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Cotecna, a global provider of testing, inspection and certification services based in Geneva, has entered into a partnership with the Zurich-based robotics start-up Tinamu. The collaboration and the use of the technologies developed by both companies will enable them to offer the next generation of intelligent warehouse inspection using drones, further details of which can be found in a press release issued by Cotecna. Their solution for intelligent digital warehouses is primarily intended for use in bulk storage facilities.

The system uses drones as flexible, flying sensors. Founded in 2018 as a spin-off from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH), the start-up Tinamu does not build drones itself, but rather uses patented software, Computer Vision and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to turn them into fully automated indoor sensors. The drones require around eight to ten minutes to complete a scan. Thereafter, it transfers the data collected for processing, before, finally, the data is represented in 3D, graphical and tabular format via the Cotecna Digital Twin portal.

In a year-long pilot program with selected customers, the process of data collection and volume calculation was automated. According to Cotecna, the pilot phase has demonstrated that turnaround times for warehouse inspection reports have been reduced by a factor of 50 and the accuracy of inventory data has improved by up to 99 percent. “The next strategic milestones are to roll out the system in the Benelux region and to enter into more partnerships to scale our solution globally”, explains Tobias Nägeli, CEO of Tinamu Labs, in a report published on startupticker.ch. mm/Café Europe

Switzerland and blockchain: This episode is part of a limited series produced in partnership with Switzerland Global Enterprise and Home of Blockchain.swiss , which aims to highlight the successful implementation of blockchain technology across finance, industry, and NGOs. In this episode, we talk to Sandro Knöpfel, Head of Strategic Partnerships at the Cardano Foundation, and Alvaro Cosi, Communications Manager at Switzerland for UNHCR, about how humanitarian organizations can benefit from blockchain technology. 

Do you want to know more about business opportunities in the blockchain industry and the digital ecosystem in Switzerland? Get in touch at Blockchain Hub Switzerland | S-GE and www.HomeofBlockchain.swiss.

Zurich Soft Robotics plans to use the proceeds from an early financing to launch Solskin, its multifunctional and adaptive photovoltaic (PV) façade system: it produces electricity and enables shading of indoor spaces. The €1.5 million investment comes from an undisclosed international market leader based in Switzerland.

As startupticker.ch reports, the 2022 spin-off from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH) intends to use the investment to expand its team, accelerate the development of Solskin and make the system commercially available from the third quarter of this year. According to the information, this is the world's first movable PV façade system. Thanks to a patented hybrid robot drive made of hard and soft material and artificial intelligence, it enables movable modules that follow the path of the sun.

Zurich Soft Robotics set up a fully functional demonstrator with the HiLo façade at the NEST modular research and innovation building of the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (Empa) in Dübendorf ZH. Another demonstrator was built at the ETH Zero Carbon Buildings Systems laboratory at the end of 2022. The company is realising the first and largest pilot project with Keller Druckmesstechnik AG in Winterthur. The sensor technology company wants to complete a new main production building by 2025. With a 1300 square metre Solskin façade on its south side, Keller AG wants to keep its electricity and cooling requirements as low as possible and produce renewable electricity.

Solskin won the 2023 Watt d'Or in the Buildings and Space category. mm

Sevensense Robotics, the Zurich-based supplier of industrial-grade 3D visual SLAM solutions, will be presenting its new Alphasense Autonomy Evaluation Kit at the ProMAT trade fair in Chicago. Between March 20 and 23, manufacturers of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) and automated guided vehicles (AGVs) can experience for themselves the solution for quick and easy testing of 3D Visual Autonomy technology, further details of which can be found in a press release.

As a result, the evaluation kit, as a standardized prototyping solution, enables every technical department to operate and test Alphasense Autonomy on their own vehicles. This is intended to accelerate the development and deployment of AMRs and AGVs, while also offering improved performance and expanding their operational capabilities.

Alphasense Autonomy is an autonomous robotics system from the Zurich start-up that combines the advantages of visual SLAM positioning (VSLAM) with Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based technology for local perception and navigation. This enables the robots to navigate precisely and reliably across both indoor and outdoor environments, including on uneven floors and ramps - and all without the need for any additional infrastructure.

“We observed that many AMR manufacturers considered Alphasense Autonomy as an option to incorporate 3D Visual Autonomy capabilities into their offering but integrating, testing, and validating the fit of this navigation technology in their own vehicles and their use cases still required more expertise and time than they were able to invest”, explains Gianluca Cesari, CBDO at Sevensense Robotics, in the press release.

Sevensense Robotics is headquartered in the Greater Zurich Area. According to information from the Greater Zurich Area location marketing organisation, the region can be regarded as “a global leader in robotics, drone technology and computer vision”. In this context, it highlights the close ties between industry, universities and authorities, among other aspects. ko/Café Europe

The French power grid operator RTE, headquartered in Paris, has been testing the autonomous four-legged inspection robot ANYmal developed by ANYbotics. With the inspection solution from the Zurich-based robotics firm and spin-off from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH), RTE is aiming to ascertain the extent to which it can help to avoid system failures, further details of which can be found in a press release.

The press release explains that RTE’s objective was to test the robot’s first possible use cases in typical situations and evaluate its technological maturity. As part of its digitization and automation strategy, RTE is looking at introducing robotic system monitoring for its substations. This could reduce the risks to the health and safety of employees in addition to increasing the efficiency of its facilities.

For the tests, the ANYmal was put through its paces at three replica installations housed at Campus Transfo, RTE’s technological and industrial lab based in Jonage on the outskirts of Lyon. “Full autonomy and extreme mobility allowed ANYmal to monitor and assess assets in unsuitable conditions, adverse weather conditions, and darkness, thereby preventing operators from taking additional risks”, the press release states.

In the high-voltage substations, for example, where the systems are normally switched off to allow work due to excessive electromagnetic fields, ANYmal safely carried out routine checks during operation. “For us, it was a real success”, concludes Jean-Yves Astic, R&D Program Director at RTE, in the press release.

RTE operates 105,000 kilometers of high and ultra-high-voltage lines that extend across the whole of France in addition to 50 interconnections with neighboring European countries. ko/Café Europe

Mirai Foods has succeeded in producing thick, tender fillet steaks from cultured beef, informs the young company from Wädenswil in a statement. "Other types of meat can already be produced in the lab," Christoph Mayr, CEO and co-founder of Mirai Foods, is quoted as saying there. "A tenderloin steak is the supreme discipline: it consists of different cell types, which - if combined correctly - result in a complex meat structure."

For the formation of this meat structure, Mirai Foods has developed The Rocket bioreactor. Here, long, fully mature muscle fibers are produced, joined by means of enzymes and supplemented by fat structures that have also been cultured. The company has already filed three patents on its fibration technology.

"Nutrition is a huge lever for climate action and animal welfare: meat demand is expected to double by 2050," explains Suman Das, CSO and co-founder of Mirai Foods. "Traditional methods of meat production can't meet this demand at all, and certainly not in a sustainable way."

In a seed funding, Mirai Foods had already raised over $5 million. Now, additional investors, including Zurich-based food and meat producer Angst AG, have stepped in, Mirai Foods informs. Currently, the company is focusing on beef cultivation because conventional beef has the largest footprint of all meats. In the long term, however, the aim is to cultivate a wide range of meat varieties. hs/Café Europe

Flying robots are only suitable for construction site work when they can take on a wide range of work. In our initial development phase, we focused exclusively on drilling, as this is one of the most power-intensive work steps. At the same time, the flight platform has remained modular, so that replacing the drill with an impact wrench can be done relatively easily and quickly. The rest of the process also hardly needs to be changed, as the tools are similarly heavy.

Not unlike our flying robot, our team is also trying to master various tasks - for us, this means taking exams at ETH Zurich and continuing to run a startup at the same time. Long days and efficient prioritisation are essential for us. Our first weeks at the Züri Innovationspark office have thus come to an end. We moved in quickly and received a warm welcome. The next tasks are defined and we are looking forward to making them a reality in our flexible new home!

Source: Büro Züri

This podcast episode is all about the topic of «Corporate Development in Hospitals». To shed some light on the subject, the head of Corporate Development at Männedorf Hospital, Luzia Bühler, is our guest.

As an expert, she provides insights into her work and highlights that good project management and firm structures are the basis for corporate development. But nothing beats the employees of a hospital who work with patients and are thus the voices that should be heard when it comes to making improvements. In corporate development, it is accordingly important to create the vessel in which innovations can be developed and implemented by motivated and committed employees. This is not always easy, but, as the example of Männedorf Hospital shows, possible!

Listen into this podcast episode to learn what's behind the term enterprise development, how to successfully transform in the complex hospital environment, and why Luzia believes it takes more than just good planning and structures to survive as a hospital in the long run.

"Marketplace Healthcare" is the podcast about management and leadership in healthcare. Alfred Angerer is a professor at the ZHAW for Management in Healthcare and the founder of Marktplatz Gesundheitswesen. In the podcast he interviews exciting people with whom he discusses the current trends. In doing so, he is looking in a forward-thinking direction that does not neglect topics such as digitalization and process optimization.

The sustainability platform Pelt8 has received CHF 500,000 from investors in a pre-seed funding round. The round was led by investors from the Zurich-based Swiss ICT Investor Club (SICTIC) together with entrepreneurs Ralph Mogicato, Andreas Bezner and others, according to a media release.

According to the statement, the startup, which was founded in Zurich in 2021, automates the sustainability reporting of companies with its platform. It does this by helping them set up efficient and verifiable processes to collect the data needed to meet the growing transparency demands of new regulations and reporting requirements.

Until now, most companies have recorded their sustainability performance only once a year in an elaborate process. Sometimes hundreds of people are involved in this process, collecting data via e-mails and spreadsheets. This process is resource intensive, prone to error and prevents companies from effectively and accurately evaluating their actions, according to the media release. Therefore, Pelt8's vision is to build a cohesive sustainability technology ecosystem with data management at its core. The aim is to make sustainability reporting easier on the one hand, and to give it a higher profile within companies on the other.

"We see an urgent need for tens of thousands of companies to put their sustainability reporting on an equal footing with their financial reporting," Julian Osborne, founder and CEO, is quoted as saying in the media release. Companies should "move away from reporting for reporting's sake" and instead commit to measurable measures. ko/Café Europe

After reviewing over 150 applications, a jury of investors and technology experts selected ten tech startups to join the roadshow in Silicon Valley, one of the world's most important tech hubs. The roadshow provides a unique opportunity for entrepreneurs to accelerate their startups' expansion in the US while expanding their professional network and profiting from workshops with investors and industry leaders. 

The Venture Leaders program also showcases the drive and vitality of Switzerland's tech startup ecosystem. The chosen startups work on a wide range of solutions, from machine learning and sensors to encryption and positioning technology, and serve a variety of sectors, such as agriculture, healthcare, digital marketing, and engineering.

"The startups chosen to join the Venture Leaders Technology program are working at the forefront of innovation, so the roadshow in Silicon Valley represents the natural next step in their growth," says Stefan Steiner, co-managing director of Venturelab. "By offering exposure to industry experts and investors in this nexus of innovation, the program provides the entrepreneurs with access to invaluable insights about the US market as well as industry know-how while bolstering their international network. We look forward to the exchanges and opportunities the roadshow will bring about for the Venture Leaders and their future fundraising."

This year's Venture Leaders Technology join an impressive group of alumni, including startups such as Lemoptix and Composyt Light Labs (acquired by Intel), Faceshift (acquired by Apple), HouseTrip (acquired by TripAdvisor), Kooaba (acquired by Qualcomm), Dacuda (acquired by Magic Leap), and the unicorns GetYourGuide and Scandit.

"Being challenged by US investors was very constructive in order to improve our communication and pitches," said Matteo Vanotti, CEO of xFarm and a Venture Leader Technology 2022 that raised a EUR 17 million financing round after the roadshow. "Additionally, we breathed the atmosphere of the valley populated by tech companies; we came back to Switzerland with many inspirations."

"I can confidently say that the Venture Leaders program is truly unique in many aspects," said SONIX founder and CEO Nicolas Abelé, who was a Venture Leader Technology 2022 as well and raised USD 2 million last October. "The amount of personal and professional development packed into this one week is next to none."

The Venture Leaders Technology 2023 program is organized by Venturelab and supported by ETH Zurich, EPF Lausanne, Kellerhals Carrard, Rothschild & Co, the Canton of Vaud, and the Canton of Zurich.

The entrepreneurs will meet and introduce themselves to the public at a kick-off event on February 22, 2023.

Recycling disposable medical products is challenging, but pharmaceutical company Janssen found a good partner for this high-​risk project in the ETH Feasibility Lab. Thanks to their agile approach, the researchers were able to demonstrate feasibility.

Maersk has signed a contract with the Zurich-based company Verity. The world's leading provider of container shipping services will deploy Verity's electric-powered inventory drones in all of Maersk North America 's pallet warehouses. Details of contract details would not be disclosed, according to a statement from the trade magazine DC Velocity, to which Verity refers. The spin-off of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich had started developing its drones in 2014.

According to company spokesman Thomas Boyd, the Maersk project was launched six months ago and currently includes four sites. Now, the freight logistics company's deployment plan for 2023 calls for installation in all pallet warehouses. The system requires only one day of operator training, he said.

In a separate media release, Erez Agmoni, the Senior Vice President of Innovation & Strategic Growth at Maersk North America, explains the reasons behind his company's decision, "Verity's system has delivered data accuracy, security and speed. It makes our warehouse management system stronger, faster and more effective for our clientele's decision making."

It goes on to say that inventory management is one of the most important barometers of supply chain flow, financial cost risk and business decisions. At the same time, it is one of the most difficult, repetitive and tedious tasks in warehouses, he said. For all of this, Verity's inventory drones are "a safer, more accurate and data-driven inventory solution," Agmoni said. mm, Café Europe