The University of Liverpool has formed a new spin out company, Robotiz3d, which has created a robot designed specifically to improve the quality of UK roads.
The start-up is joint venture spin out company established in partnership with A2e Ltd and will receive investment from the University’s Enterprise Investment Fund, alongside private equity investment from a2e Ltd.
The company, which will be based at The company will be based at Sci-Tech Daresbury, will commercialise patented research from the University’s Engineering Robotics Labs which ca detect and repair road defects,including potholes and road cracks that currently cost an estimated £1bn to repair.
Amongsthe company founders are Dr Paolo Paoletti and Dr Sebastiano Fichera from the University’s School of Engineering who have an extensive track record of research in this area and have been developing and trialling the technology over the past four years.
Dr Paolo Paoletti, who will serve as Chief Technology Officer for the company, said: “Robotiz3d Ltd will develop an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven robotic system to address the national and international potholes problems. The proposed system will be able to autonomously detect and characterize road defects such as cracks and potholes, assess and predict the severity of such defects and fix cracks so that they do not evolve into potholes.”
Dr Sebastiano Fichera, Technical Director of the company, added: “Current methods to detect and repair of potholes are labour intensive and as such are slow, unsafe, and costly to the economy and environment. The new technology we are developing will make road maintenance tasks faster, cheaper, and cleaner and ultimately make roads safer and more accessible.”
Lisa Layzell, an award winning senior executive and serial entrepreneur of high-tech companies, is a co-founder and CEO of Robotiz3d Ltd.
She said: “This is an exciting new spin out to take forward. The team at Robotiz3d has the expertise and experience in robotics and AI to deliver the project and introduce world-leading innovation to the management of roads and highways. We have developed a robust business plan to take forward the portfolio of Robotiz3d envisaged products.”