Revolutionary robot pitched at industrial partners

Citation

(2005), "Revolutionary robot pitched at industrial partners", Industrial Robot, Vol. 32 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.2005.04932dab.002

Revolutionary robot pitched at industrial partners

Revolutionary robot pitched at industrial partners

Keywords: Robotics, Service industries

Staffordshire University has teamed up with a firm of intellectual property developers to help put a revolutionary robotic concept to commercial use.

The groundbreaking Flexibot robotic arm has been developed by a specialist team based at Staffordshire University.

The prototype Flexibot is “one step beyond” the current state-of-the-art in robotics and offers its users the opportunity to tailor development to meet their own specific requirements.

The robotic arm is special because it can propel itself by travelling along a series of docking stations, reaching from one fixed station to another; or it can lock itself to a vehicle or another host.

Flexibot is able to travel with precise accuracy and operate with infinite degrees of movement, however extensive or diverse the environment is. This unique design offers complete flexibility and the device is capable of completing high precision tasks using a variety of instruments on its own or with other robots.

Staffordshire University has appointed Davidsons, a leading London-based intellectual property consultancy to manage the process of taking the invention to the next stage of its commercial development.

Using a suitable hi-tech medium to get the message across, Davidsons have designed a multimedia information pack on CD that is to target interested parties.

Senior Partner Jeffrey Davidson said: “We are looking to interest world-class industrial partners in the Flexibot who can work with Staffordshire University to make the invention reach its full commercial potential.”

There is also a dedicated website (www.robotic-arm.com) which gives interested parties further information and allows them to communicate directly and confidentiality with Davidsons.

Mr Davidson added: “We are tremendously excited about the Flexibot. Although we work with many inventions and see a lot of really clever stuff it is rare for us to have the opportunity to work on something so simple, yet so revolutionary. “We have worked with Staffordshire University through the prototyping and evaluation stages of the project and we are now ready to show it to the world.”

For copies of the Flexibot CD contact: Davidsons Intellectual Property Consultants, 8 Southampton Place, London, WC1A 2EA, UK. Tel: +44 (0) 20 7404 5800; Fax: +44 (0) 20 7404 5801; web site: www.robotic-arm.com