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Advanced Maintenance Strategy and Tools

Summary of the impact

A team at the University of Sunderland has undertaken research into equipment maintenance for over 20 years. This has been undertaken within a series of funded UK and EU projects. The work of the team has resulted in a new model for maintenance strategy, and the development of novel artificial intelligence algorithms to monitor the condition of key factory assets. A series of software tools have been developed in collaboration with industrial partners. These tools and the strategic model have been tested in industrial settings and have had impact in the UK, across the EU, and internationally.

Submitting Institution

University of Sunderland

Unit of Assessment

Aeronautical, Mechanical, Chemical and Manufacturing Engineering

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Mathematical Sciences: Applied Mathematics
Information and Computing Sciences: Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing
Engineering: Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Helping to create Ashwoods Lightfoot® and enable fleet managers to reduce the fuel costs and CO2 footprint from 2,500 vehicles

Summary of the impact

Economic impact

  • Design of a new and award winning product called Lightfoot® that gives reductions of at least 10% in fuel use and CO2 emissions.
  • The creation of a new business, Ashwoods Lightfoot® and three new jobs, with a sales value to date in excess of £625,000 and a subscription base of over £10,000 per month.
  • Economic performance of 200 vehicle fleets, including six major operators, has been improved by 2,500 installations of the system, saving over £83,000 per month in fuel costs.

Environmental impact

  • Saving an estimated 2,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.

Submitting Institution

University of Bath

Unit of Assessment

Aeronautical, Mechanical, Chemical and Manufacturing Engineering

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Engineering: Civil Engineering
Psychology and Cognitive Sciences: Psychology

Microcab: realising a hydrogen economy

Summary of the impact

Professor Jostins' research has produced dual electric/hydrogen-powered vehicles to address urban pollution. The research has delivered impact by pushing the boundaries of alternative fuels design and technology, by supporting the economic prosperity of the automotive industry and its supply chain and by influencing policy makers to invest in hydrogen. From a quarter scale model in 1998, it and subsequent iterations have had significant impact. Highlights include deployment of the UK's first hydrogen vehicle fleet in 2009, nomination for the Condé Nast Award: Innovation & Design in 2012 and the invitation to join the SWARM project (a demonstration of small four- wheeled fuel cell vehicles, http://swarm-project.eu/home.html) as a pan-European hybrid vehicle demonstrator, 2012. Beneficiaries include Horizon Fuel Cell, Westfield and Lotus (new products developed), and the South African and Scottish Governments (hydrogen economy developed).

Submitting Institution

Coventry University

Unit of Assessment

Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Chemical Sciences: Physical Chemistry (incl. Structural)
Engineering: Chemical Engineering, Materials Engineering

Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS)

Summary of the impact

Research and knowledge exchange led by Prof. Jefferies in sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) has driven the design and integration of SUDS into urban environments, into urban planning and everyday practice in the UK, Europe and worldwide. This research has contributed to the development of policies and established guidelines that have informed the set-up of operational and monitoring systems and the reduction of a training manual which is impacting widely on the sector (downloaded >40.000 times). Evidence gathered through this research has supported drainage policy nationally and now underpins important parts of urban infrastructure, improving environments and their resilience to flooding.

Submitting Institution

University of Abertay Dundee

Unit of Assessment

Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences

Summary Impact Type

Environmental

Research Subject Area(s)

Earth Sciences: Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience
Environmental Sciences: Soil Sciences
Engineering: Environmental Engineering

Reducing CO2 emissions and saving drivers’ fuel costs from the Ford fleet of vehicles

Summary of the impact

Impact on the environment

  • The adoption of cost effective CO2 reduction technologies across a range of Ford vehicles reduced CO2 emissions by an estimated 40,000 tonnes in 2012. This reduction applies pro rata for 2013 and becomes cumulative year on year.

Economic impact

  • Improvements to vehicle engines have saved over €25M in fuel costs to the owners of Ford vehicles in 2012.
  • Research has led to improvements that have been made to Ford products and processes; these improvements have been used to address upcoming legislation on CO2 in a cost effective manner. Future penalties of up to €0.5bn have been avoided by these improved products and processes.

Impact on practitioners

  • Improved monitoring processes, reducing variability in measurement of CO2 from vehicles within Ford by 50%, facilitating the adoption of a range of new fuel saving technologies, which helped to justify a $50M investment in the Ford UK facilities.

Submitting Institution

University of Bath

Unit of Assessment

Aeronautical, Mechanical, Chemical and Manufacturing Engineering

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Mathematical Sciences: Applied Mathematics
Engineering: Mechanical Engineering, Interdisciplinary Engineering

Enhancing of National Grid Stability via optimisation of “Dinorwig Hydro Power Station”

Summary of the impact

Our work has facilitated the creation of a variety of innovative control strategies for First Hydro Company (FHC), owner of Europe's largest pump storage plant. FHC's two plants are both supported by the simulation platform developed as part of our research and responsible for balancing load variation on the National Grid. Critically, FHC's business model relies on their ability to provide ancillary services within a short time. Our research produced a comprehensive plant model, and was used to enhance the dynamic response of the Dinorwig station; this resulted in improvement in National Grid stability and has provided competitive advantages to FHC since 2008.

Submitting Institution

Bangor University

Unit of Assessment

Computer Science and Informatics

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Mathematical Sciences: Applied Mathematics, Numerical and Computational Mathematics, Statistics

Type-2 Fuzzy Logic: Managing uncertainty and imprecision in telecoms and finance

Summary of the impact

Professor Hani Hagras' research into type-2 Fuzzy Logic Controllers (FLCs) underpins novel control systems which avoid the drawbacks and shortcomings of the type-1 FLCs used in numerous real world applications. Type-2 FLCs, developed at Essex, enable challenging applications to be realised and managed with better accuracy and robustness. Such applications include:

  • Telecommunications:
    • British Telecom employ type-2 FLCs for capacity planning, improving the efficiency of their workforce deployment
  • Finance:
    • LogicalGlue Ltd applied type-2 FLCs to develop a group decision-making system which outperforms existing commercial counterparts
    • Discovery Investing Scoreboard Inc. use type-2 FLCs to identify early stage investment opportunities

Submitting Institution

University of Essex

Unit of Assessment

Computer Science and Informatics

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Mathematical Sciences: Applied Mathematics
Information and Computing Sciences: Computation Theory and Mathematics, Information Systems

Expertise in automotive braking systems helps vehicle and brake manufacturers to improve their desings, to increase custormer satisfaction and sales, and reduce costs

Summary of the impact

Research at the University of Bradford has enabled many major vehicle and brake manufacturers to improve the design of their brakes and braking systems to increase customer satisfaction and sales, and reduce costs. Methods have been developed to predict the thermo-mechanical and dynamic performance of brakes and provide design improvements. Durable solutions have been developed for noisy brakes, which have reduced warranty costs for approximately ten international collaborating companies including Bentley, where a squeal noise from the front brakes of a new vehicle had prevented it from being released for production. Our research has been embedded into short courses, which have trained over 250 engineers since 2008 and is incorporated into Jaguar Land Rover's (JLR) professional training.

Submitting Institution

University of Bradford

Unit of Assessment

Aeronautical, Mechanical, Chemical and Manufacturing Engineering

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Mathematical Sciences: Applied Mathematics
Information and Computing Sciences: Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing
Engineering: Aerospace Engineering

Sunderland Software City: Developing the Software Sector in the North East

Summary of the impact

Building on excellent computer science research, carried out in a number of applied research centres, the University has taken a leading role in the establishment and development of the software sector in the North East. This has resulted in a regional strategic approach, which has delivered significant social and economic benefits, with impacts including the creation of jobs, SME growth, cluster establishment and inward investment. Sunderland's applied computing research has also resulted in an increase in innovation and research in software SMEs and has impacted on the perception of Sunderland as the heart of a regional software cluster.

Submitting Institution

University of Sunderland

Unit of Assessment

Computer Science and Informatics

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Information and Computing Sciences: Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing, Computer Software, Information Systems

Fuel cell research powers zero-emission vehicles

Summary of the impact

Research in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells at Loughborough University (LU) has led to commercial and innovative impacts on a global scale which have included the development of the world's first purpose-built hydrogen fuel cell motorbike, the world's first manned fuel cell aircraft and a zero emission fuel cell hybrid London taxi, with major international companies, such as Suzuki, Boeing and Lotus. These developments have arisen due to the creation of the spin out company Intelligent Energy (IE). The company currently employs some 350 personnel, has a total shareholder investment over £100M and was valued at $0.5B in 2012.

Submitting Institution

Loughborough University

Unit of Assessment

Aeronautical, Mechanical, Chemical and Manufacturing Engineering

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Chemical Sciences: Physical Chemistry (incl. Structural)
Engineering: Chemical Engineering, Materials Engineering

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