While I enjoy doing fundamental (TRL 1-3) research, I firmly believe
that the research journey should not stop in the academic labs. For this
reason I always try to involve companies into most of my research
activities, as they provide invaluable insights into the main "pain
points" they are experiencing and can help my team direct their effort
in activities that can have a significant impact in industry (sometime
immediate, other times over the next decades). This mindset has resulted
in me being named on several patents, being regularly involved in
industrial networks, having served as member of the British Standard
Institute (AMT-10 committee for Robotics standards) .
Most notably, I am a
prod co-founder of Robotiz3d
Technology, a spin-out company from the University of Liverpool
founded in 2020 to commercialise technologies developed in my lab for
robotic-assisted infrastructure maintenance. If you are interested in
Robotiz3d journey so far, read below and follow us on LinkedIn.
5+
Granted patents with Paoletti
as named inventor
1
Spin-out
(Robotiz3d Technology)
£3m+
Robotiz3d funded grants
10+
Robotiz3d team
Robotiz3d journey
It all started in 2016 with a chat with my colleague (then co-founder)
Sebastiano Fichera, an aerospace engineer who was struggling to 3D print
large structures large to be tested in his wind tunnel. That initial chat
evolved into a concept where a 3D printing head sat on a mobile robot that
performs two functions: a) follow a path to deposit the material according
to the geometry of the structure to be created, b) simultaneously create a
support structure that allows the robot itself to climb onto it to deposit
the next layer. A fortunate encounter with Lisa Layzell (then co-founder)
allowed the team to attract funding for a PhD project focused on this
concept. After 3 years of research, two patents were filed and it became
clear that the developed technology can be extremely useful for road
maintenance.
In 2020 the University
of Liverpool approved the creation of Robotiz3d, and the three co-founders
(myself, Sebastiano and Lisa) embarked on a mission to help build a safe
and sustainable road infrastructure through intelligent, automated
maintenance and repair. Robotiz3d's goal is to develop autonomous robots
capable of patrolling the road network 24/7, identifying defects and fix
them on the fly whenever needed. I took the role of CTO, overseeing
technical development roadmaps, grant writing and supervision of the
technical team. Since this initial seed in 2020, the company have grown
significantly: we now have >10 employees across Europe and North
America, have attracted more than £3m of grants (85% of which with me as
PI), launched a commercial product to identify road defects (ARRES EYE,
patented technology) and developed a prototype of an autonomous robot
(ARRES PREVENT) to seal cracks so that they don't evolve into potholes.
Robotiz3d's technology
has been trialled and tested widely across UK and overseas. We have
engaged with basically all the major road maintenance contractors,
including Vinci, Ringways, Balfour Beatty, Tarmac etc. Our work has also
attracted significant media coverage, so feel free to peruse the following
links if you want to see our systems in actions:
