Impact

Custom sensor development

Off-the-shelf sensors span a huge range of functions and price points, but circumstances often demand a new type of measurement or manufacturing approach.

Our custom sensor development covers everything from high-reliability sensing for ultra-harsh environments to low-cost, low-power consumer devices.  

Diverse technologies

With a broad range of expertise and an impartial, technology agnostic approach, we work across the whole spectrum of sensing, selecting the optimum solution for the challenge at hand. Our work in the sensing space includes physical modelling (computational flow dynamics and finite element), analysis for new sensing principles and developing innovative machine vision and machine learning systems for robotics, agriculture and industry

High-performance, low-cost sensors

The availability of cheap yet powerful microcontrollers and GPUs has enabled much more value to be derived from commodity parts such as CMOS cameras, accelerometers and magnetic sensors.

Through value engineering of established designs, and by using novel DSP algorithms to extract more data, we are able to deliver huge leaps forward in performance while reducing costs. 

Experience

Classical to cutting-edge

Our sensing experience spans classical physics and electronics through to the latest deep learning techniques. This is underpinned by a keen understanding of the physical and commercial fundamentals that make finished products competitive and efficient.

Our sensing expertise is spread across our Boston, MA and Cambridge, UK offices. While our Boston team has particularly strong mechatronic skills, our Cambridge team leads the way in algorithms and large system integration. 

Interested in joining us? 

Tech, tools & facilities

Chemistry Labs

Chemistry labs

Our chemistry labs provide dedicated facilities for industrial, consumer, food chemistry and fluidics research and development. Our microfluidics lab features specialist equipment including our Plant Design Management System (PDMS), Spraytec laser diffraction droplet size analyser and Matersizer particle size analyser. Meanwhile, our beverage lab and wet and dry labs cater for the unique requirements of rapid food-safe prototype development.

Food & beverage lab

Food & beverage lab

Specifically set up to meet the unique requirements of developing food- and beverage-safe systems, our dedicated lab means we have the necessary procedures and equipment in place to design and test new products in-house. Quantitative and scientific testing is fundamental to our science-led innovation approach, but ultimately taste tests are always needed. This is our only lab where the consumption of food and drink is not just allowed but essential!

Electronic production

Electronic production

Our flexible, responsive, and agile manufacturing facilities are ideally suited to electronic and electromechanical product builds, enabling us to rapidly build short product runs to an extremely high quality. We can build our own PCBAs using industrial representative equipment and ensure manufacturability during design. Having our own EPD facility is also extremely helpful in development, driving out DfX activities in eCAD and feeding test results back into the design process from an early stage.

Optics labs

Optics labs

Our suite optics of labs enables us to build complex and high-precision optical layouts, typically for testing prototype designs and novel techniques prior to deployment. Featuring six high-spec optical benches with configurable interlocked controlled areas for high-power (class 4) laser work and specialist facilities for interferometry, spectroscopy, low-noise fluorescence imaging and photon counting. This space can be split into separate laser-controlled areas, allowing multiple experiments to run simultaneously, giving our optical engineers the capability to develop creative solutions without instrumentation restrictions.

Prototyping workshops

Prototyping workshops

Our electronic and mechanical prototyping workshops allow us to produce technically credible prototypes that bring ideas to life and offer a powerful demonstration of their value. All while maintaining extremely high standards of quality that conform to ISO 9001, ISO 13485 and ISO 14001 regulations. Using the latest CNC and milling machines, lathes, welding gear and wire harness and cable assembly tools, we are able to produce parts very quickly and assemble full-scale working prototypes for testing and consumer trials.

Software tools

Software tools

We use a range of specialist software for model-based design and simulation. These include MathWorks Matlab and Simulink (including automated code generation and GPU acceleration), dSPACE for model based design, hardware in the loop testing and development of mechatronic systems, and CFD solutions including COMSOL Multiphysics for multiphase flow simulation. Finite element packages like ANSYS Maxwell and HFSS, CST Studio and Microwave Office are used for full-wave, transmission line and magnetostatic simulation. We also employ a dedicated compute cluster for machine learning, neural network training and continuous verification.

We can help you achieve the seemingly impossible

Case studies

Waveguide Case Study

A world first in NMR chemical analysis device productization

Helping a start-up company from breakthrough idea to a world-first device that liberates nuclear magnetic resonance testing from expensive labs to point of care

VeriTherm smart thermal measurement

Digital services innovation to transform building performance  

Axsis

Axsis medical robotic concept

AXSIS demonstrates the possibilities of intelligent robotic design – robots that are dramatically smaller yet significantly more capable than existing surgical equipment.

Pietro Fiorentini subsea sensor

Developing a high-performance, zero-maintenance subsea water cut sensor

News & insights

Investing in automation
Report

Investing in Automation

Oct 7, 2022

Resisting automation is no longer an option – so the attention of the world’s C-Suite is turning from the question of ROI to three fundamentals… what kind of robotics and automation should I pursue, how can automation make my business more resilient, and how do I make my business ready for automation, autonomy and their successful scaling?

  • Robotics
  • Sensing
  • Strategic advice
Whitepaper

Driving Net Zero – Is agritech ready to capture carbon?

Mar 10, 2021

The changing regulatory and subsidy systems underpinning farming are undergoing radical change. Furthermore, issues such as soil health, net zero and farm nature value are increasingly in the public eye.

  • AI & Analytics
  • Digital service innovation
  • Optics
  • Physical sciences
  • Sensing
  • Signal processing
Press release

EnfuseNet: Rewriting the economics of vehicle autonomy

Jul 1, 2020

Cambridge Consultants developed EnfuseNet, a breakthrough Artificial Intelligence (AI) system for autonomous vehicles. A low-cost system that generates high-resolution depth data for vehicle perception technology.

Press release

Breakthrough unlocks progress in brain-on-a-chip technology

Mar 25, 2020

Massively accelerated image processing supports development of novel treatments for neurological conditions

Events

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SpeakerSponsor

Clone of AI Summit Seoul 2022

Dec 7, 2022 - Dec 8, 2022
Coex, Grand Ballroom, Seoul, Korea

AI Summit Seoul focuses on the business impact of AI, covering strategy, implementation and use cases.

fbif summary
SpeakerSponsor

AI Summit Seoul 2022

Dec 7, 2022 - Dec 8, 2022
Coex, Grand Ballroom, Seoul, Korea

AI Summit Seoul focuses on the business impact of AI, covering strategy, implementation and use cases.

ExhibitorPanel discussion

Autonomous Mobile Robots and Logistics Conference 2022

Oct 10, 2022 - Oct 13, 2022
Hynes Convention Center in Boston, MA, Boston, USA
Stand: 1300

Join us in Boston, MA, for the Autonomous Mobile Robots & Logistics Conference, where you’ll learn about exciting advances in AMR technology, and gain specific insights into the latest developments in logistics automation. Come visit our booth and have the opportunity to network and learn from leaders across the industry.

ExhibitorPanel discussion

World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit 2023

Mar 14, 2023 - Mar 15, 2023
San Francisco Marriott Marquis, Hybrid Event

Join us in San Francisco for the first time in three years. Growers, agribusiness leaders, technology pioneers and investors come together to exchange insights, be inspired, and identify future partners.