Case Study Archives

Transcript

0:29 – 0:52

So this is the Hydro Shunter. It’s a hydrogen and battery drivetrain solution for heavy duty rail. It’s been applied to a shunting vehicle which will get sites used to having hydrogen and hydrogen technology. At Unitrove, we’re actually looking to build the world’s first zero emission multi fuel station. And the idea is it kind of stores liquid hydrogen as a fuel and is able to deliver multiple fuels from that liquid hydrogen.

0:52 – 1:13

We’ve developed a wind propulsion system for commercial shipping. So effectively it produces thrust to the vessel. It’s a rigid wing that sits on the deck of the vessel, reducing that thrust from a differential in pressure to reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions. So the original Trig program was for us to develop a piece of software to allow us to optimise drivetrains, especially hydrogen and battery drivetrains. That’s been instrumental in Vanguard growing.

1:13 – 1:35

It’s allowed us to offer new products and new services to commercial partners. Trigg has actually been extremely helpful for us in getting approval in principle with a classification body bureau Veritas. We’re now installing the first wing on a ship in November this year. So that’s extremely exciting, a huge milestone for the company. We’ve also secured 1.25 million from Innovate UK and 1.25 million seed investment rounds earlier this year.

1:35 – 2:14

The TRIG23 program has given us something tangible in the form of a feasibility study that we can take out there into the market and show how our refueler can be applied to aviation. And in fact, through the Trig program, we met one of our major partners in the maritime space, allowing us to commercialise the technology that we’re looking to develop. So over the next few months, we’re looking to verify the technology, to make sure that it works the way that we know that it does and to prove that to the world. We can then go to full commercialization where we sell these units to the global fleet to help decarbonize shipping around the world. So the big thing for us is getting this demonstrator out on the railway, working in real world environments, hopefully in January.

2:14 – 2:51

We then want to build on the technology, we want to grow the drivetrain, scale it up to being for larger locomotives for passenger applications and actually start getting it being used by commercial operators. The road ahead is us being able to implement the technology in its first stage next year, so in the next coming years we can refuel hydrogen aircraft. The Trig programme has brought a lot of benefits, obviously funding is one of them, but it’s not the only thing. We’ve had a huge amount of support, coaching and guidance throughout the whole process. It’s a fantastic springboard for SMEs to really foster collaborations, partnerships, having the connections to investors, having the connection to industry.

2:51 – 2:59

Their approach is so SME friendly. Go for it. Don’t hold back. They’re there to support you. So I couldn’t recommend it enough.

2:59 – 3:11

As a small business, you’ve got to explore all avenues of funding, all avenues of support. It’s allowed us to move from that initial R and D phase through to having a product that’s almost ready for commercialization. And the Trig program has been absolutely perfect for helping Vanguard move forwards.

In conversation with Andy Lord, Commissioner of Transport for London

As Transport for London turns 25, what can we learn from one of world's most innovative and iconic transport authorities? Andy Lord, Commissioner, Transport for London Prof Greg Clark OBE, Chair, Connected Places Catapult

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Transcript

0:17 – 0:28

Hausbot’s HB2 crawler. It’s a robot that can stick to and climb up any surface to inspect some of the most critical infrastructure like bridges, tunnels, even storage tanks.

0:33 – 0:43

Pollution coming from brake dust and tire wear is very bad for humans. So we’ve developed a couple of solutions that retrofit to vehicles to capture brake dust at source.

0:49 – 1:26

At wewalk, we took a standard white cane, chopped off the rubber handle and enhanced it with cutting edge upper body obstacle detection. Or what’s more, it’s got patented connectivity to our WeWalk smartphone app. HouseBots were part of the National Highways Graffiti challenge to get access to a real bridge to test on via the catapult process. And the case study that we got was a really key unlocking factor proving our technology’s capability in a real life environment. The Freight Innovation Fund helped us to support prototype production expensive testing equipment, allowing us to do about five weeks of testing on closed track trials.

1:27 – 1:56

The future of Air Mobility program allowed us to implement and validate our Weiss system at Gatwick Airport to then get visually impaired people to catch flights. We created a robust evidence package which we’re now taking to other venue operators. To ensure that we can keep scaling up our organization. We were able to validate our concept, improve our solutions and go to the next step of road trials. Since completing the programs, HouseBots now employs eight people full time, two people part time.

1:56 – 2:20

We’ve gone on to raise one and a half million pounds in venture capital funding and our revenues this year should exceed a million pounds. We’ve reached users in over 100 countries. We’ve been validated by awards such as the Time Best Invention. We’ve also reached several international airports, including the Tav Airport Group and international clothing brands such as LC Waikiki. We’ve got a goal to hit £2 million in revenue within the next three years.

2:20 – 2:53

And exporting globally is a big part of our plans as well. Robots are going to become the thing for inspecting and maintaining the world’s critical infrastructure done much better and safer using technologies like ours. We want WeAssist to be available in new environments across the globe. We want our visually impaired community empowered by our WeWalk smart cane or our WeAssist system to be able to access new environments with complete confidence. We would love to get our product to market globally, scale it and be able to replicate this innovation.

2:53 – 3:22

But across other sectors, I can highly recommend the catapult programs. It really helped HouseBots and my business. It got the customers to see the product in its actual environment and we wouldn’t be here today without having had access to some of these things that catapult provided for us. The catapult has enabled us to explore environments that we haven’t explored before. It’s allowed us to conduct evidence, meet new people, develop long lasting relationships that will truly have a long term impact on our business forevermore and sa.

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We focus on decarbonising the sector and creating integrated transport systems, bridging the gap between ground-breaking ideas and the market.

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Transcript

0:16 – 0:26

This is the Hydro Shunter. It’s a hydrogen and battery drivetrain solution for heavy duty rail. It’s been applied to a shunting vehicle which will get sites used to having hydrogen and hydrogen technology.

0:32 – 0:47

So the Powerpod is a fully off grid charging and storage solution for light electric vehicles and you can site it anywhere at all. It doesn’t need a grid connection. Not only providing on the go e bike charging, but making it solar powered as well.

0:52 – 1:22

The Car Club in a box concept was really about helping other communities across the UK to be able to set up community level car clubs. And we realised through the Don’t Valley Car Club, having a volunteer driver scheme for people that can’t drive themselves was really unique and it’s bringing all of that knowledge together in a really easy to access package for other communities. So the original TRIG programme was for us to develop a piece of software to allow us to optimise drivetrains, especially hydrogen and battery drivetrains. That’s been instrumental in Vanguard growing. It’s allowed us to offer more new products and new services to commercial partners.

1:22 – 1:45

The TRIG funding really allowed us to research the idea in more detail, to validate it, to know whether it was possible to make it work. We’ve then managed to secure funding through the Royal Countryside Funds to help us make that program operational. So there’s lots of elements that have kind of connected to that as well. That’s been really helpful for us working with the Norfolk Broads for the Connected Places Catapult rural accelerator project. It’s been brilliant.

1:45 – 2:20

It’s helped us to develop and evolve the Powerpod design to do that product development work, that ready to market work to get the design of the power pod to be the best it could have been. So the big thing for us is getting this demonstrator out on the railway, working in real world environments. We then want to build on the technology, want to grow the drivetrain, scale it up to being for larger locomotives for passenger applications and actually start getting it being used by commercial operators. We have just had our first order through for our first contract for another community down in Leicestershire. So we’d like to make it much bigger and roll it out to other communities across the UK.

2:20 – 2:51

We’re installing our charging stations everywhere around the UK and in five years time Intelligen will be responsible for building the UK’s zero carbon transport network. The support we’ve had through Connected Places Catapult has been fantastic. To take an idea into reality, I think it’s really fundamental that this can really help you and actually brings you some commercial success. The Catapult has been quite transformational, actually, in accelerating our products to market. As a small business, you’ve got to explore all avenues of support.

2:51 – 3:00

It’s allowed us to move from that initial R and D phase through to having a product that’s almost ready for commercialisation. And the Trig program has been absolutely perfect for helping Vanguard move forwards.

3:13 – 3:30

Sam.

Explore our work in Transport

We focus on decarbonising the sector and creating integrated transport systems, bridging the gap between ground-breaking ideas and the market.

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Transcript

0:16 – 0:27

We’ve developed a wind propulsion system for commercial shipping. It’s a rigid wing that sits on the deck of the vessel, so effectively it reduces thrust to the vessel from a differential in pressure to reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions.

0:33 – 0:43

At spatial cortex, we develop sensors and analytics that helps workplaces understand and reduce the risk of injuries, like back injuries from manual handling or from desk waste work.

0:49 – 1:23

So there’s a big driver at the moment for the decarbonisation of the maritime sector. And we’ve developed the world’s first uncrewed surface vessel that is powered by hydrogen, where you’ve got zero carbon emissions whilst operating for long periods of time in harbour and at sea. The opportunity that the accelerator has given to us is engaging with key trial partners in the maritime sector like Port of Time and Serco. We are trialing our manual handling solution so it is the full body ergonomic solution. It will give us detailed understanding of the effectiveness of our solution and also optimize our solution further.

1:23 – 1:56

At the Port of Town, our strategic goal is to have zero harm year on year. So it’s a perfect collaboration for the Port of Time, fostering innovation, working with SMEs, working with the likes of Kailash, to be able to be a test bed for these innovative technologies. So the grant money has permitted us to go through the journey of designing, testing, trialing the vessel and its hydrogen powertrain and we are soon to conduct our at sea test with that hydrogen powertrain. Proving that use case has been an excellent opportunity for us. So we’re at the stage now whereby we can use the tech, we can certify it and commercialize it.

1:56 – 2:27

Trig has actually been extremely helpful for us in getting approval in principle with a classification body bureau, Veritas, to verify that the wing meets class requirements in a real world environment. Obviously funding is one of the benefits, but it’s not the only thing. We’ve had a huge amount of support and coaching and guidance throughout the whole process. We also benefited from business support with financial modeling, market sizing and thirdly, the investor readiness. Without the connected places catapult, we would not have been able to grow the team from six of us to a team of 20.

2:27 – 2:48

Helping out in the local economy. Trig’s been extremely helpful in our commercial growth. We’ve got now installing the first wing on a ship, so that’s extremely exciting, a huge milestone for the company. We’ve also secured 1.25 million in grant funding from the UK government, Innovate UK and we have secured a 1.25 million seed investment round. And all of that came as part of the benefits that we got out of the program.

2:49 – 3:28

We have ambitions whereby we have a fleet of these vessels for offshore renewable energy, for offshore oil and gas, for, for marine protected areas and for defense and security. And we’re investigating their potential for a larger variant, significant decarbonisation potential there for all of those use cases globally. Our ambition is making our technology available to majority of workplaces in key sectors including transport, maritime and warehousing. Our technology has the potential to reduce injuries by 77% and that is our driver. Over the next few months we’re looking to verify the technology to make sure that it works the way that we know that it does and to prove that to the world.

3:28 – 3:57

We can then go to full commercialization, sell these units to the global fleet to help decarbonise shipping around the world. It’s been absolutely crucial for us as a startup based in the UK, we would not be where we are with this 25 ton robot sea monster if it were not for that funding. Trig has been very helpful for us. Apply, get the learnings that you need from it, get the support you need from IT and go and do some great things. SA.

TRIG case studies

Through real-world examples, we explore how Transport Research and Innovation Grants (TRIG) are supporting bold ideas, transforming transport, and driving the UK towards a smarter, greener future.

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Transcript

0:18 – 0:27

Chul deploys battery integrated DC chargers to provide a very high power charge in all the places that enterprise fleets need to charge but find it difficult.

0:31 – 0:40

Skyports are drone service providers. We wanted to use drones to deliver mail in some of the hardest to reach areas in the uk.

0:44 – 0:54

What we’ve developed is a transport container for multi temperature required products, primarily food. We can maintain temperature for up to 30 hours.

0:58 – 1:30

Pollution coming from brake dust and tire wear is very bad for humans. So we’ve developed a couple of solutions that retrofit to vehicles to capture brake dust at source. The Freight Innovation Fund is a three year multifaceted program funded by the Department for Transport designed to develop innovation in the freight sector. They’ve invested £7 million to support SMEs and their technology development and help them to trial that in real life scenarios. And that’s done through two building blocks.

1:30 – 1:55

One is an accelerator program and one is a cluster. So the Orkney Airport project as part of the Freight Innovation Fund was the first time that drones were used to deliver mail every single day directly. As a result of the program, we have won a follow on contract to work with Royal Mail and to work with the European Space Agency. And we’ve also had to hire new team members to continue our work. So the FIF accelerator has been incredibly useful for us.

1:55 – 2:28

We’ve been able to partner with Wincanton on one of their big commercial contracts. A demonstration that we can bring other customers along and they can see this stuff working in field. We were really happy to be partnered with Chool to help really inform their product roadmap and to learn more about their pioneering technology and improve our road to net zero. The Freight Innovation Fund helped us to support prototype production expensive testing equipment allowing us to do about five weeks of testing on closed track trials. We were able to validate our concept and go to the next step of road trials.

2:28 – 2:58

The Freight Innovation Fund was immensely important in Hubble’s journey. The news that we have won this grant program helped close a 1.1 million pounds deal which allowed us to expand our team, move to manufacture ready stage of the business. And we recently finalized our Series c for around 110 million US dollars. So working with people like Wesprint in the accelerator has allowed us to raise a million pound equity investment and a multimillion pound asset finance package. Confident we’ve got technology that works in field, we can now take it to the market.

2:58 – 3:35

Having the Freight Innovation Cluster has been really good for skyports. We’ve met loads of really interesting customers and partners and work with them on some of the use cases and see where drones might be applicable in their business. The Freight Innovation Fund cluster really keeps me in the loop as far as technology innovation and what the industry is doing. Our vision is to ensure that the Cauldron solution, which brings sustainable cooling, cost savings and modularity into food logistics globally. We would love to get our product to market globally, scale it and be able to replicate this innovation.

3:35 – 4:07

But across other sectors, everyone at skyforge is working towards making the company the world’s best unmanned airline. We believe that that is the future and we want to do that in a really big way. The Freight Innovation Fund has brought real value to the logistics sector to trial new technology, to work with new partners and to bring fresh thinking into our organization. There’s always a gap between the prototype stage and the ability to commercialise and productise stuff, and that’s where the FIF is so useful. It’s been really critical for us proving our technology in a commercial environment.

4:07 – 4:17

There is phenomenal support for startup businesses in the uk, such as the Catapult, which has been incredibly helpful. They’re there, the doors wide open, Go and talk to them.

4:20 – 4:21

SA.

TRIG case studies

Through real-world examples, we explore how Transport Research and Innovation Grants (TRIG) are supporting bold ideas, transforming transport, and driving the UK towards a smarter, greener future.

Watch video