Periodic Reporting for period 1 - VORTEX (Autonomous Infrastructure Inspection via Vortex Robot Climbers)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2021-06-01 do 2022-11-30
Existing EU policies aiming on strengthening and growth are mainly focused on new developments, omitting investments in inspection and maintenance operations due to traditionally high costs. To overtake this, VORTEX aims to commercialize the Vortex Robot (VR) technology developed in Η2020 FETOPEN CompInnova, which will increase the inspection efficiency in terms of lower execution times, lower operational costs and higher worker safety. Furthermore, VORTEX will focus on the creation of its brand name and expand the dissemination/communication activities implemented in CompInnova to focused industrial events and wider media/press channels, for maximizing societal and market acceptance of autonomous multi-robot systems, tackling the inspection and maintenance tasks.
VORTEX will use as the base the identified aerospace maintenance market and the end-users/customers from within the aerospace industry, to expand on potential stakeholders and customers in wider inspection and maintenance areas. Through the implementation of a commercialization plan, analysis of potential markets, technology assessment and consolidation of intellectual property rights, the envisioned activities will lead to the development of the VORTEX business case.
The planned dissemination and exploitation activities will stimulate the formation of an open and proactive mindset towards exploiting innovative tools in infrastructure inspection and maintenance, which are beyond the technical capabilities of existing companies, for addressing the demands for higher human safety and reduced downtime costs.
The objectives of VORTEX have been carefully selected to focus on boosting the innovation potential of the robotic technology developed in CompInnova, which will assist in strengthening the dissemination and innovation capacity, while giving the ability to have resources specifically in accessing potential markets and realising a genuine innovation through proper commercialization planning and technology market entry for addressing a real need.
VORTEX will use as the base the identified aerospace maintenance market and the end-users/customers from within the aerospace industry, to expand on potential stakeholders and customers in wider inspection and maintenance areas. Through the implementation of a commercialization plan, analysis of potential markets, technology assessment and consolidation of intellectual property rights, the envisioned activities will lead to the development of the VORTEX business case.
The planned dissemination and exploitation activities will stimulate the formation of an open and proactive mindset towards exploiting innovative tools in infrastructure inspection and maintenance, which are beyond the technical capabilities of existing companies, for addressing the demands for higher human safety and reduced downtime costs.
The objectives of VORTEX have been carefully selected to focus on boosting the innovation potential of the robotic technology developed in CompInnova, which will assist in strengthening the dissemination and innovation capacity, while giving the ability to have resources specifically in accessing potential markets and realising a genuine innovation through proper commercialization planning and technology market entry for addressing a real need.
The work within the project has been successfully carried out following project timeline. As such, the VORTEX project has implemented a commercialization plan for turning the VORTEX idea into a genuine innovation, while it analysed the potential markets and their competitiveness on the grounds of exploiting the VORTEX innovation. The project has also assessed the VORTEX technology and verified its innovation potential with a large number of potential customers and related SMEs that could either get benefit from these technologies or utilize the VORTEX robotic platform in their businesses. The potential of the VORTEX technology has been also successfully demonstrated and assessed in various potential customers, while it has been demonstrated in the biggest trade fair exhibition at Hannover Messe. The VORTEX project has a strong innovation potential and this has been also utilized in drafting the business plan and the sequential business next steps for creating a sustainable innovation. The project has also evaluated the related to the vortex technology intellectual property rights and did a detailed patent search in the market. The final outcome of the project has been a clear business case, with clear steps and directions that would hopefully continue the path to the exploitation and result into a successful business story and a related spin off company.
During the market analysis, it was identified potential market segments, as well as market sizes and values (D3.1 D3.3). Furthermore, the corresponding opportunities have been identified and categorized with respect to different industrial sectors, as it will be listed below in the next subsections. The VORTEX system’s capabilities and advantages have been demonstrated to the target markets, as well as vortex technology has been demonstrated at public events for raising awareness and increasing societal acceptance.