The Industriables

We Build Product Companies. Yes! Industrio transforms teams into companies, and prototypes into products. Work with us to build your product in one of the most advanced and recognized manufacturing ecosystem in the world: Italy.

[industrio]

Industrio is proud to announce the selected startups from its Selection Day that will participate to the spring-2014 acceleration program in Trento. Among #8 international startups coming from Italy, Slovenia, Brazil, Egypt and Russia we selected three teams. And here they are:

TOP BOTTLING WINE (Italy) - Italian team experienced in the field of wine bottling systems. They set up a new bottling system that allows wine producers to use less additives and to preserve longer the taste of wine.

LOCK&CHARGE (Slovenia) - Incredible Slovenian team which want to develop a system that let you lock and charge at the same time your e-bike.

BIKEEBIKE (Italy) - Two racy Italian brothers which developed a new powerful electric engine. They want to put it on a downhill bike to create the fastest bike ever.

Industrio will support teams providing an incredible and unique package composed of cash, machineries, technology and an international network of partners and mentors from Italy, US and China. To know more about Industrio and its startups follow us on Facebook or Twitter. Or drop us a mail [email protected] or call us at ([phone]

[industrio]

We spent 48 hours with an amazing group of entrepreneurs that want to create incredible products. And they want to do this with Industrio. The Bootcamp has been the occasion to stay together, know each other something better and more important understand the value of the project and the product startups want to build. I personally ended the Bootcamp fulfilled by the amount of energy, passion and commitment the people put in their dreams or rough prototypes. This is amazing.

We at Industrio want to give you what you are missing to maximize the impact you want to have on your product; we provide you with cash, mentorship and a complete set of tools and machineries to prototype faster and better!  Currently we are going through our selection process for Spring-2014 class. In few days we will have our Selection Day where a selected number of teams will pitch to win our investment and participation to our Acceleration program.

Good luck for startups and looking forward to present the team of Industrio Spring-2014 class.

- Jari  CEO, Industrio

[industrio]

[industrio]

Industrio is opening applications for its next spring-2014 hardware acceleration program. Starting monday 2nd you can apply here: www.f6s.com/hardwareacceleratoritaly-spring2014

To know more about our investment program go and check our website www.industrio.co

Good luck!

[industrio]

A step ahead

Friday, 10am, rushing around and setting up to be ready for a warm welcome...to welcome the teams attending Industrio final selection day!

This is the sentence we would stat describing 18th of October, and know we say - it was great, awesome, inspiring and challenging. The project ranged from counting the bees in the hive to flying with the drone in the sky, from printing 3D object to hardware application for agriculture. We would like to thank everyone to make the day work! It is a great success having 54 applications in total from all over Europe with 20 being extremely strong and competitive projects. Working hard we selected best of the best - 8 teams have attended final selection day. Now we are reviewing the final details to welcome best of the best on board to start Industrio program 1st of November!

Stay tuned, the selected startups to be announced SOON 

[industrio]

'Terminator arm' churned out of 3D printer

It may look like a sci-fi movie prop, but it could be a glimpse at the future of prosthetics.

3D printing can render everyday artefacts in clear plastic, so we can see in unprecedented detail how they work – and this exquisite model of a prosthetic arm is a brilliant example. It is one of the highlights at the London Science Museum's 3D printing exhibition, which features more than 600 printed objects.

Designed by Richard Hague, director of the Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Research Group at the University of Nottingham, UK, and his students the arm shows how the printers can create strong structure, mobile joints and delicate sensors – like spiral-shaped metal touch-detectors – all in one process.

"It's a mock-up but it shows circuits that sense temperature, feel objects and control the arm's movement," says Hague. "3D printing gives us the freedom to make complex, optimised shapes, and our research aim is focused on printing-in electrical, optical or even biological functions."

Such techniques are also bringing prosthetics to people who previously could not afford them. For instance, the open-source "robohand" project, pioneered by South African carpenter Richard Van As, aims to print cheap, plastic customised prostheses for people who have lost fingers, or who were born with some digits missing or malformed. Some of his work – with the designs available online – is also on show at the Science Museum.

Would you like to see what our 3D-printed future looks like?

[via NewScientist Tech]

[industrio]

Human Robot Getting Closer: iCub Robot Must Learn from Its Experiences

 A robot that feels, sees and, in particular, thinks and learns like us. It still seems like science fiction, but if it's up to University of Twente (UT) researcher Frank van der Velde, it won't be. In his work he wants to implement the cognitive process of the human brain in robots. The research should lead to the arrival of the latest version of the iCub robot in Twente. This human robot (humanoid) blurs the boundaries between robot and human. 

Decades of scientific research into cognitive psychology and the brain have given us knowledge about language, memory, motor skills and perception. We can now use that knowledge in robots, but Frank van der Velde's research goes even further. "The application of cognition in technical systems should also mean that the robot learns from its experiences and the actions it performs. A simple example: a robot that spills too much when pouring a cup of coffee can then learn how it should be done." 

Possible first iCub in the Netherlands

 The arrival of the iCub robot at the University of Twente should signify the next step in this research. Van der Velde submitted an application together with other UT researchers Stefano Stramigioli, Vanessa Evers, Dirk Heylen and Richard van Wezel, all active in the robotics and cognitive research. At the moment, twenty European laboratories have an iCub, which was developed in Italy (thanks to a European FP7 grant for the IIT). The Netherlands is still missing from the list. Moreover, a newer version is currently being developed, with for example haptic sensors. In February it will be announced whether the robotics club will actually bring the latest iCub to the UT. The robot costs a quarter of a million Euros and NWO (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research) will reimburse 75% of the costs. Then the TNO (Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research) and the universities of Groningen, Nijmegen, Delft and Eindhoven can also make use of it. Within the UT, the iCub can be deployed in different laboratories thanks to a special transport system. 

Robot guide dog 

The possibilities are endless, according to Van der Velde. "The new iCub has a skin and fingers that have a much better sense of touch and can feel strength. That makes interaction with humans much more natural. We want to ensure that this robot continues to learn and understands how people function. This research ensures, for example, that robots actually gather knowledge by focusing on certain objects or persons. In areas of application like healthcare and nursing, such robots can play an important role. A good example would be that in ten years' time you see a blind person walking with a robot guide dog." 

[via Science Gymnasium]

[industrio]

Inspiring! Watch Louis Smith MBE, UK Olympic Gymnast, pit his skills against the aerobatic ability of the amazing Parrot AR.Drone 2.0. Winner of the last series of Strictly Come Dancing with his partner Flavia Cacace, Louis appreciates a challenge.

View the video and you decide whether Louis, or the Parrot AR.Drone 2.0, is the ultimate performer?

Let the battle commence...

[industrio]

What could you make with the power of 3 robots in your pocket?

Makr Shakr is a new robotic bartending system that allows users to create, in real-time, personalized cocktail recipes through a smart phone application and transform them into crowd-sourced drink combinations. The cocktail creation is assembled by three robotic arms, whose movements - visualized on a large display positioned behind the bar - mimic the actions of a bartender, from the shaking of a martini to the thin slicing of a lemon garnish. The system explores the new dynamics of social creation and consumption - ‘design, make and enjoy’ - and in just the time needed to prepare a new cocktail.

Instead of trying to replace a bartender with a robot, Makr Shakr is a social experiment that looks at how people might embrace the new possibilities offered by digital manufacturing. In Makr Shakr, social connections are woven throughout the co-creation and mixing of ingredients, which are then fed back to the user through the app. With this new technology, consumers can learn from each other, sharing connections, recipes and photos on social networks. Furthermore, Makr Shakr can monitor alcohol consumption and blood alcohol levels - something beyond what a traditional bartender can do - hence promoting responsible drinking.

[watch Makr Shakr]

[industrio]

Engineering Extra Senses

Ask Kevin Warwick to look ahead a hundred years and predict where we are headed as a species, and he does not hesitate.

"The only future I can see," says the cybernetics professor at the University of Reading, England, "is one where there are perhaps humans as we know them today, but we also have the cyborg entity—the part human, part machine, with all different varieties."

Warwick has spent his career working on ways to merge humans with machines, and he sees no reason why we should accept the limitations of our bodies as evolution has shaped them.

"Let's move forward," he says. "You know, let's not stay as we are."

Warwick feels particularly trapped by our five senses because there are so many signals out there—for instance, radio waves and X-rays—that, as humans, we just cannot detect. As he puts it, we are looking at the world through a tunnel.

"We're hardly seeing anything that's there," he says. "So I think we can use technology to give the brain a much, much better perspective of what's going on."

This philosophy has propelled Warwick into the realm of sensory enhancement, adding new senses to the human experience.

And Warwick is not alone in this desire.

Read more NOVA

[industrio]

In the topic of "INSPIRING PROFILES", here Insutrio come across Stelarc who is a performance artist who has visually probed and acoustically amplified his body. He has made three films of the inside of his body. Between 1976-1988 he completed 25 body suspension performances with hooks into the skin. He has used medical instruments, prosthetics, robotics, Virtual Reality systems, the Internet and biotechnology to explore alternate, intimate and involuntary interfaces with the body. With one of his projects...

Exoskeleton

A six-legged, pneumatically powered walking machine has been constructed for the body. The locomotor, with either ripple or tripod gait, moves fowards, backwards, sideways and turns on the spot. It can also squat and lift by splaying or contracting its legs. The body is positioned on a turn-table, enabling it to rotate about its axis. It has an exoskeleton on its upper body and arms. The left arm is an extended arm with pneumatic manipulator having 11 degrees-of- freedom. It is human-like in form but with additional functions. The fingers open and close , becoming multiple grippers. There is individual flexion of the fingers, with thumb and wrist rotation. The body actuates the walking machine by moving its arms. Different gestures make different motions- a translation of limb to leg motions. The body's arms guide the choreography of the locomotor's movements and thus compose the cacophony of pneumatic and mechanical and sensor modulated sounds....

[via stelarc]

[industrio]

Lets look at the space where flying robots live and learn...Flying Machine Arena!

The Flying Machine Arena (FMA) is a portable space devoted to autonomous flight. Measuring up to 10 x 10 x 10 meters, it consists of a high-precision motion capture system, a wireless communication network, and custom software executing sophisticated algorithms for estimation and control.

The motion capture system can locate multiple objects in the space at rates exceeding 200 frames per second. While this may seem extremely fast, the objects in the space can move at speeds in excess of 10 m/s, resulting in displacements of over 5 cm between successive snapshots. This information is fused with other data and models of the system dynamics to predict the state of the objects into the future.

The system uses this knowledge to determine what commands the vehicles should execute next to achieve their desired behavior, such as performing high-speed flips, balancing objects, building structures, or engaging in a game of paddle-ball. Then, via wireless links, the system sends the commands to the vehicles, which execute them with the aid of on-board computers and sensors such as rate gyros and accelerometers.

Although various objects can fly in the FMA, the machine of choice is the quadrocopter due to its agility, its mechanical simplicity and robustness, and its ability to hover. Furthermore, the quadrocopter is a great platform for research in adaptation and learning: it has well understood, low order first-principle models near hover, but is difficult to characterize when performing high-speed maneuvers due to complex aerodynamic effects. We cope with the difficult to model effects with algorithms that use first-principle models to roughly determine what a vehicle should do to perform a given task, and then learn and adapt based on flight data.

Video

[via Flying Machine Arena]

[industrio]

Another amazing example where 3D printing are bringing us in the near future.

CORTEX

After many centuries of splints and  cumbersome plaster casts that have been the itchy and smelly bane of millions of children, adults and the aged alike, the world over, we at last bring fracture support into the 21st century. The Cortex exoskeletal cast provides a highly technical and trauma zone localized support system that is fully ventilated, super light, shower friendly, hygienic, recyclable and stylish.

[by Jake Evill]

[industrio]

3D Printed Eye Wear Taylor for YOU - is an amazing example how an access to the technology is changing everyday life for thousands of people. Every day it gets closer to your daily activities we do and ordinary tools we use. Today 3D printed eye wear, tomorrow? 

The story that is reshaping the future. It all started when the Protos team was in their studio class at California College of the Arts. While pondering ways to utilize their combined talents, Marc noticed that Doug's glasses kept slipping off the bridge of his nose. Doug had been working on algorithms to make rapidly customizable CAD designs, John had prior experience with designing eyewear, Marc was helping manage the 3D printers in the school's rapid prototyping studio, and Richart Ruddie had experience on the business and marketing side. They were later joined by James Peo, who is a world class celebrity eyewear stylist, eyewear design consultant, and entrepreneur. 

The Protos team consists of Marc Levinson, John Mauriello, Doug Ponciano, Richart Ruddie, and James Peo.

The team resolved to make a truly consumer grade product through the process of 3D printing and decided that customizable eyewear was the perfect thing to start with. Over the last two years, they've been developing a proprietary material and workflow that yields an unprecedented product that we can truly call consumer grade.

3D printing changes the way we look at design and manufacturing. With no tooling involved, it allows them to make one-off products with shapes that are impossible to achieve through traditional manufacturing methods. The manufacturing process is done entirely in the USA, which allows us to help bring jobs back to our struggling economy.

In addition to creating new products, the team have developed software that enables us to reference photos of a person's face. From there, the ideal frame style and change various dimensions in the design can be identified. The result is a frame that is custom fit to the user's unique face shape.

Read more [Protos Eyewear]

[industrio]

[industrio]

Industrio Ventures is inspired by the story how the combination of technology, innovation and human touch arrives to digitally produced conclusions. 

Albrecht Dürer exhaustively examines variations of human form. Not as Vitruvius’ depiction of ideal human measurements, but as a full range of proportional possibilities. This physiognomic treatise establishes the basic parameters for drawing the human face and figure, such as relationships between the eye, nose, mouth, and chin. Over dozens of pages, Dürer shows an incredible variety of male and female figures and facial profiles, drawn by hand but made with a precise mechanical approach to geometric variation.

The six facial profiles Dürer presents early in the treatise are the basis for this machine. Using a process, Pablo Garcia calls Profilography—tracing and extruding a series of sequential contours or profiles—the six faces become a continuous facial profile. Slicing through the extrusion yields new faces, derived from Dürer but absent from his analog treatise. After making the form into a closed loop, Pablo 3D printed the form and mounted it onto a motor-driven spindle. As the piece spins, a light casting a shadow along the profile edge animates the transforming faces. Dürer’s early experiment into parametric transformations arrives at its 21st century digitally-produced conclusion.

More projects [Pablo Garcia]

[industrio]

NASA - MARS FUTURE ROVER PLANS

Building on the success of Curiosity's landing, NASA has announced plans for a new robotic science rover set to launch in 2020. This announcement affirms the agency's commitment to a bold exploration program that meets our nation's scientific and human exploration objectives.

The proposed 2020 rover mission is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the red planet. Designed to advance high-priority science goals for Mars exploration, the mission would address key questions about the potential for life on Mars. The mission would also provide opportunities to gather knowledge and demonstrate technologies that address the challenges of future human expeditions to Mars.

The mission would take advantage of a favorable launch opportunity in 2020 when Earth and Mars are in advantageous positions in their orbits for a Mars landing. That means that it would take less power to get to Mars relative to other times when Earth and Mars are in different positions in their orbits around the sun. The highly capable rover would be based on NASA's successful Mars Science Laboratory mission architecture, including its Curiosity rover and proven landing system, to keep mission costs and risks as low as possible.

The budget for this mission is contingent on future appropriations. The project will assess options for infusing new capabilities through investments by NASA's Space Technology Program, Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, and contributions from international partners.

[Nasa - Mars 2020]