The internationally renowned innovation award – Edison Awards has officially announced this year's winners. With the support of the Department of Industrial Technology, Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Metal Industries Research & Development Centre (MIRDC) shines in this world's most influential innovation award with its outstanding R&D capabilities and technological innovation. The theme of this year was "Artificial Intelligence and Smart Medicine," and MIRDC won 1 gold, 2 silver, and 1 bronze. The four award-winning technologies not only show Taiwan's lead in metal material manufacturing, healthcare, and cybersecurity technologies, but also brings groundbreaking technological applications to the industries.
The "3D MAGVIS-NAV ICH System" that won gold this time uses 3D magnetic positioning multifunctional flexible endoscope technology to provide doctors with multi-dimensional penetrating view. The clear intracranial field of view is like "GPS in a tunnel." The multifunctional flexible endoscope integrates a precision magnetic sensor to realize intracranial multi-modal image integration for surgical navigation, accurately and quickly reaching the bleeding lesion, avoiding the risk of bleeding from repeated puncture, and reducing exposure to radiation during surgery by 80%. The multifunctional flexible endoscope has achieved significant clinical effects by reducing the surgical mortality rate from the original 25% to 5%. The team is currently collaborating with Clearmind Biomedical Inc. and Neurosurgeon Yu-Wen Cheng, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, and will implement clinical applications in the future to improve the safety and success rate of stroke treatment. The "Compact and High-Performance Welding Cobot" that won silver is designed to tackle the challenges of welding large metal structures. It is equipped with 3D laser coordinate generation and AI weld bead defect recognition technology. Similar to the eyes of skilled welders, it is able to instantly capture the 3D shape of the weld bead, ensuring the stable quality of multi-layer welding, and reducing the number of thick plate repairs. It can not only adapt to operations in narrow spaces, but also support simultaneous operation of multiple machines. Therefore, it improves welding efficiency by 90% and reduces equipment construction and operating costs by 60%, providing smart manufacturing solutions for aerospace, shipbuilding, and infrastructure. It has licensed or worked with dozens of companies, including CSBC Corporation, Taiwan, Jong Shyn Shipbuilding, Fraunhofer IPA, and Techman Robot Inc., and has been successfully applied in Terminal 3 of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and large-scale shipbuilding industry.
In addition, the "AI-Optimized Smart EDM Equipment" that won silver is the first to use AI adaptation technology to adjust electrical discharge machining parameters, realizing real-time monitoring and compensation mechanisms. In the past, parameter adjustment highly relies on experience of workers, and the process is complicated and is difficult to optimize immediately. The technology replaces manual parameter adjustment and shortens traditional finishing time by more than 50% and improves machining precision to within 5μm. It improves process efficiency and upgrades the precision of aerospace-grade components, bringing an innovative breakthrough for the high-end manufacturing industry. The equipment is also combined with AIoT cloud management to provide cross-border remote data monitoring, create a history to ensure production stability, and provide real-time response capabilities for the global supply chain. It is currently being used by more than a dozen companies, including Oscarmax and Yihawjet Enterprises, and has been successfully applied to the intelligent upgrade of high-end electric vehicle connector terminal molds and aerospace engine key component processing. Finally, the "Featureless-Secure Encryption System for IoT" that won bronze focuses on the field of data security. It generates high-entropy random keys through a multiple-chaos system, and uses a special synchronization algorithm to ensure high-security, traceless encryption and decryption, even in unstable network domains. It can reduce the burden on computing resources by 60%, providing a powerful and efficient information security mechanism for IoT, blockchain, and smart transportation. It has already been licensed to system integration/information software companies.
Yung-Hsiang Lai, President of MIRDC, said that MIRDC is actively promoting the research and development of innovative technologies and has won 15 Edison Awards for eight consecutive years. This not only demonstrates MIRDC's strong research and development capabilities for a wide range of technologies, but also provides industries with efficient, safe, and intelligent innovative solutions. In the future, MIRDC will continue to help align Taiwan's innovative technologies with the international market, and work with industry partners to reach new milestones in intelligent upgrades and sustainable development.