HRH The Prince of Wales enjoying an augmented reality demonstration by Software engineers Matthew Stokey and Joel Edwards when he visited Loop Technology recently.
HRH The Prince of Wales paid a visit to Poundbury based Robotics Company, Loop Technology, and was shown 3d robot scanning and virtual reality in action. Both are exciting new technologies the automation experts at Loop are currently developing.
Alun Reece, Technical Director at Loop explained “we were delighted to welcome HRH to Loop Technology, it was a real honour to show him FibreEYE and HoloCell both ground-breaking technologies where we’ve identified a need but as yet nothing automated exists”.
The business relocated to Poundbury in August 2016, reinvigorating the disused factory and establishing the Loop Technology Centre.
HRH watched a demonstration of a Loop Technology product FibreEYE, deployed on an industrial Robot which scans carbon fibre for defects. Carbon Fibre is very strong, light and excellent material for use in a number of fields, one of which being aircraft manufacture. Paul Bower, Senior Software Engineer at Loop explained “the ability to use carbon fibre in aircraft manufacture brings huge benefits, making aeroplanes lighter means less fuel usage. The use of advanced fibre placement (AFP) techniques also means less waste, both bring environmental benefits”.
Loop Technology also demonstrated a robot being controlled using an augmented reality headset. A physical robot copied the actions of the virtual robot, responding to voice commands and hand gestures linking virtual and physical reality in the same environment. A useful tool which will allow engineers to interact with robots in which ever environments they are required, these may even be in different locations.