n NEWS March 2024 www.drivesncontrols.com 10 A UK START-UP HAS EMERGED from a period of stealth to announce that it has developed a patented switched reluctance motor (SRM) technology which halves torque ripple, making it much smoother and quieter than other SRMs. Monumo, based in Cambridge and Coventry, recently raised a £10.5m in seed funding and says it has signed NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) with numerous tier one engineering companies and OEMs. The company, founded in 2021, says it has coupled deep-tech AI innovation with traditional engineering expertise to reinvent the electric motor. Although its initial focus is on rare-earth-free SRMs for electric vehicles, it adds that its “world-rst approach” of combining simulation, optimisation and prototyping, has the potential for wider uses across the electric motors market. Monumo says that its technology will reduce the weight and costs of EV motors, and the amount of materials they need, while delivering the same performance. It will achieve high eciencies across drive cycles at all speeds, and solve the problem of overheating, while also improving recyclability. Monumo claims it can optimise motor systems faster and better than any other company. “We’re creating disruptive motor system designs that are highly improbable to conceive by conventional means,” it says. Using its proprietary technology, the company is running around 10 million simulations every day to test potential iterations of its motor designs. The platform can optimise parameters to achieve specic goals, such as cutting costs, raising eciencies or improving sustainability. The company is led by founder and CEO, Dominic Vergine, an entrepreneur and former VP for sustainability at the chip-maker Arm, and Dr Jaroslaw Rzepecki, its chief technology ocer, who previously held software engineering posts at Siemens, Microsoft and Arm. The company has a 30strong multidisciplinary team – half of whom have PhDs in areas such as physics, electronics, machine learning, computer science and engineering. “We’re extremely excited to be entering this next phase of our business journey,”says Vergine. “We are driven by a desire to create a sustainable future and we know that the EV market is a crucial entry point for our technology. By partnering with OEMs and tierone engineering companies, our unique combination of simulation, ML, AI and motor design ability can facilitate genuine near-term impact in the EV industry. These incredible results from our motor simulations are just the start as we look to create genuine system-level optimisation for the rst time.” One of Monumo’s backers is the venture capital company, LQD. “I believe that, in short order, Monumo will show the world that the impossible eciencies they promise are not only possible, but of fundamental importance to how much impact we have on the planet,” says LQD’s founder and managing partner, Santiago Matheus. “It’s hard to overstate the role we anticipate this unique combination of technologies will have in the future of engineering disciplines and beyond.” https://monumo.com UK motors start-up emerges from stealth with a ‘reinvented’ SRM UK RESEARCH AND INNOVATION has awarded grants totalling £3.7m to 11 latestage robotics and automation collaborative projects aimed at improving productivity, sustainability and resilience. The 9-15-month projects, covering areas such as process control, machine vision and gripper technologies, have each secured £107,000–£535,000. One winning group, led by Brompton Bicycle, has been awarded £512,660 to optimise bicycle production using robots and automation. Another, led by Rivelin Robotics, working with GKN Aerospace and others, will use additive manufacturing, 3D vision and force control algorithms to automate the nishing of aerospace parts, orthopaedic implants and gas turbine components. The grant is worth £535,360. UKRI’s Made Smarter Innovation (MSI) Challenge – delivered by Innovate UK, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, and the Economic and Social Research Council – reduces innovation risks for UK manufacturers, with the help of experts in digital technologies. It has a total budget of £147m from 2020–2025. “The successful 11 projects have the potential to improve process automation and eciency in environments where those kinds of gains are hard to come by,” says Chris Needham, the MSI Challenge’s innovation lead. “The importance of these kinds of innovations for the UK economy can’t be overstated. Our funding is designed to support them as they pave the way to a smarter and more resilient manufacturing landscape.” Each project has to deploy an in-factory demonstration in real-life conditions. The project partners can use the lessons learned in commercial processes. The projects being backed include: n a low-cost, high-speed robot transfer system for automated 3D printing and nishing equipment, led by Photocentric (awarded £462,622); n robotic picking-and-placing of ingredients into sandwiches, led by Industrial Robotic Solutions (£362,526); n automated feedstock management for additive manufacturing, led by Autonomous Manufacturing (£474,568); n using automation technologies to pack ¨owers, led by Flamingo Flowers (£199,409); n robotic manufacturing of electroformed components, led by Ultima Forma (£107,648); n automated production of aerospace pallets, led by Fergusson’s Advanced Composite Technology (£280,008); and n adaptive self-learning robotic linishing and polishing, led by Advanced Automation and Assembly (£160,781). Brompton Bicycle is one of 11 winners in £3.7m smart factory grants Challenge Vergine: “incredible” results from motor simulations are just the start
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