Articles
The Technology Collaborative awards largest single round of funding
for Technology
Commercialization
Projects across the Commonwealth
- Projects reinforce
expanded statewide focus of economic development organization
PITTSBURGH, PA – May 3, 2006 -- The Technology Collaborative (TTC), a
statewide economic development organization that supports the growth
of Pennsylvania’s world-class robotics, cyber-security and digital
technologies industries, today announced its most recent round of
funding. In total, $2,300,000 will be allocated
to twelve companies and one joint university/corporate team across
Pennsylvania.
“This is the largest sum we’ve granted in a single round and,
consequently, we are able to fund more projects in the robotics,
digital and cyber security technologies sectors, including two
companies based in central and eastern Pennsylvania,” said David
Ruppersberger, Chief Executive Officer of The Technology
Collaborative. “We feel that this round of funding indicates
significant progress towards commercializing these technologies as
the principal investigators for 12 of the 13 projects originate from
industry.”
The Technology Collaborative received 32 final proposals for this
round. The awards for this round of funding
were granted to Accipiter Systems, Aethon, Blueroof
Technologies, Bridge Semiconductor, Concurrent Design Automation,
Freedom Sciences, Intrigue Technologies, NanoLambda, RedZone
Robotics, Sensible Machines, VideoMining Corporation, Xigmix, and
3eti/Penn State. Each of these projects is scheduled to get
underway by June 1, 2006.
For more detail on the awarded projects, please see the attached
sidebar.
Sidebar:
Accipiter Systems, Inc.
The Hybrid Wireless Link for Operator/Robot Communications project
develops
an innovative wireless communications link product that appears as a
single link to the robot operator but offers seamless switchover
between two technologies with complementary capabilities. The hybrid
link enhances the strengths of the two technologies while minimizing
the effects of their weaknesses. The hybrid link product achieves
performance and reliability not possible with a conventional single
link technology approach. Other applications for the product
include Medical Emergency Services, Public Safety Services, military
communications and Homeland Security.
Aethon
Mobile robotic applications need low cost, reliable obstacle
detection sensors for successful operation in complex environments.
Existing high performance sensing systems are too expensive for
broad application, and low performance sensors, while low cost, have
various pitfalls in their operation based on technology. This new
development will combine several well known, low cost, and “noisy”
obstacle sensing technologies, merging the data in such a way as to
drastically reduce or eliminate false obstacle indications. This
sensor data fusion will effectively use one sensor technology to
make up for limitations of another technology. Using well known
sensing principles and primarily off the shelf components, will
result in a low system cost, allowing wide applicability to the
mobile robotics market. A modular architecture, including JAUS
compliance, will allow rapid integration onto many robotic vehicles
and applications.
“This TTC project funding will allow Aethon to more rapidly
penetrate the healthcare delivery robot market, while providing
useful base technology to regional autonomous mobile robot
partners.”
BlueRoof Technologies
The main goal of this project is to further develop the
infrastructure by working with a number of TTC member companies to
develop and/or incorporate other advanced systems and products into
the Smart Cottage. The proposed systems to be integrated into the
Blueroof Smart Cottage for this project include: Memory reminder
(AT-Sciences), Medical monitoring (Phillips), Quality of Life
Sensors (CMU, Pitt, Bodymedia and Bosch) and Advanced Technology
System. With the integration of these systems, the Blueroof Smart
Cottage will become a premier research lab and demonstration
facility for a variety of technologies that will foster the quality
of life for seniors and individuals with physical and mental
challenges. The second goal of this project is to develop a
comprehensive program that will establish the Blueroof Smart Cottage
as a world class test facility where TTC member companies and
partners can test their products and ideas in a “real-life”
environment with, when appropriate, real life “residents.”
Bridge Semiconductor
Bridge has designed a new pyroelectric
sensor-based thermal imager from the ground up for low manufacturing
costs. Bridge’s approach utilizes mature high-volume semiconductor
manufacturing technologies for producing and integrating a low cost
lead zirconium titanate (PZT) sensing layer to very sensitive,
DC-coupled signal conditioning electronics through a combined
thermal insulating/electrical
conduction layer. With this platform, Bridge will radically
disrupt the market and unlock latent high volume demand in emerging,
price elastic thermal imaging markets, making thermal imaging
cameras widely available to a much broader set of users and
applications. The purpose of this project is to improve the
pyroelectric response and reduce the noise of the PZT sensor
material. This project will allow Bridge accelerate it’s product
introduction for its second generation IR imager by leveraging the
world leading materials expertise at Penn State University’s
Materials Research Laboratory to develop new pyroelectric sensing
materials.
Concurrent Design Automation
This grant will fund the development of design automation software
tools that will provide quantitative answers for the following
questions: “What are the ’key tasks’ of my application? How much
faster would these tasks be if they were accelerated using an FPGA?
Using an ASIC? What would be the resulting application performance?”
We propose to create a set of three tools that will provide
quantitative analysis and rapid design of FPGAs and ASICs using only
C software tasks. Specifically, the System Profiler will quantify
the performance of an entire software system and each of its tasks.
The SOC Designer is a graphical design environment for
interconnecting multiple C software tasks though pre-built hardware
data structures, facilitating hardware acceleration of software. The
SOC Analyzer and Accelerator will enable quantitative analysis of
the tasks within the SOC Designer tool to accurate estimate their
performance in hardware and will automatically convert the tasks
into synthesizable hardware.
Freedom Sciences
The Automated Transport and Retrieval System (ATRS) is a
revolutionary new concept being introduced to the mobility market.
ATRS is designed to provide those with limited abilities an
independent means of transportation without significantly modifying
a motor vehicle.
ATRS integrates machine vision and robotics technology with existing
mobility products into a cost-effective solution for true
independent transportation mobility. The system includes a platform
lift and dock, an articulating automotive seat, and a set of
hardware and software for remote manual and computer assisted
control of a power wheelchair. ATRS makes it possible for a limited
mobility individual to safely transport their mobility aid into and
out of a motor vehicle of their choice without the assistance of a
caregiver.
"The funding we are receiving from TTC is instrumental in helping us
achieve our commercialization goals for ATRS. In conjunction with
Carnegie Mellon University and Lehigh University, we have developed
a working proof-of-concept of the product and now have the funding
in place to support the engineering efforts needed to harden the
technology and bring it to market rapidly,” commented Tom
Panzarella, Chief Technology Officer, Freedom Sciences, LLC.
“We are very excited to collaborate with TTC on this effort."
Intrigue Technologies, Inc.
Under this program we propose to implement the RoboRetina™
technology as a processing system-on-a-chip – the RoboRetina™
processing module. We will develop a visible color camera for
surveillance and biometric applications, and work with our partners
(DRS and L3) to integrate our RoboRetina™ processing module into
their infrared (IR) cameras for military and government markets.
The image sensor chip market remains very attractive – $2.6B in 2004
to grow to $4.1B by 2008. Eight million CCTV cameras were sold in
2004 and CCTV systems are projected to grow at 12.9% to $2.9B by
2008. The global infrared camera market was $1.3B in 2005, out of
which the security and surveillance segment alone is projected to
grow at 20% annually to 1.1B by 2008.
These growth opportunities attract many
competitors. However the vast majority of players are competing in a
commodity, technologically-undifferentiated and price-sensitive
arena. Our acute understanding of multidisciplinary issues in
robotics and computer vision enabled us to “think outside of the
box” and create a series of innovations that are necessary to make
visual perception work for future machine vision applications.
NanoLambda
NanoLambda is developing
Spectrum SensorTM
chip, an ultra compact Spectrometer-on-a-Chip. Each pixel of the
Spectrum SensorTM
chip detects a pre-defined wavelength of light. In contrast to the
conventional bulky and expensive solutions, NanoLambda’s
Spectrum SensorTM
chip can be as small as a few mm x mm, and the cost is also lower
than one tenth of conventional solutions cost. This not only enables
non-invasive “mobile/wearable” health monitoring devices, but also
enables miniaturized optical sensor devices for on-site, real time
detection of multiple toxic gases and hazardous
materials.
RedZone Robotics
RedZone Robotics, Inc. has a storied history of innovation in the
industrial, nuclear, and defense markets. RedZone is currently
developing and employing a suite of robotic inspection, cleaning,
and rehabilitation systems within the water and wastewater market
segments. RedZone's flagship product line, Responder, offers
inspection and cleaning services in large diameter pipes.
With this award, RedZone will develop a new product line focused on
supporting the needs of small mobile robots. RedZone will feature
this technology in its small pipe inspection robots. The technology
provides compact data acquisition, archiving, and analysis
capabilities at low cost for robotic inspection systems.
"This grant is strategically important to RedZone as it is an
essential first step in the development of a new product line
customized for the inspection of small pipes. Small pipes represent
80% of the market space and offer significant growth opportunities
for RedZone,” commented Scott Thayer, PhD., Chief Technology Officer
of RedZone. “We are excited to be working with
The Technology Collaborative on this effort and value their
sponsorship and commitment to the region's robotics industry."
Sensible Machines
Sensible Machines’ project is entitled "Low-Cost and Precise
Localization for Autonomous Outdoor Mobile Robots."
A key deliverable of the project is an inexpensive navigation
system that operates robustly in large, outdoor areas with
centimeter level precision. This capability is
fundamental in achieving economically viable autonomous operation
for many outdoor tasks that require precise positioning, such as
specialty farming and mowing. The project builds
on over 5 years of basic research performed by Dr. Sanjiv Singh and
Stephan Roth of Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute.
"The Technology Collaborative award is a seminal event for Sensible
Machines. The award enables us to develop a core
technology for outdoor robotics for commercialization and gain the
momentum necessary to help us launch our firm," said Eric Paljug,
CEO of Sensible Machines.
VideoMining Corporation
Multiple pilot and demo installations of our VideoMining product
have established the value of audience measurement and segmentation.
We have identified initial system cost and deployment difficulties
due to form factor to be major barriers for widespread acceptance.
We propose a low-cost, small form factor hardware that integrates an
image sensor and an FPGA module as a solution to this critical
barrier. The benefits of the proposed implementation include, small
form factor deployment of the solution, significant reduction in
cost, from $800 to approximately $250, and significant reduction in
power - making battery operation feasible. Key technical issues in
porting our software to the proposed hardware include determining
optimal number representation and format, data flow and storage
requirements, parallelization strategy, kernel function
implementation, and balancing tradeoff between system complexity and
application accuracy.
Xigmix, Inc.
Xigmix has developed a computer-aided design tool to speed-up and
improve the performance and manufacturability of critical analog,
mixed-signal and radio-frequency (RF) integrated circuit designs.
Xigmix's proprietary technology allows a
customer to improve the performance of analog-based integrated
circuits while simultaneously ensuring a manufacturable design. This
capability has been achieved through the use of advanced,
application-specific numerical modeling and optimization methods.
Xigmix, Inc. was recently awarded this research contract from TTC
for their project “IC Memory, Characterization, Optimization and
Compilation for SoC Design,” to investigate
extending its current circuit optimization capability to
semiconductor memories.
“Xigmix is very excited to be one of the recipients of a TTC
research grant. This provides Xigmix with the capability to extend
our technology into the memory design market. It is becoming
increasingly difficult for memory designers to produce high yielding
designs using the current design methods and aids for emerging
System-on-a-Chip semiconductor technologies. The TTC grant provides
Xigmix the opportunity to develop and market its technology
specifically tailored to meet the needs of this market,” commented
David J. Collins, CEO of Xigmix.
3eti/Pennsylvania State University
3eti and Pennsylvania State University’s project is called “Mobile
Sensor Systems.” The deployment of sensor
networks with mobile nodes is becoming more practical and desirable.
Applications range from taking factory inventory to
monitoring a hazardous location. For example, a
robot with an RFID reader may travel through a warehouse taking
inventory as it moves. A challenge with this type of application is
to decrease the time taken to complete inventory or to locate a
specific item. In previous research we have developed algorithms for
both gathering data and relocating sensors to maximize coverage and
minimize energy consumption. In this project we
propose to implement data gathering and sensor relocation algorithms
on a real mobile sensor platform. This work will
have direct applicability to ongoing work with DoD and the Navy as
currently supported by 3eti.
“This funding will enable us to move ideas from abstract and
theoretical concepts into working systems and will allow us to gain
more insight into our approaches, resulting in operational systems
that will have a positive impact on our business and the benefits
our customers realize,” commented Thomas F. La
Porta of Pennsylvania State University.
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About The Technology Collaborative
The Technology Collaborative’s mission is to help increase
Pennsylvania’s technology-based economy by developing collaborating
industry clusters that leverage the region’s world-class assets in
Advanced Electronics, Cyber Security, and Agile Robotics. TTC is
helping to create an ideal environment for business expansion by
leveraging the region’s existing high-tech base, and combining it
with resources and support from local universities, private
foundations, regional development organizations, federal, state, and
local government, and industry. They enable regional economic growth
by utilizing a “business friendly” environment to attract new
companies to the region, help local companies grow, and foster
start-ups.
- Technology
Collaborative
