The Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI), which is one of the laboratories of the government-funded research body Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), has developed technology for producing leather products from the skin of fish and chicken feet. CLRI lists products such as pouches, small handbags, wallets and watch straps that can be made from fish skin and chicken feet. The technology is market-ready. The one related to chicken feet has already been licensed to a company, says CLRI. The process is cost-effective as it uses waste material, it says.

Anti-UV bio furanic polymer

The Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSMCRI), Bhavnagar, Gujarat, has developed furanic polymers from biomass. This ‘biomass-derived furanic polymers’ (BFP) can be used both as a UV-shielding agent as well as for improving mechanical strength in various products such as thin films, bottles, tablet strips for pharmaceutical uses, windows, display screen guard, sun-protective glass, welding glass, vertical blind, cloths, paints, varnish, dispersant, and sunscreen lotion and cream, says CSMCRI.

The institute is offering this technology for licensing. Replacing petroleum-derived products with biomass-derived products is an emerging area of interest. The use of a biomass-derived polymer as a UV-shielding agent with higher efficiency than petro-derived commercial polymers would be highly beneficial, the institute says.

Fire detector from BARC

Agni-rakshak is a Raman optical fibre distributed temperature sensor system that can detect distributed and local fire events along a lengthy section. The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre is offering it for licensing.

Agni-rakshak measures the distributed temperature along the length (few hundred metres or more) of the sensing fibre. Here, the optical fibre itself acts as an array of distributed sensing elements. The system can detect a fire outbreak by sensing the heat, says BARC. It can pinpoint the location, width and temperature of the fire zone, and generate audio-visual alarms.

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Agni-rakshak has use in fire monitoring in hospitals, buildings, road and rail tunnels, stations, power cables, transformers, coal conveyors, warehouse, cement industry, oil and gas industry, nuclear industry, and other sensitive installations.

Mobile robot from IIT-Delhi

Researchers at IIT-Delhi have developed a mobile robot called ‘Robomuse 5.0’, suited to various industries, to carry payloads up to 100 kg and perform object manipulation through an arm on top. This mobile robot is also a good research platform for various teaching and research organisations, says a press release from IIT-Delhi.

A licensing agreement has been signed between IIT-Delhi’s technology innovation hub, named IHFC, and a Pune-based company, SVR InfoTech, for the technology transfer of Robomuse 5.0.

The origin of Robomuse 5.0 goes back to a robot built by IIT-Delhi students for the Doordarshan-Robocon competition in 2008. To test its reliability, it was later installed at the institute’s student activity centre.