TECH OFFERS

Food tracking and traceability systems can utilize Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and Internet-of-Thing (IoT) sensors to streamline the workflow of food supply chain management. Such a traceability system mitigates the complex business processes and speeds up the workflow of working through multiple business owners along the nodes in the value chain. This Technology Offer is a DLT application that can be used to manage the food supply chain. The technology aims to obtain transparency, ease of transactions and speed of delivery, synchronization, tracking and security. As an example, IoT sensors can be attached to livestock to obtain information about them from the source, and is uploaded to the ledger data of the node. When the livestock is shipped to the manufacturer, shipment tracking data can be uploaded. The transport is thus done with trackable ownership, possession and telemetry parameters such as location, temperature, humidity and activity. The manufacturer then processes the livestock, weighs the meat, packs and labels them. The label has a unique cryptographic QR code or NFC tag that links to the data citing the origins of the meat. The packaged meat is then shipped to the distributors, and eventually reaches the buyer. The final buyer can access a complete record of information and trust that the information is accurate and complete. This Technology Offer is developed using a state-of-the-art permissioned blockchain platform that enables businesses to transact directly and in strict privacy with one another. With this technology, the system can bring numerous benefits to the process owners and customers in the supply chain. Customers are more likely to trust the quality and safety of the food they consume. Food manufacturers and logistics companies could benefit from enhanced productivity, cost savings and boosted process transparency by eliminating the need for third-party intermediaries to handle monetary transactions. This allows businesses and their customers to interact and transact directly at lower costs. In terms of security, all contract transactions processed by the system are stored in chronological order in the blockchain and distributed across multiple systems. The transaction blocks are linked to each other and secured using well-established cryptography to provide high data integrity. No one can alter the contents of a block as all other nodes on the blockchain will detect this discrepancy and mark such an attempt as invalid. Regulators can also exploit the immutable feature of blockchain as an audit trail to verify compliance and detect fraud. DLT is important in the global food trade as it ensures food safety and underpins trust to the end consumers. This technology is targeted at corporations and supply chain management that deals with livestock. It can be used by supply chain management to trace the food from farm to fork. The software developed serves as a reference implementation for a food supply chain application. The target users are the process owners and consumers. This system can also be customised for other food industries such as halal, organic or agri-food industries. Currently, proof-of-concept stage has been completed, and this Technology Offer is available for industry partners for collaborations and potential licensing. Blockchain, Distributed Ledger Technology, Food Supply Chain Infocomm, Smart Cities, Blockchain & Other Distributed Ledgers, Sustainability, Food Security

The majority of the local indoor farmers grow crops that are harvested for their leaves. One way to increase the growth rate of such leafy greens is to provide a longer period of light. However, some of the crops grown, e.g., spinach, are long-day plants that flower when the light periods are longer than their critical day-length. While important to a plant’s life cycle, this vegetative to reproductive phase change is undesirable for farmers, not only because it shortens the harvest period hence reducing the yield, but also because it changes the taste profile. To tackle this problem, a light recipe that was able to suppress flowering was formulated. Plants grown under this light recipe showed a faster growth rate than those grown under flowering-suppressing short-day photoperiod. Moreover, they do not flower even when the light period has surpassed the critical day-length. Positive results were obtained when this light recipe was tested on spinach and arugula. This technology would work for other long-day crops, and it will be beneficial to indoor farmers who are interested to try it. The technology uses lights of different wavelengths to control the molecular switches, the phytochromes, of plants. It tricks the plant into suppressing its floral transition even when the long-day photoperiod is conducive for flowering. This is an improvement compared to the usual method of just providing short-day photoperiod to suppress flowering as the growth rate is now faster. This is particularly useful for crops, such as spinach and arugula, that can be harvested multiple times. With this extended harvest period, growers can have more cycles of continuous harvest within one batch of plant growth, thus increasing their yield. No additional chemical or Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) are used to achieve this flowering repression. This LED light recipe is suitable for: Farmers who are looking to improve and increase crop yields Indoor farms that use LED lightings Lighting developers or producers can be potential partners to provide this technology as a package. Customer benefits include - Increased yield through: The extended harvest period for crops that supports continuous harvesting Overall reduction of waiting time for plant establishment during lag phase Customizable recipes to suit different crop types We have completed the current proof-of-concept stage and are looking for project collaborators or consultancy projects to test the technology on the client’s crop choice. increase crop yield, growth rate, indoor farming, LED light recipe Life Sciences, Agriculture & Aquaculture, Sustainability, Food Security

The most common cryopreservation media used in laboratories consist of 10% DMSO and 20% to 90% fetal bovine serum (FBS). DMSO was thought to reduce the size of ice-crystals during freezing, thus reducing mortality whereas FBS improves the viability of cells during recovery.  Although effective for cryopreservation of most cell types, FBS poised significant risks, including the possible risk of cross-species virus infections such as the “mad cow disease”, as well as the possibility of triggering an adverse immunogenic response from the recipient. Our serum-free cryopreservation formula allows the cryopreservation of mammalian cells without the need for serum. The technology utilise a product from insect cells to replace serum in the cryopreservation media. Since insect cells are very distant from mammals, there is less likelihood of cross-species viral infection. The formula was comparable to the traditional serum-containing formula commonly used to cryopreserve mammalian cells. Furthermore, when tested against 3 different mammalian cell lines, our serum-free cryopreservation media has comparable post-thaw cell survival and recovery when comparable to 3 commercially available cryopreservation media. Cryopreservation of cell line for Research and Development (cell culture) Cryopreservation of cells for clean meat production Cryopreservation of cells for cell banking Cryopreservation industry was estimated to be worth USD2.2 Billion globally and cryopreservation reagents are estimated to be worth 20% share of the total value (estimated USD 440 million) A novel method in cell preservation without the need for blood product. For the cell preservation industry, preserving cells using this technology could reduce the risk of cross-species virus infections such as the “mad cow disease”, as well as the possibility of triggering an adverse immunogenic response from the recipient. cryopreservation Life Sciences, Industrial Biotech Methods & Processes, Biotech Research Reagents & Tools

This Technology Offer allows automation of the process of monitoring stock levels in the warehouse, and when they drop below a certain threshold, trigger a certain event.  This technology can be used to address the following challenges: What items are on the shelf? What is the current inventory level? What items need to be restocked? How many items need to be restocked? This technology can automatically trigger material top-up quantity from a cloud platform to suppliers, based on visual signals using webcams. Two types of technology concepts are used: 1) Webcam scans AR code to detect stock to be replenished or 2) Webcam compares area occupied vs empty (ROI image area mapping), and calculates stock to be replenished Thus, stock management can optimized and no longer require storage in warehouse; they can be directly sent to Centralized Packaging, hence saving staging space & inventory. This technology would be useful for companies that are interested in automating the warehouse processes. This in turn could reduce the time and manpower required to do inventory checks. The technology can also be applied in places with high turnover stock rates or unpredictable selling rates, e.g., pharmacy or supermarket. This technology allows for automatic monitoring and top up triggering of inventory levels, thus reducing time and manpower required to do inventory checks. Inventory Management, Logistics, Warehouse Management Logistics, Inventory Management

Multiple Pickup and Delivery Planning (MPDP) is very common in both passenger and cargo transport operations. However, due to the planning complexity, it is impossible to quickly generate good solutions manually to support daily transport operation planning. The MPDP solution developed by the team is able to close the gap by quickly generating transport plans for multiple vehicles with multiple pickup locations and multiple delivery locations. Web-based application. No installation required and easy to access Capable of handling multiple complex constraints, such as different time windows, different vehicle types, different vehicle departure times, different vehicle start and end locations, Visualisation of jobs and planned routes on both map and Gantt chart Flexible for human planner to overwrite the existing plan with drag-and-drop feature The MPDP solution can be applied to two potential areas. The first area is passenger transport planning for Book-a-Ride, bus pooling and carpooling services. The MPDP solution is able to quickly generate high quality plans either in advance or in real-time to replace the manual planning. The second area is cargo delivery planning in the logistics industry. The potential users include packed food delivery to consumers from different restaurants, courier service providers who provide same day pickup and delivery services, premier transport service providers who provide 2-hour delivery services etc. The solution will facilitate the human planner to assign travel routes based on the vehicle’s current location, vehicle capacity, service requestor’s start and end location as well as service start time. The solution will also consider the drivers break time, vehicle departure location and end location. Moreover, the planning and scheduling engine developed is able to run in the background to assign passengers to vehicles automatically. This feature can also be used for the real-time planning of last minute transport service requests. The solution can be applied for both passenger service providers and logistics industry players for delivery planning. Potential users includes of Dial a Ride (DAR) service providers and logistics opterators that provide same day pickup and delivery courier services.  Provide better service to customers Reduce operating cost by cutting vehicle traveling distance on the road Improve vehicle utilisation to generate more revenue Infocomm, Enterprise & Productivity, Logistics, Planning & Order Processing, Transportation, Delivery & Distribution

Antimicrobial resistance developed due to the overuse of conventional antimicrobial agents in surface coatings and consumer products is a global concern for treatment of infectious diseases in recent years. To address this concern, US FDA has banned the use of a number of conventional antimicrobial agents in consumer and healthcare products such as hand soaps and hand sanitisers. This raises the importance of alternative antimicrobial agents in antiseptic products. Photoactive antimicrobial agents are effective alternatives which produce highly reactive oxygen species (ROS) when activated by light. These reactive oxygen species display broad-spectrum biocidal activity that destroy microbes by a multi-targeted killing mechanism, which may limit the development of antimicrobial tolerance or resistance. The researchers have developed a stabilised form of a plant-based antimicrobial agent to protect it from environmental degradation. The enhanced environmental stability of this natural photoactive antimicrobial agent has made it suitable to be incorporated in various materials for the self-sterilising product applications and may provide a “greener solution” to limit the spread of pathogens and transmission of infections by indirect contact. The photoactive antimicrobial agent used is obtained from a plant which is cheap and easily available. This agent has been demonstrated in scientific literature as a natural antimicrobial as well as a photosensitiser that has broad-spectrum activity against virus, bacteria, fungus and parasites. The stabilisation of the antimicrobial agent is achieved by a single step chemical reaction. Elemental and spectroscopic analyses of the stabilised product have shown that it is more stable in the environment than its natural precursor. The photosensitisation and antimicrobial properties of the natural compound are retained after the stabilisation treatment. The preliminary studies demonstrate antimicrobial activity by visible light activation. Several methods are being developed to incorporate this antimicrobial agent in various polymers for different applications such as self-sterilising surface coating.  This stabilised form of the natural photoactive antimicrobial agent can be incorporated into coating formulations to develop antimicrobial coatings for diverse surfaces including plastics, leather, wood, concrete and metal. In addition, being developed from the natural source of plant origin, this agent may have potential applications in fabric dye, personal care products and packaging materials. The team is open to collaborate with industry partners to develop and validate the antimicrobial formulation for various potential applications. The technology can be used as a form of infection control measure to create self-sterilising contact surfaces that limit the spread of pathogens by indirect contact. Plant-based photoactive antimicrobials are more sustainable and environmentally friendly than conventional antimicrobials.  Chemicals, Coatings & Paints, Inorganic, Environment, Clean Air & Water, Sanitisation, Manufacturing, Chemical Processes, Organic, Additives, Bio-based

With increasing reliance on robots within 4 walled environments for picking and the like, the task of the robotics fleet has increased significantly in difficulty. Traditional robotics fleet management systems are system-dependent and do not account for dynamic changes on the ground. This technology offer presents a robot agnostic system that allows for superior fleet optimization for warehouse robots in route planning, job allocation and decision making in potential gridlock situations. With past applications for fleets of 2 to over 100 robots in size in warehouses carrying fast-moving items to semiconductor manufacturing facilities, the robot controller has outperformed OEM robot fleet management software in excess of 40% in total job-completion times. Additional simulation function of the robot controller allows non-robot and robot users alike to determine how many robots to purchase for their fleet according to layout and volumes of current and future facility. Robot agnostic controller software integrates into a traditional robotics fleet manager that optimizes current functions such as path planning, job assignment, fleet charging and pick operations. Additional features that arise from our robot agnostic controller include real-time dynamic re-planning of paths, dynamic re-assignment of jobs, deadlock-free movements of robotics fleet of up to 100 robots and flexible configurations with other complementary software. Additional simulation capabilities determine the suitable number of robots for any new or pre-existing deployment. Suitable for use for human-robot operations or full robotics fleet operations. Suitable for integration into various robotics fleet manager platforms and across different robotics fleets interacting with one another in the same environment. Robotic fleets within manufacturing and logistics environment that require human-robot interactions and different robot-to-robot interaction. Optimizes dynamic high material flow environment with constant activity e.g. 24-hour operations in an e-commerce fulfillment facility or semiconductor manufacturing facility. Increasing shift to robots complementing labor-intensive tasks such as picking or transportation within manufacturing facilities. Increasing need to have integration between robots of different purposes and makes within the same environment in order to create seamless interaction and management, especially in the e-commerce facility with constant flow and increasing time spent on picking operations. Complements any business looking to move towards autonomous or sem-autonomous operations that will allow for greater throughput. Optimized robotics fleet management that is robotic-agnostic rather than software agnostic. Allows for the execution of real-time and dynamic reallocation of jobs and paths for robots specific to individual robot. Robot agnostic software allows for independent manuvering of robots based on their real-time situation instead of pre-planned routes i.e. in the event of unexpected occurrences like breakdowns, allowing for a deadlock free environment. Simulation function allows you to make informed purchase and operational decisions on how many robots is required for current and future operations, reducing over-expenditure on high capital expenses and errors, while ensuring absolute visibility on number of robots required at any level of operations, ensuring optimal resource allocation towards the fleet. Robotics fleet optimization, Warehouse optimization Logistics, Inventory Management