  • on-line analytics interface accessible via smartphone to enable remote control of irrigation systems and provide actionable functions
  • tailored micro-financing for low-income smallholder farmers in Kenya

SmartBridge

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Industry: Infrastructure, Transport

Technology: Digital twin, 3D-modeling

Grant Award: £1,5 million

Challenge: Bridges are continuously subjected to destructive effects of material ageing, widespread corrosion, vibrations, environmental impacts, increasing traffic volume and overloading. As required by law they need to be monitored and undergo inspection before the occurrence of structural failure or incidents.

Solution: Development of a ‘digital twin’ concept for the realisation of real-time condition monitoring of bridges by creating dynamic multi-scale 3D models combined with condition monitoring data collected from sensors on the bridge, operating condition information, and all available historical data to mirror the life of its physical twin.

Deliverables:

  • Play a vital role in maintenance for bridges in the EU, 67% of which are more than 20 years old and therefore, more prone to failure if not monitored continuously
  • Improve resilience and sustainability of infrastructures by extending (>40+ years) the lifecycle of infrastructure through predictive maintenance enabled by the SmartBridge knowledge-based real-time monitoring tool
  • Reduce the risk of bridges structural failure by 60% through timely scheduling of maintenance
  • Reduce whole-life costs by 20% and negative environmental impacts caused due to failures by 40%

ICELIP

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Industry: Aerospace

Technology: Nanotechnology

Grant Award: £1 million

Challenge: De-icing in the aviation industry is an essential and life-saving procedure, but at the same time, astronomically expensive and harmful for the environment. The existing ice-mitigation technologies, such as mechanical breaking, electrical heating, de-icing, and air bleed systems, are expensive, inefficient, unreliable, and environmentally harmful. Annually, 100 million litres of de-icing fluid are used, which cost £1.3 billion, and 150 million tons of CO2 emissions are pumped into the atmosphere.

Solution: Development of a disruptive, passive anti-icing coating technology with high durability, which will help to remove the need for the hundreds of millions of litres of de-icing fluid, as well as contribute to annual savings of around £7 billion in fuel consumption.

Deliverables:

  • Provision of standard aerospace coating systems with dual functionalities. This will be achieved by using ice-repellent multi-functionalised silica nanoparticles bonded strongly to a standard polyurethane clear coat already used in the aerospace sector.
  • Testing of the coating using an ice wind tunnel simulation environment to demonstrate a combination of ice-repellency and durability.
  • Immediate implementation across the aviation industry.
  • Saving of around £7 billion in aviation fuel consumption annually.

Application in other sectors affected by icing, e.g. transport (rail, maritime, automotive) and energy (wind turbines, power lines).

Technical Consultancy.

We offer technical consultancy as a full-scale independent service to help you:

  • upgrade, optimise or digitise your processes and services
  • plan a technical strategy to achieve your goals within timeframe and budget
  • develop your idea into a concept and engineer the concept into a prototype
  • carry out rigorous validation in line with your business goals

Project Management.

At Innvotek, we actively support all stages of project administration from planning through to exploitation. We also maintain tight control of the budget and evaluate the risks as the project progresses. Our principles of work are based upon agile project management and best practices which ensure you stay on schedule and fully updated during the life cycle of the project.

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