We are pleased to announce that we have today received a grant offer from Innovate UK's recent Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS) competition. This competition aimed to enable the development of successful RAS products, services or processes.

This joint funding from Innovate UK and Muretex allows us to develop our prototype system for intuitive control of RAS. In the near future RAS will become increasingly necessary to many aspects of human life and work- such as manufacture, construction, healthcare, transport and energy. It is essential therefore that an easy to use and safe "language" or method of human/machine interaction - which is applicable to, and easily portable across - the many different sectors, is developed.

The Muretex prototype system consists of a high-level RAS, being controlled by the operator using gestures, representing a prototype for a genuinely teamed integration of a human and robotic autonomous system.

Recent press release from DSTL Centre for Defence Enterprise "Improving training effectiveness with Google Glass" 
 
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/improving-training-effectiveness-with-google-glass

Muretex presented at the "Connect to your customers by roadmapping your technology" event at Lucideon in Stoke-on-Trent on Tuesday 21 June 2016. See the Prezi used below. 
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Muretex is pleased to announce that on Wed 16th Dec 2015 it was invited to join the UK Vertical Lift Network (VLN) as a Full Member of the VLN. 

We look forward to attending the next meeting, scheduled for 10th Feb 2016 at the University of Leicester.
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This MOD funded project is developing light-weight wearable technology (e.g. Google Glass or similar), to be worn by trainees, and connected wirelessly to a server-based workflow management system. An instructor, monitoring trainees in real-time through a dedicated workstation, can see what they see.

Our innovation, unlike head cameras/audio that a typical foot patrol might currently use, allows both instructor and trainee to call up information to the glass, allowing monitoring and adaptation of the training exercise, creating a more efficient use of training time through quicker resolution of problems and greater real-time control over training execution and performance.

​The system would be operated cheaply, with low ceremony and be widely deployable against many training applications and across most operational domains.

Muretex were proud to receive NATEP funding (through the Aerospace Growth Partnership) to develop a hands free inspection interface. Jointly with Coventry University we received a £73k grant for an 18 month programme to develop

• ​A Head Mounted Display System to allow critical aerospace inspection processes to be carried out “hands-free” without reference to paper manuals and documentation
• The infrastructure and processes to serve up and augment reference material including legacy data in a readily assimilated manner, reducing operator workload and improving efficiency/accuracy/traceability

​We are working with a major tier 1 supplier and Cranfield Aerospace as end-users to develop relevant use-cases.  

The National Tilt Rotor Test Rig is a complex mechanism that will be operated in a number of wind tunnels to allow advanced research on helicopter and tilt rotor assemblies. Muretex were commissioned to develop the Controls System for the rig.

​Operating the Rig within a wind tunnel is a complex business and previous Rigs have required that they be "piloted" by a skilled operator trained to acquire and maintain experimental operating points for data gathering. This activity requires coordination with the wind tunnel facility operator to ensure matched flow conditions across the rotor rig. The approach to adopted in the Muretex design was to automate the operation as much as possible in terms of:

• Operator start up,
• Calibration
• Acquisition of experimental operating point
• Maintenance of operating point
• Recovery from emergencies and
• Shut down

​Muretex are working with ARA and the University of Leicester to deliver this system.

The National Tilt Rotor Test Rig is a complex mechanism that will be operated in a number of wind tunnels to allow advanced research on helicopter and tilt rotor assemblies. Muretex were commissioned to develop user and system requirements for this strategic asset at the beginning of the programme.

​We adopted a model based systems engineering response and following a series of stakeholder visits and workshops expressed the system in SysML. This approach stimulated the development of requirements addressing the cradle-to-grave lifecycle and the wider system of systems context.