ITRI Receives Five 2016 R&D 100 Awards

HSINCHU, TAIWAN--(Marketwired - Nov 4, 2016) -  Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Taiwan's largest and one of the world's leading high-tech applied research institutions, received five 2016 R&D 100 Awards on November 3 in Oxon Hill, Maryland (Washington DC). ITRI's technologies were selected as winners for innovation in the IT/Electrical, Mechanical Devices/Materials, and Software/Services categories:

• iSmartweaR, jointly developed by ITRI and ECLAT Textile Corporation, transforms ordinary fabrics into smart wearables. It integrates nanosecond pulse near-field sensing technology (NPNS), with washable conductive fabrics allowing textile products to track vital signs without bodily contact. NPNS features miniature low-power radar utilizing Bluetooth transmission to connect with ICT systems. Its advantages are compact size, high sensitivity, high selectivity, high reliability, low price, low energy consumption, and penetrability.
• Long-Distance Floating Multi-Screen Head-up Display (HUD) technology improves driving safety by projecting driving information directly into the driver's field of view at a two-meter (2.18 yard) distance behind the windshield, allowing the driver to stay focused on the road and avoid fatigue or risks caused by constantly shifting attention between the road and dashboard or windshield. An innovative virtual-optics imaging methodology (VOIM) projects virtual images and the butterfly beamsplitter technology produces three adjacent individual displays. 
• Wearable Walking Assistive Exoskeleton Robot (2WA-EXO) is a unique walking assistive exoskeleton robot that allows people with lower extremity paralysis to independently transfer between wheelchair and exoskeleton; it provides intuitive control of walking and stopping with high-precision absolute posture detection and performs the most natural gait among exoskeletons worldwide.
• Ultrafast Rechargeable Aluminum Battery (URABat), the first commercially viable aluminum battery, was developed in collaboration with Stanford University. URABat can be fully charged in just one minute for more than 10,000 cycles, while maintaining an exceptional coulombic efficiency (CE) of 98 percent throughout its life. It is made of highly stable graphite and aluminum materials and does not catch fire when damaged.
• SpeedPro, a software suite, improves the safety and productivity of machining operations through machining process simulation and optimization of tool paths. SpeedPro can process programs on machine tools prior to actual machining to geometrically simulate material removal and update part geometry. It evaluates machining performance and displays cutter and machine tool spindle loadings. Moreover, it optimizes process feed rates to take corrective actions to eliminate machining failures, reduce scrap parts, and increase the speed of conservative programs to lower cycle times.

Tim Studt from the R&D 100 Awards Committee commented on why ITRI could stand out among the competition. He stressed that ITRI has a technology base that is very strong from an industrial standpoint and creates products that can be quickly adaptable into production products that can be marketed.