For more ambiguous types of waste, such as a piece of plywood with nails driven through it, the robot uses a spectrometer to recognise objects based on the unique patterns of light they reflect.

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It is packed with scientific instruments such as a miniaturised camera, an infra-red spectrometer and sensors to measure solar wind and other electrical currents.

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Innovamedica is also co-developing with Tyco Healthcare, a unit of conglomerate Tyco International, a device called a gastric mucosa impedance spectrometer, used to monitor patients in the intensive care unit for signs of organ failure after surgery.

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The scientists involved in the project say the results coming from the spectrometer -- which are much more accurate than in past experiments -- are consistent with a fairly basic dark matter model, Flack said.

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