UK-Germany Digital Catapult Global Challenge
October 2020 #DigiCatGlobalChallenge
In partnership with
Welcome to the UK-Germany Digital Catapult Global Challenge
Digital Catapult launched the UK-Germany Global Challenge in early 2020 to engage the most interesting and pioneering digital startups from the UK and Germany to solve industry challenges. The Global Challenge was set up to drive international collaboration that will boost industrial innovation and sustainability, fostering collaboration between the innovation environments of both countries.
Digital Catapult is proud to present the 12 finalists for the UK-Germany Global Challenge. These startups have been exploring how using artificial intelligence (Al) and distributed ledger technologies (DLT) can revitalise the industrial and manufacturing sector. The 12 startups each present solutions to industry challenges set by Siemens and CHEP Europe focusing upon crucial issues such as sustainability and enabling the safe travel of data.
The Digital Catapult UK-Germany Global Challenge is a prime example of an international partnership, working with a range of organisations from government, the local innovation ecosystems, corporates, startups and academia across international borders. The challenge is funded by the UK’s Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and the Department for International Trade. It is also supported by the British Embassy and Consulate network in Germany and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Science and Innovation Network, along with other partners including Deutschland - Land der Ideen. This challenge celebrates and strengthens the relationship between the two countries; both are world leaders in the advancement of pioneering technologies and this challenge sees leading startups pitch solutions to real-world challenges.
The global challenge for 2020 provided the opportunity for a panel of technological and industry experts to listen to the startups’ solutions to challenges set by CHEP Europe and Siemens. All challenge winners will have the opportunity to discuss further collaboration with the industry partners. This is just one of the many benefits that come from such an international collaborative programme, alongside the opportunity to interact with and learn from startups across both nations.
UK-Germany Digital Catapult Global Challenge – October 2020 1 UK-Germany Digital Catapult Global Pitch Day Challenge - Siemens
Siemens PLC UK is a German multinational headquartered in Munich and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe with branch offices abroad. Siemens Digital Industries Motion Control (DIMC, headquartered in Erlangen, Germany), at its UK site at Congleton, undertakes product design and manufacturing of over a million industrial drives and option modules each year for worldwide markets.
Siemens Congleton, UK and its HQ partners in Erlangen, Germany challenged the Al and DLT startup communities to explore how these two technologies can drive the development of a sustainable model for their industrial drives. Drive technology has the potential to transform industries worldwide through automation, digitalisation and industrial internet of things (IIoT), combining a suitable motor with a drive or inverter to control its speed, torque and position. This can be applied to industrial applications such as converting, handling systems and conveyors. Example use cases include factory automation, intra-logistics, storage or retrieval units, rotation and splice control, and water pump stations. By changing the frequency and voltage of power supply to the motors, industrial drives can optimise operations, increase energy efficiency and enhance process control.
This challenge focuses on enabling a better understanding of how industrial drives are being utilised and building a more sustainable engagement model with users through applications of Al and DLT. loT sensors are currently built into industrial drives to measure and react to temperature and other metrics while the drive is in use. Siemens Plc UK will also look to explore the potential applications of distributed ledgers to incentivise and ensure appropriate data access and distribution between relevant stakeholders, and advanced methods for gaining insights while preserving privacy or control (for example, zero- knowledge systems, homomorphic encryption and multiparty computation).
2 UK-Germany Digital Catapult Global Challenge – October 2020 Companies pitching for the Siemens Challenge
6 IS Predict
8 Jitsuin
10 Prenode
12 Additive Flow
14 Weeve
16 Arion
UK-Germany Digital Catapult Global Challenge – October 2020 3 UK-Germany Digital Catapult Global Pitch Day Challenge - CHEP Europe
CHEP Europe provides a ‘pallet as a service’ concept to a high proportion of businesses involved with the flow of goods from grocery suppliers into grocery retailers across Europe. The combination of deliveries to grocery suppliers and collections from retailers, with the after-the-event notification of flows between both parties, gives CHEP Europe an unparalleled visibility of truck flows underpinning the European grocery supply chain.
Top-level data suggests that 25% of all truck kilometres are completely empty, and of those that are loaded, only 55% of capacity is used. These numbers have not moved significantly for years. CHEP Europe is looking to use its transport scale and visibility to help customers improve truck fill and take unneeded capacity off the roads, with consequential benefits in cost, CO2, pollution, congestion and drivers’ time. The main challenge is to identify as early as possible, and ideally in advance of the orders being placed, the likelihood of the need to change pallet allocations and minimise ‘less-than-truckload’ orders (LTL).
Through this opportunity CHEP Europe will challenge artificial intelligence (Al) and machine learning (ML) startups to demonstrate a proof of value from this flexibility based on historical transport data, which could enable: • the use of historical data for predicting future needs and resources allocation (for example transports, pallets) - such as a recommender system to decide whether to bring forward a pallet of produce • cluster behaviours among customers, identifying patterns, trends and segments • a real-time optimisation proposal tool for users, increasing resource utilisation by coordinating requests while reducing costs
4 UK-Germany Digital Catapult Global Challenge – October 2020 Companies pitching for the CHEP Europe Challenge
18 Logidot
20 HEUREMO
22 Miralis
24 Sensefinity
26 decisionLab
28 Sensize
UK-Germany Digital Catapult Global Challenge – October 2020 5 Siemens Challenge
IS Predict solutions can ingest various processes and data sources, including equipment data and contextual data, and use predictive intelligence and explainable AI to understand which influencing factors contribute to the equipment usage.
IS Predict www.ispredict.com
CONTACT HEADQUARTERS
Britta Hilt Saarbrücken, Germany Managing Director and Co-Founder [email protected]
6 UK-Germany Digital Catapult Global Challenge – October 2020 IS Predict
IS Predict delivers self-learning and adaptive artificial intelligence (Al) solutions for industry 4.0. Its own PREDICTIVE INTELLIGENCE standard software automates time consuming data science tasks. This saves time and costs when implementing a solution as well as in 24/7 operation.
PREDICTIVE INTELLIGENCE by IS Predict provides the market with a solution addressing market needs. It has the following benefits:
• Predictive quality: Reduce minor quality in production – Assess critical production steps Discover quality of each relevant production process, for example, executed by robots – Predict quality Predict quality KPls for (longer lasting) production steps, for example, machining – Root cause discovery Discover reasons for poor quality, for example at automotive supplier – Predictive machinery control Calibrate machinery automatically in such a way that correct quality is always produced
• Predictive maintenance – Predict future failure – Discover disturbing factors
• Predictive energy/CO2 reduction – Predict consumptions – Simulate best operation for machineries/power plant – Predictive control (recommendations)
UK-Germany Digital Catapult Global Challenge – October 2020 7 Siemens Challenge
Jitsuin reveals, reduces and reports the risks within the internet of things digital transformations. The Jitsuin Archivist software- as-a-service (SaaS) platform is built on distributed ledgers for collaboration and transparency amongst cyber security supply chains and maintenance teams.
Jitsuin www.jitsuin.com
CONTACT HEADQUARTERS
Rob Brown Cambridge, UK VP Marketing and Co-Founder [email protected]
8 UK-Germany Digital Catapult Global Challenge – October 2020 Jitsuin
Jitsuin reveals, reduces and reports the risks with the internet of things and digital transformations.
Jitsuin Archivist is a SaaS platform that gives rise to security twins, a revolutionary approach for bringing trust to digital transformations with connected things and digital twins. It reveals, reduces and reports cyber risks while reinforcing data produced by devices.
Jitsuin Archivist: • permanently stores a tamper-resistant maintenance history of what action took place, at what time and who took that action, which gives the traceability required to automate operations, speed communication with cyber security supply chain partners, and move fast and fix things • gives visibility of exposure windows and device provenance, which helps CISOs confidently build agile, secure and compliant operations while overcoming the top C-suite strategic issue of trust • is a secure and private platform that combines innovative distributed ledger technology with established identity and access management and cloud technologies to enable fast and secure collaboration amongst value chain partners
For Siemens this means: • customers can improve cyber security maintenance with prescriptive plans to rapidly close exposure windows and reduce risk of unplanned downtime • customers can trust data produced by connected machines: privacy preserved; billing accurate; and AI explainable • provide continuous proactive support for customer security, risk management and compliance programmes and generate proof for regulators where necessary • servitisation delivered with reduced cost and risks of offering product-as-a-service
UK-Germany Digital Catapult Global Challenge – October 2020 9 Siemens Challenge prenode brings innovative AI technology to companies that want to enrich their products with AI-based features - for example, forecast models, automation and predictive maintenance.
prenode www.prenode.de
CONTACT HEADQUARTERS
Dr. Ronny Schüritz Karlsruhe, Germany Co-CEO/Founder [email protected]
10 UK-Germany Digital Catapult Global Challenge – October 2020 prenode
prenode is a spin-off from research that brings innovative artificial intelligence (AI) technology to companies that want to enrich their products with AI-based features - (for example these can be used within forecast models, as well as being of benefit to automation and predictive maintenance). prenode’s solution enables companies to develop, manage and deploy machine learning models on decentralised, cross-company systems. This enables companies to scale Al-based features across multiple customers by reducing the individual development and implementation time as well as increasing the performance of the machine learning models. prenode’s technology also ensures data privacy and security because individual customer data is not shared or centralised.
UK-Germany Digital Catapult Global Challenge – October 2020 11 Siemens Challenge
The Additive Flow team is a strong advocate for the performance potential of industrial 3D printing and additive manufacturing (AM) as well as its potential to facilitate more sustainable manufacturing practices.
Additive Flow has developed its modular FormFlow software to address many of the challenges faced by designers and engineers working with 3D printing and additive manufacturing processes for product development and production applications.
Additive Flow www.additiveflow.com
CONTACT HEADQUARTERS
Alexander Pluke London, UK CEO [email protected]
12 UK-Germany Digital Catapult Global Challenge – October 2020 Additive Flow
The Additive Flow team is a strong advocate for the performance potential of industrial 3D printing and AM as well as its potential to facilitate more sustainable manufacturing practices.
However, the “potential’ of AM has been discussed for many years now, while the realisation of this potential has been slow to follow. One of the key barriers to adoption of the technology set occurs at the front end throughout the digital workflow that AM necessitates. This encompasses design for AM, design optimisation with multiple parameters, process simulation, process parameter optimisation as well as material selection and placement.
Additive Flow has developed its modular FormFlow software to address many of the challenges faced by designers and engineers working with (or engaging for the first time with) 3D printing and AM processes for product development and production applications. FormFlow is multi-functional software with the capability to apply multiple user-defined parameters for simultaneous geometry, process parameter and material optimisation. The dedicated, physics-driven algorithms within FormFlow do all of the complex work, and produce comprehensive and tangible results that deliver optimally performing parts cost effectively, sustainably and rapidly.
FormFlow is also AM-process/system agnostic with specialist solvers that account for the unique properties in AM materials and can be tailored to work with single- and/or multi-material designs.
UK-Germany Digital Catapult Global Challenge – October 2020 13 Siemens Challenge
Weeve enables companies to harness the machine economy with IoT and blockchain. Weeve’s cutting-edge technological solutions enable companies to extract value and harness the economy of things in an increasingly connected world.
Weeve offers innovative ways to utilise IoT through security-by-design technology and customised solutions, operating across industry verticals of IIoT, automotive, supply chain, mobility and logistics.
Weeve www.weeve.network
CONTACT HEADQUARTERS
Marcus Jones Berlin, Germany Managing Director [email protected]
14 UK-Germany Digital Catapult Global Challenge – October 2020 Weeve
Weeve technology is built on flexible and robust orchestration of edge computing. By modularising and managing data pipelines at the edge, new business models are unlocked for pay-per-use for drive units. Its novel approach to edge computing solves many pain points in the IoT landscape. It solves the data fragmentation issue with a library of standard data conversion modules. Data custody is strictly enforced - the factory owner is the ultimate custodian and controller of their own data. Weeve allows secure and trusted data streams to be written into the blockchain for fast payment tracking.
On the payment settlement layer, a regular Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) bank transfer is done with a one-one mapping from token to Euro, bypassing any concerns with invoicing. Its complete enterprise solution includes a graphical interface for easy management of modules, edge servers, and access control.
UK-Germany Digital Catapult Global Challenge – October 2020 15 Siemens Challenge
Arion is a specialist data science developer, which builds bespoke solutions to transform data into meaningful insights and actions that customers need.
With a background in aerospace engineering and manufacturing, and a growing presence in consumer goods, retail, and financial services, Arion aims to be the reference data partner in the digital transformation.
Arion www.arion.ai
CONTACT HEADQUARTERS
Marcus Vernon Bristol, UK CEO/Founder [email protected]
16 UK-Germany Digital Catapult Global Challenge – October 2020 Arion
Arion is a specialist data science developer. It employs scientists, engineers and technicians with specialist machine learning skills and then provides these skills to customers to meet their specific needs.
Arion does not have a solution looking for a problem; it builds bespoke solutions to transform data into meaningful insights and actions that customers need. With a background in aerospace engineering and manufacturing and a growing presence in consumer goods, retail, and financial services, Arion aims to be the reference data partner in a client’s digital transformation.
The benefits of a bespoke solution can be quantified as cost savings, but it’s the unquantifiable advantage of insightful and relevant information that is key to success. Having the best information at the right time means big strategic decisions can be taken confidently and being able to surprise and delight customers becomes routine.
UK-Germany Digital Catapult Global Challenge – October 2020 17 CHEP Europe Challenge
Logidot is a London-based smart warehousing company. Its IoT solution allows warehouse operators to track the location and utilisation of their mobile assets, such as forklifts, roll-cages, pallets and tools, in realtime and optimise the efficiency and safety of material handling operations.
Logidot www.logidot.com
CONTACT HEADQUARTERS
Niccolo Corsini London, UK Founder/CEO [email protected]
18 UK-Germany Digital Catapult Global Challenge – October 2020 Logidot
Logidot is an industrial IoT company that optimises logistics and production with real-time tracking, state-of-the-art sensors, and machine learning.
The Logidot platform helps to increase efficiency, prevent accidents, and stay competitive while gaining real-time visibility on operations, therefore reducing costs and carbon emissions. Its IoT solution allows warehouse operators to track the location and utilisation of mobile assets and provide real-time visibility (as well as historical data) of pallet flows and forklift truck location. Its utilisation in warehouses can help to better synchronise and expedite the loading and offloading of trucks. The cloud solution connects to WMS/ERPs and can easily be accessed by multiple stakeholders (across different companies) thereby facilitating the shared use of assets. Logidot’s machine learning algorithms also offer predictive capabilities to better anticipate resource requirements and identify load balancing opportunities across operators and facilities.
UK-Germany Digital Catapult Global Challenge – October 2020 19 CHEP Europe Challenge
HEUREMO’s FreightPilot solution is designed for transport management systems and relies on two pillars: automation and holistic approach.
HEUREMO www.heuremo.de/en
CONTACT HEADQUARTERS
Sven Spiekermann Duisburg, Germany CEO/ Co-Founder [email protected]
20 UK-Germany Digital Catapult Global Challenge – October 2020 HEUREMO
The transport management systems of today have changed little since the 1990s. In addition to the 26.5 million tons of CO2 produced in Europe alone each year, which could be avoided with better transport management, the market is characterised by a considerable shortage of drivers, weak margins and insufficient automation.
HEUREMO solves this problem with the transport management system of the future - its product FreightPilot. In doing so, HEUREMO relies on two pillars: automation and holistic approach. The first pillar is the automation of transport management. Through the multi-objective optimisation of loading capacities and tours, FreightPilot decreases the amount of required trucks by 20%.
The second pillar is the holistic approach. While transport management today is characterised by four or five different systems that communicate with each other only rudimentarily, FreightPilot consolidates different systems. Thus, 39 different telematics systems are already connected. As a result of this, the live status of all vehicles can be seen directly and FreightPilot can react dynamically to events in the real world through reliable data feedback and Al algorithms. HEUREMO is also pursuing the vision of a future-proof and competitive supply chain by laying the foundations for successful transport management with the specially developed digital measurement app - Me.Sure. Here, articles can be measured with millimetre precision and orders can be transferred directly to FreightPilot via a smartphone. The combined use of FreightPilot and Me.Sure keeps companies’ manual effort to a minimum and accelerates the handling of work processes.
UK-Germany Digital Catapult Global Challenge – October 2020 21 CHEP Europe Challenge
Miralis aims to reduce carbon emissions from transport, logistics and the supply chain, acknowledging that vehicles remain the biggest source of carbon growth.
Miralis uses data analytics, algorithm development, modelling, simulation, artificial intelligence and machine learning to reduce emissions.
Miralis www.miralis.co.uk
CONTACT HEADQUARTERS
Dr Will Maden Lancaster, UK Analytics Director [email protected]
22 UK-Germany Digital Catapult Global Challenge – October 2020 Miralis
The goal of Miralis is the reduction of carbon emissions from transport, logistics and the supply chain, acknowledging that vehicles remain the biggest source of carbon growth.
Cutting emissions also delivers huge opportunities for companies. Apart from the social and environmental impacts, there are also significant productivity and efficiency gains, competitive advantage and a healthier bottom line to be realised.
To deliver on this Miralis has brought together many of the finest minds in data analytics, algorithm development, modelling, simulation, artificial intelligence and machine learning to reduce emissions.
The data scientists are backed by a large team of software developers and technical experts delivering bespoke solutions and Miralis’ own products across logistics optimisation, including routing and scheduling, packing optimisation, and network planning; as well as the transition to zero carbon transport through electric vehicle transitioning, smart electric vehicle charging and charge point management; and energy monitoring and management.
From some of the world’s largest companies to logistics businesses to manufacturers, including Disney, Diageo, Iceland and Panasonic, Miralis provides the products and services to help them reduce their carbon footprint and at the same time realise substantial savings and efficiencies.
UK-Germany Digital Catapult Global Challenge – October 2020 23 CHEP Europe Challenge
Sensefinity is creating the internet of cargo where cargo assets autonomously orchestrate with processes to reclaim $1 trillion currently lost annually in global supply chains.
Sensefinity www.sensefinity.com
CONTACT HEADQUARTERS
Orlando Remédios Berlin, Germany CEO [email protected]
24 UK-Germany Digital Catapult Global Challenge – October 2020 Sensefinity
Sensefinity is creating the internet of cargo, where cargo assets autonomously orchestrate processes to reclaim the $1 trillion USD currently lost annually in global supply chains.
Technology is now at a point where it can help optimise complex global operations in real-time respecting multiple constraints and business settings. Sensefinity is proud to be part of this evolution, which will allow the transformation of existing supply chains to help conserve the environment for future generations.
Sensefinity was founded by a former CEO of Löwenbräu and VP of Danone alongside senior R&D directors coming from Nokia and Siemens in order to enact systemic change across supply chains to decrease waste, cut-down
CO2 and enable two billion more people throughout the world to be fed, by making logistics smarter.
Sensefinity’s internet of cargo is a fully integrated cloud and IoT solution. It uses machine learning to proactively leverage data to allow value added applications that transform supply chains and logistic operations to improve operations, reduce costs and create new, digitally enabled services. Sensefinity’s solutions are available on smart crates, pallets, truck trailers, sea freight containers and warehouses, enabling the orchestration of cargo assets with the infrastructure, vehicles and warehouses.
UK-Germany Digital Catapult Global Challenge – October 2020 25 CHEP Europe Challenge decisionLab solves real-world challenges for some of the biggest and most respected businesses in the UK. It has experts in simulation, optimisation and data science.
These are combined to build the tools and models that turn the impossible, toughest problems into bold and clear paths for enabling decision-making.
decisionLab www.decisionlab.co.uk
CONTACT HEADQUARTERS
David Buxton London, UK Director of Business Development [email protected]
26 UK-Germany Digital Catapult Global Challenge – October 2020 decisionLab
decisionLab is an award-winning technology company that solves real-world challenges for some of the biggest and most respected businesses in the UK. It has experts in simulation, optimisation and data science.
These are combined to build the tools and models that turn the impossible, toughest problems into bold and clear paths for enabling decision making. The solutions decisionLab creates for its clients lead to transformation and improve systems used by millions of people in the UK within key domains: water, electricity, facility management, aerospace, defence and security. Its clients include Babcock International, the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, the Royal Navy, Rolls-Royce, Siemens, Fujitsu, GlaxoSmithKline, the Canal & River Trust and numerous utility companies.
The challenges decisionLab’s clients pose to it require great creativity, skill, talent and passion to get to the desired outcome for all involved. decisionLab features in the prestigious Financial Times list of the UK’s Leading Management Consultants 2020 and is proud to have been awarded a bronze medal for consulting services in data analytics and big data.
UK-Germany Digital Catapult Global Challenge – October 2020 27 CHEP Europe Challenge
While working in senior roles at Cambridge Silicon Radio, a multinational semiconductor company, Sensize co-founders Neil and Luke saw first-hand how technology could be used to generate useful insights about the manufacturing supply chain.
Sensize offers a high-quality, pre-integrated information system tailored to the needs of supply chain companies.
Sensize www.sensize.net
CONTACT HEADQUARTERS
Luke D’Arcy Cambridge, UK Director [email protected]
28 UK-Germany Digital Catapult Global Challenge – October 2020 Sensize
Sensize is a startup company from Cambridge founded by Luke D’Arcy and Neil MacMullen. The company specialises in gathering data from the logistics supply chain and using it to generate actionable insights. Sensize systems are being used by supermarkets, parcel delivery couriers and reusable packaging pool companies to make their services more efficient and cost effective.
UK-Germany Digital Catapult Global Challenge – October 2020 29
Digital Catapult Global Challenge
Digital Catapult’s Global Challenge is an international innovation programme designed to strengthen bilateral relationships, foster collaboration and drive forward innovation.
The Global Challenge programme enables international partners to find solutions to real-world commercial and industrial challenges. The programme brings together startups and scaleups working with advanced digital technologies (such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, future networks and immersive technologies) to create real-world proof of concepts that can be put into practice.
Each challenge takes the form of a focused innovation event. Shortlisted applicants are invited to develop and pitch solutions to the complex industry challenges set by organisations operating in both the partner country and the UK.
UK-Germany Digital Catapult Global Challenge – October 2020 31 With thanks to our showcase partners
The Department for International Trade (DIT) secures UK and global prosperity by promoting and financing international trade and investment, and championing free trade. DIT does this by helping UK businesses to expand into overseas markets through its network of overseas posts and UK-based trade advisers, connecting overseas buyers with UK businesses, getting local marketing help to sell overseas and through many other services.
As an international economic department, DIT is responsible for bringing together policy, promotion and financial expertise to break down barriers to trade and investment to help businesses succeed; promoting British trade and investment across the world and building the global appetite for British goods and services.
www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-international-trade The goal of Deutschland - Land der Ideen (Germany - Land of Ideas) is to bring creative minds together and honour their commitment to our future.
The Land of Ideas supports an exchange of ideas with other countries to foster international dialogue.
The Germany - Land of Ideas initiative has teamed up with various partners to launch several projects that pursue a common goal: to enhance Germany’s international visibility as a hub of ideas and innovation, of quality and creativity — in short, a place that is helping to shape the future in a positive way. From idea competitions and youth initiatives to publications portraying influential personalities - you are invited to explore the variety of projects Land of Ideas organises and see for yourself why Germany is truly a land of ideas.
Germany - Land of Ideas was founded in 2006 by the German Federal Government and German business and industry.
www.land-der-ideen.de Partners
Digital Catapult is the UK’s leading advanced digital technology innovation centre, driving early adoption of technologies to make UK businesses more competitive and productive to grow the country’s economy.
We connect large established companies, startup and scaleup businesses and researchers to discover new ways to solve big challenges in the manufacturing and creative industries. Through this collaboration, businesses are supported to develop the right technologies to solve problems, increase productivity and open up new markets faster.
Digital Catapult provides physical and digital facilities for experimentation and testing that would otherwise not be accessible for smaller companies.
As well as breaking down barriers to technology adoption for startups and scaleups, our work de-risks innovation for large enterprises and uncovers new commercial applications in immersive, future networks, and artificial intelligence technologies. Digital Catapult 101 Euston Road London NW1 2RA 0300 1233 101 www.digicatapult.org.uk
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