We are committed to the development and advancement of automation, simulation and sensing technologies based on our unique technical capabilities.

Our goal is to be recognized as a world leader in these technologies.

INSTRUMAR Limited is:

an electronic, mechanical and software engineering consulting firm;

an instrumentation design corporation specializing in intelligent sensor systems;

a systems integration organization;

a developer of specialized software;

an extensive user of analytical-based design tools;

a designer/manufacturer of printed circuit boards;

an assembler of electronic/electro-mechanical devices;

committed to Total Quality Management;

ISO 9001 registered with a recognition for ISU 9000-3 software quality.

INSTRUMAR's areas of business include:

(1)	Containment/Fluid Integrity Measuring System (C/FIMS (tm)) which has been developed by INSTRUMAR and AlliedSignal Aerospace Canada. This sensor will detect the presence of ice, snow, de/anti-icing fluids, water, hydraulic fluid and other fluids and will also confirm the integrity of the de/anti-icing fluids.
(2)	Multi Phase Flow Meter (MPFM) which will detect the volume fraction and velocity of substances flowing through a pipe, principally oil, water and gas.
(3)	Fiber Sensor which is being designed to improve the quality of fiber being produced.
(4)	ElectroKinetic Flow Meter (EKFM) which is being developed by INSTRUMAR, AlliedSignal Aerospace Canada, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will measure the flow rate of liquid turbine fuel fed into a turbine engine.
(5)	Specialized Simulation Software that originally evolved in support of internal sensor development has found application in external markets. Simulation tools have been constructed for the Canadian Space Agency, Doris Development Canada for use in the construction of the Hibernia Gravity Based Structure, the Marine Institute in the Ballast Control Simulator, and for a subsystem in the Operator Training Simulator for the Hibernia project.

INSTRUMAR's approach to this problem employs local experts and can be thought of as a hybrid of a robot programming language and a task-level planner. Local experts are generally defined in terms of how humans think about the required motion of robots. Local experts have the potential, as interpreted and implemented by INSTRUMAR, to provide a much simpler means for the training and control of robots by bringing the control methods closer to the human understanding of the requirements of a problem.

INSTRUMAR's first project on path planning consisted of developing a 2 dimensional, 3 degrees of freedom path planning system. This system made sequential use of local experts as a means to implement the solution to a path planning problem and was implemented using a simulator as a test bed.

A second contract for the CSA involved introducing dynamics into the simulation and investigating control problems which would result. The rationale for this project was that dynamics would be a significant problem for the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) which was the robot of interest.

More recently, INSTRUMAR used Deneb Robotics' IGRIP package to produce a 3D-7 Degree of freedom simulation of the SSRMS to investigate the feasibility of using a local experts based telerobotic control system as a means to control the SSRMS from a ground station. The local experts methodology coupled to user interface support modules proved both robust and easy from a human perspective.

The projects described above lead to the conclusion that local experts, coupled to simulation and high-level user interface support tools together with a variety of sensors for generating world model data, could have significant potential for successful application to the problems of training and control of industrial robots.