Page 12 - Spring Summer 2026
P. 12
Industry News Industry News
FLOW-SENSING ROBOTIC
WING DEVELOPED AT SHEFFIELD ENTREPRENEURS INVENT
SOUTHAMPTON NEW MANUFACTURING PROCESS
Researchers at the University of Southampton have In testing the new robotic wing was found to reduce Two entrepreneurs based in Sheffield - Joshua onto the pins. The tool bed then folds from a flat
developed a soft robotic underwater wing that unwanted uplift impulse (the sudden upward jolt Shires, former CTO at phone case manufacturer configuration to form an enclosed volume and an
can sense changing water conditions and adapt caused by underwater currents) by 87 per cent Mons, and Thomas Bloomfield, formerly of the Rolls- automated injection process is used to fill the void
to them, potentially improving the stability and relative to the rigid wings used on today’s AUVs. It also Royce/Unipart joint venture MetLase - have come with polyurethane resin. The part is then cured for ten
efficiency of autonomous underwater vehicles and responded up to four times faster than comparable together under the banner of Fyous to pioneer a new minutes until safe to handle. The entire process takes
enabling the development of new classes of bio- soft wing designs and used five times less energy method of manufacturing known as Polymorphic just 45 minutes.
inspired underwater robots. than systems that rely on thermal actuation. Manufacturing.
Polymorphic manufacturing is noted to be especially
Inspiration was drawn from the concept of The biggest barrier to scaling the technology was The core technology is a reconfigurable tooling suitable for the dental market, in particular the
proprioception which enables animals to respond found to be integration with existing vehicle systems. method which deploys tens of thousands of digitally production of retainers, which are custom-made,
rapidly to disturbances, and at the core of the controlled pins in order to create temporary injection based on a precise mould of a patient’s mouth and
Lead Researcher Leo Micklem states:
innovation is a flexible ‘e-skin’ of liquid metal wires moulds, forming tools and work-holding fixtures. Now, used to prevent teeth from shifting back to their
embedded in silicone that act like artificial nerves. “ For connection to current systems, rigid a machine has been built that integrates injection original positions once braces are removed. They are
These detect subtle bending caused by water flow connector pieces would be required for interface moulding for footwear and dental applications. typically produced by taking a scan of a patient’s
and feed signals back to the system. Two internal between soft and rigid mediums, like we used teeth and 3D-printing a mould. This is a costly and
Whilst the concept of ‘practical pin tooling’ has been
hydraulic tubes then automatically adjust the in this work. Improvement in this area - to wasteful process that polymorphic manufacturing
in existence since 2013, having been researched
stiffness of the wing and its curvature in real-time so make the attachment more secure with the aims to replace by utilising a dedicated machine
at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it
as to allow it to actively counter disturbances. electrical connections protected - is the primary incorporating some 40,000 0.3mm diameter pins.
has remained simply a concept. Now, however,
requirement. When the dentist inputs a code into it, it will make
innovations in which the tiny alloy pins used to
a shape out of pins which can be vacuum formed
Most AUVs also use an internal bladder for control the mould and hold it in place, using a patent
directly onto.
buoyancy control that could be used to actuate pending ‘secret sauce’, have made it a feasible
the system. However, we are more excited by commercial prospect. Reference: Excell, J., ‘Sheffield’s Shape shifting Tooling Breakthrough’,
The Engineer, May 2026, p.42-43
the prospect of new underwater vehicles that
The first step of the process is the creation of the
could be mostly or fully soft and challenge
polymorphic tool in which over 46,000 1.2mm
biological swimmers in terms of efficiency and
diameter pins rise from the tool bed. These can
manoeuvrability. “
be repositioned in about 20 minutes to provide a
Reference: Ford, J., ‘UK Researchers develop flow-sensing Robotic method of manufacture that is orders of magnitude
Wing’ , The Engineer, May 2026, p.8
faster than current methods - an hour versus half a
day.
With the pins in place the tool bed slides forward
into the injection moulding section of the machine,
and a proprietary membrane is applied to the tool
bed. This expands to fill the shape of the mould and
prevent the polyurethane from being poured directly
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