About Us
Our Company,
Our Mission
Mateligent iDEAS was founded to assist engineers, innovators and technologists with smart sensing solutions. We are the worldwide leader of Electro-Active Polymer (EAP) sensing technology, with over 100 patents reflecting our culture of continuous innovation. Our team of engineers, researchers, and technicians represent the greatest assimilation of EAP sensing talent anywhere. We are the development partner that helps make your new-to-the world innovations come to life. When it comes time for production volumes of EAP sensors, Mateligent calls upon the most highly evolved production processes and capacity found anywhere.
When mateligent iDEAS Inc. business was formed in 2023, the full scope of its capabilities to partner with its customers was unleashed, offering the cumulative knowledge created from nearly 20 years of research and development plus tens of millions of dollars of technical and operational investment made by respected research institutions and global industrial businesses.
From our US base near Minneapolis, Minnesota, we help businesses of every size, from visionary entrepreneurs to well-established brands. The core of what we do is customizing our EAP sensing technology to meet the unique application requirements of our customers. We are often asked to provide expertise and services that extend beyond sensors. This includes electronics development, sensor-to-device integration, prototyping, firmware and specialized testing equipment that relies upon EAP sensing technology.
Our Vision,
Our Commitment
We respect your time and your investment. If we think there is a more appropriate technology to use than ours, we will recommend it. We understand that innovation inherently includes technical and economic risks to manage. We will not ask you to proceed with a project unless we have very high confidence that our technology and our proposed development project will deliver the expected results. Projects are structured into phases that include testing and validation that informs go/no go decisions to proceed to subsequent phases. Whenever possible, early project phases include lower investment values and proofs-of-concept that demonstrate feasibility; thereby helping to manage technical and economic risk.
We work fast, but we don’t hurry. Our customers are often pleasantly surprised that newly developed production-quality sensors typically happen in about 3 months. That’s right, from the back-of-the-napkin sketch to a pristine new customized new sensor in just 12 weeks. We know how long things should take and we know how to get to the destination efficiently.
Mateligent iDEAS’s sensors have often delivered the key enabling capabilities that allow our customer’s innovations to come to life. We encourage our customers to dare to dream big and challenge us to help make it come true.
History
EAP technology has been in development for over 20 years. The origin story begins with a small startup company Artificial Muscle Inc. that formed out of Stanford Research Institute where the technology was born. Over the years many researchers and scientists have brought their talent into the various companies to make the technology what it is today. The first commercially available EAP products were haptic feedback systems known as ViviTouch developed by Bayer Material Science LLC. Eventual EAP’s found traction in the wearable tech market as novel sensors for human body motion capture. Here is a brief history of the technology’s commercial path:
SRI Spinoff company Artificial Muscle Inc. (AMI) is founded to develop DE based products.
Bayer Materialscience LLC. acquires Artificial Muscle Inc.
Bayer launches first commercial DE product with ViViTouch, a haptic feedback systems using DE actuators for consumer electronics
Parker Hannilin acquires all IP related to DE technology from Bayer. Focused effort on scale up of volume manufacturing of DE Sensors
Parker Hannilin launches FlexSense product line for DE sensors. First commercial sales of DE sensors. Volume production line established
Mateligent acquires complete IP and all assets related to DE technology
Foundation of US company
Establishing US manufacturing facility (MN)
ISO 9001 certification
Scale up of commercial activities
Industries
Athletics
Direct and more accurate real-time measurement of athletic movements are enabled with FlexSense technology. These sensors are durable enough to withstand rigorous, sustained movements over millions of cycles. The implications for coaching, condition monitoring, injury prevention and rehabilitation are significant and represent next-generation developments. Until now, such capabilities have only been possible in laboratory environments for elite athletes. Now, athletes of all ability levels can be assessed and monitored in real time in their field of play.
Automotive & Transportation
As manufacturers push new innovation, new sensing capabilities are needed that will perform better than those that have been used in the past. FlexSense is ideally suited to assist engineers with testing and measurement, research and development and as a quality tool. Seats, steering wheels and seat belts all represent excellent uses that enable better performing, longer lasting sensors that step in where others drop off. As EV continues to evolve, FlexSense can monitor battery condition and identify potential failure modes.
Footwear & Clothing
Imagine sensors that can move every way that a human body does and that these sensors can be incorporated into footwear and clothing so that wearable technology becomes a tool to quantify fit and comfort and durability. Then imagine that the sensors can last millions of cycles and function in all the environments that clothing and footwear do. Wet, dirty, hot, even though clothes washer cycles. With FlexSense, this is all possible.
Infrastructure
Civil Engineers turn to FlexSense to help them monitor and understand movement of roadways, bridges, buildings and other infrastructure. Understanding the dynamics at the interface between man-made materials and earth materials is enabled by sensors that can withstand harsh climatic conditions and can remain in service for long periods of time. Normal wear and stress as well as seismic activity can be monitored through specially designed sensors that measure strain and pressure.
Medical Device & Equipment
FlexSense enables measurement of human body movement and brings lab quality data into the hospital, clinic and the home. Orthopedics, rehabilitation, respiration and smart hospital equipment are just a few of the many options available. Precision and durability are two leading factors why FlexSense-equipped devices enable reliable and consistent delivery of data in highly challenging use conditions.
Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM)
When health care providers get earlier notification of changing patient conditions, they are able to intervene sooner when more treatment options are available which are often less complex. FlexSense can enable remote monitoring of important indicators including swelling and weight change. Benefits include improved outcomes, reduced hospitalizations, lower health care costs and improved quality of life for the patient.
Safety & PPE Equipment
Ergonomic assessments and workplace design are vital for worker safety and injury prevention. FlexSense technology enables worker movements to be measured, tracked and compared to best practices to develop training programs and assess workplace ergonomics . Musculoskeletal movement, head impact, balance, gait, grip, equipment occupancy and equipment controls all represent viable applications for FlexSense sensors.
Soft Robotics
The design of robotic applications can take a step forward with FlexSense. The sensors are very soft and can be made to resemble highly sensitive touch like human skin. Featuring greater flexibility and durability than alternative sensing options, FlexSense can be incorporated into more pick and place applications that require a more sensitive touch but remain durable enough to perform consistently over millions of cycles.
Testing Devices
Current sensor technologies leave customers wanting more from their testing devices. More durability. More accuracy. More flexibility. More conformability. Mateligent engineers will listen to your product testing challenges and produce custom arrays, sensors and fixtures that will deliver the reliability and precision you need. Sophisticated new capabilities are now available to assist in product development and testing.
Mateligent Europe
Mateligent iDEAS Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mateligent iDEAS GmbH of Saarbruecken, Germany. The Mateligent Group is a leading developer of smart materials-based products. Founded on the science of iMSL, the Intelligent Materials Systems Lab in cooperation with the University of Saarland, and ZeMA, the Center for Mechatronics and Automation Technologies, Mateligent GmbH primarily works with EAP sensing and actuation systems, shape memory alloys and elastocaloric heating and cooling machines.
Our colleagues at the Mateligent Group and their strategic research partner iMSL provide an impressive and abundant resource for talent and facilities. Depending on the requirements of a project, we can call on the varied skills of undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral engineers and laboratory technicians. This includes mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, material scientists, model & control experts, and technical specialists.
Mateligent iDEAS US Team
General Manager US & Shareholder
Director Sales & Marketing
Engineering & Production Team
Mateligent Europe Team
CEO & Shareholder
CTO & Shareholder
CEO & Co-Founder
Co-Founder
Co-Founder
