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US Multinational Licenses InfoLab21 Software
Story supplied by LU Press Office
Dr Plamen Angelov on a visit to the Henry Ford Museum in the US
Patented software developed by Lancaster University for use in industry has been licensed by the US multinational Ford.
The software - called EST or Evolving Systems Toolbox - is capable of self-learning and so requires minimal human intervention. It is being used to monitor the "health" of vehicles and machines that produce vehicles and to monitor reactions such as how drivers press pedals.
The technique is based on the latest academic research and has applications in everything from transport and logistics to defence and the internet. It was developed by Dr Plamen Angelov, Reader in Computational Intelligence at the School of Computing and Communications at InfoLab21 - who is an expert on evolving intelligence systems - and his team of students and researchers.
Other applications based on the research include self-learning virtual or "smart" sensors in industry which are able to self-calibrate and so reduce maintenance costs. An oil refinery in Tenerife owned by the Spanish industrial group CEPSA, is using these self-learning "smart" sensors to estimate the yield and quality of different oil products in real-time.
Dr Jose Juan Macias Hernandez, the Process Engineering Department Manager of CEPSA, said the application of this technology in just one area - such as atmospheric distillation - could mean savings of tens of thousands of Euros a year.
"It is of vital importance for the CEPSA refinery to know in advance the yield and quality of products that will be obtained from certain input streams. The application and development of this technology opens a whole new exciting horizon in the petrochemical industry."
Dr Angelov has also worked with one of the world's largest chemical companies, the Dow Chemical Company in Texas, to develop self-learning "smart" sensors which are used to reduce shutdown and improve product quality.
Dr Arthur Kordon, Data Mining and Modelling leader at the Advanced Analytics Group of the Dow Chemical Company said that the total impact of "smart" sensors had saved his company an estimated $30m a year.
Further applications which are at the testing stage include: helping medical doctors in dosing Warfarin drugs to patients with DVT (deep vein thrombosis) and classification of spectroscopy data for biomarker identification (jointly with Dr Frank Martin of the Lancaster Environment Centre and funded by Unilever). The Lancaster University spinout company Entelsensys Ltd is developing sensor systems based on applications of this technology in other industrial sectors.
In recognition of the growing importance of this research area, the IEEE - the world leading organisation in this area - has established a Technical Committee on Evolving Intelligent Systems and organises annual conferences chaired by Dr Angelov, who is also editor-in-chief of the journal "Evolving Systems" published by Springer.
Thu 05 May 2011
Latest News
Unborn babies 'practise' facial expressions in the womb
Researchers from Durham and Lancaster Universities suggest that a foetus's ability to show a "pain" facial expression is a developmental process which could potentially give doctors another index of the health of a foetus.
Story supplied by LU Press Office
Mon 17 June 2013
Lancaster leads the way in cyber security bursary scheme
Lancaster is one of four UK universities selected to take part in an 'industry first' sponsorship initiative encouraging students to take up Masters-level cyber security degrees.
Story supplied by LU Press Office
Mon 10 June 2013
Physicists gain insight into the UK's biggest killer
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the UK, accounting for a third of all fatalities through illnesses such as stroke and heart disease.
Story supplied by LU Press Office
Wed 29 May 2013
Engineering students make finals of national start-up business competition
Engineering students Scott Nash, Daniel Richardson and Aaron Aboshio have won the northern heat of the Youth Entrepreneurs Scheme 'Engineering YES' competition for their spin-out renewable energy company Atlantis.
Thu 23 May 2013