The University of Liverpool has formed a new spin-out company to develop technology that could radically transform road maintenance.
Robotiz3d is a joint venture established in partnership with A2e, a supplier of electronics hardware and software design services, and will receive investment from the university’s Enterprise Investment Fund, alongside private equity investment from A2e.
The company aims to commercialise patented research from the University of Liverpool’s Engineering Robotics Lab via technology that uses artificial intelligence and robotics to improve the way road defects, including pot holes and road cracks, are detected and repaired.
According to Robotiz3d, no autonomous technology solutions currently exist to tackle potholes, which are estimated to have cost the UK more than £1bn to repair over the last decade.
Company founders Dr Paolo Paoletti and Dr Sebastiano Fichera, from the University of Liverpool’s School of Engineering, have been developing and trialling the technology over the past four years.
Paoletti, who will serve as Robotiz3d’s chief technology officer, said: “The proposed system will be able to autonomously detect and characterise 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.”
According to Fichera, technical director of the company, 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,” said Fichera.
The company will be based at Sci-Tech Daresbury, a science and innovation campus near the village of Daresbury in Halton, Cheshire, England.
