Tags: np2774

1. Sustainability category: Safety and Health
2. Key takeaways from article:

• Scientists at the National Robotarium in Edinburgh are using the four-legged robot ‘dog’ created by robotics design company Boston Dynamics as part of investigating how technology can help people working in hazardous environments.
• Using telexistence hardware, they are carrying out research into how robots can support humans in hazardous environments such as offshore energy inspection and disaster recovery. This is especially prudent due to the ongoing dangerous volcanic eruptions in the Congo.
• These robots are specially outfitted with sensors that can monitor a casualty’s vitals and transmit images and sounds back to a hospital. Additionally, they can cope in hazardous conditions like dust, rain, even and sulfurous air or radiation (see video in sources below).
• Further research is looking into how the robots can help support the construction industry by acting as virtual eyes on the ground. “Spot” will be set up as a moving data collector and data center, equipped with advanced telepresence solutions (and lidar – which uses light instead of radio waves), able to measure in real-time to multiple experts at once, all around the world.

3. Organizational stakeholders:

• Construction companies
• Civil engineers
• Offshore energy inspectors
• Hospital medical staff
• Disaster recovery units

4. Deploying the technology:

• Financing and procurement of the expensive robotic hardware (~USD 85,000) between multiple stakeholders.
• Feasibility studies on offshore energy sites and in disaster relief scenarios.
• Expansion of program and potentially looking into rental options by private industry or government.

Sources: Robot ‘dog’ could help experts gauge hazardous environments | E&T Magazine (theiet.org),

Robot dog sent into Chernobyl to sniff out radiation – Bing video

Tags: #np2774

1. Problem: Waste (as a resource)
2. Article Takeaways:

• Kaffe Bueno is a Copenhagen-based company specializing in the recycling and combining of used coffee grounds with biotechnology.
• When used for brewing coffee, under 1% of beneficial compounds found in coffee beans, including polyphenols, cellulose, hemicellulose, lipids, tocopherols, are extracted – leaving 99% disposed.
• They plan on extracting the antioxidant-rich coffee arabica seed oil to be used as an active ingredient in cosmetics.
• Article Source: Kaffe Bueno Brews Up Skin Care Benefits with Recycled Coffee Oil (gcimagazine.com)

• The company has just joined the Yield Lab Europe which recently secured a $61m investment for its sustainable agrifoodtech fund. Other companies in the Yield Lab include: ApisProtect, Equimetrics, MicroGen Biotech, Micron Agritech, N2 Applied, and RootWave.
• Article Source: The Yield Lab Europe secures $61m for sustainable agrifoodtech fund (agfundernews.com)

3. Organizational Stakeholders:

• Hotel chains
• Personal care, nutraceuticals, and food/beverage companies
• Partner collectors
• Coffee suppliers

4. Deployment:

• Enlist company to perform in-vitro tests to determine the efficacy of Recycled Coffee Oil. (Tests determined a variety of benefits, including anti-aging, anti-cellulite, sun care, moisturizing, wound healing and skin whitening.)
• Determine which Danish hotel chains or other office/commercial partners to collaborate with to take the spent coffee grounds from guests and upcycle them back in personal care products in the hotels/offices.
• Scale-up production to meet current demand from food makers in the Nordics and Western Europe.

Tags: #NP2774

1. Problem: Energy (“a new, volatile grid paradigm”)

2. Solution:

Built to be the brain of the smart grid, Amperon is powering real time operational analytics wherever electricity flows with real-time operational grid intelligence tools via smart meters and AI with three technologies: AMP RETAIL, GRID, and CAST.

An issue that Amperson says it can help energy providers address is the increasing complexity of grid management. Renewable energy generation adds variability to the grid that utilities and grid operators have yet to effectively manage.

3. Organizational Stakeholders

• Utilities
• Traders
• Retailers
• Grid Operators

4. Deployment

Deploying the technology is a matter of subscribing to the service that the company provides (i.e. SaaS) in the vertical of interest: retail, utilities, or trading.

Amperon offers the grid scale forecasts with team of PhDs and meteorologists. Highly interactive visualizations for detailed analysis, with coincidental peak views, historical forecast, ISO side-by-side forecast comparisons, and zonal breakdowns.

New investments will help expand the company’s reach across more grid operators in the U.S., beyond the ERCOT regional transmission organization responsible for Texas and PJM, which manages the mid-Atlantic’s electricity grid.

Sources:

Amperon raises $2 million for its predictive software for energy grids | TechCrunch

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