Predictive maintenance platform for industrial assets based on AI and IoT

Project Information

Predictive sigma

Grant agreement ID: 886905

DOI

10.3030/886905

Project closed

EC signature date 2 December 2019

Start date 1 December 2019

End date 31 March 2020

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

SIGMA INDUSTRIAL PRECISION SL
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Predictive sigma (Predictive maintenance platform for industrial assets based on AI and IoT)

Reporting period: 2019-12-01 to 2020-03-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Start pilot in water industry to accelerate AI development, application welcomed in different markets global scope. H2020 Phase II project predefined.
predictive-sigma is the industrial, predictive-maintenance platform based exclusively in electrical analysis development for Sigma Industrial Precision, a start-up based in Barcelona area and funded by a group of technical and business experienced entrepreneurs in summer 2017. On November 2019, the company achieves H2020 SME instruments phase I during the validation process of the platform in several markets and customers. At that moment, the company was looking to determine the priorities to accelerate its platform development for the forthcoming years.
During the 4 months H2020 SME instruments period, the company achieves to confirm the interest on predictive-sigma’s value proposition in several industrial segment and countries, highlighting the water segment (water treatment and distribution plants). This water segment interest confirmation results to focus Sigma’s development plans for 2020 to the water segment by launching his first AI guided tools for predictive maintenance for water pumps prior to other AI developments. In parallel, Sigma Industrial Precision modifies predictive-sigma pricing and business model finding a good mix regarding service offering and price structure.
On this period the company achieves to close sales in three water facilities starting to collect electrical data from several water pumps, the company also closes his first collaboration with an industrial distributor in Mexico and starts to close a similar contract with a Colombian partner.
The potential for predictive-sigma seems huge and the company needs to accelerate the platform development to escalate, that represents to accelerate the entrance of new investors. The company closes his first investing round on March 2020. Sigma Industrial Precision also defines the topic for H2020 phase II project: Smart Electric Predictive Protection System.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During H2020 SME instrument project we have continue working on technical development, commercial activity, financial seeking and organisation definition to accelerate predictive-sigma development.

- Task 1: Continue feeding predictive-sigma database with industrial machines like engines, pumps, compressors and transformers in order to create our first behaviour patterns.Work done: we integrated our first customer’s assets into our new IoT platform development. Originally, we were collecting data in a server located in our office through VPN connection. We improved predictive-sigma platform and added new customers to it.

- Task 2: Integrate the new data with the data that we already have collected. Work done: during H2020 period we have collected more than 160 GB of electric information from our previous and new installations. All the data is being saved in our predictive-sigma platform in Google Cloud Firebase structure.

- Task 3: continue with the development of our prediction algorithms and do our first tests. Work done: water pump electric data download from the platform for integration in Matlab and first analysis. Analysis of existing AI predictive maintenance solutions for benchmarking and guidelines development.
Implementation of Fourier transform in our cloud platform to collect frequency current and voltage data for later analysis.
-Task 4: Develop an interactive demonstration panel to show how the system works and used it in exhibitions and customers meetings.Work done: we worked in two different demonstration panels, we improved the existing one and we created a new panel.
-Task 5: Continue with the market analysis and promotion.Work done: we have continued to seek proactively new customer in Spain, we also have done our first visit to Mexico to advance in the relationship with our partner there.
-Task 6: start first agreements with potential partners to commercialize the product in determined areas and other countries.Work done: on March 2020 we are closing an agreement with our partner in Mexico for predictive-sigma promotion and distribution. We currently have already sold to them a pilot sensor and communication device that they have installed in a food production plant in Querétaro, they plan to use this unit to perform additional installation in several customers for the next month. We also are ending negotiation with a similar partner in Colombia. In parallel we have started discussion with a similar company in Chile. We also are in contact with two potential partners in Spain.

-Task 7: participate in exhibitions and congress’ to promote our product and contact new potential customers and partners.Work done: during this period we have continued participating in relevant events and exhibitions to promote predictive-sigma. We have also seen how some of them have been postponed or cancelled due Covid-19.

-Task 8: Prepare the documentation to complete our first funding round.Work done: on March 2020 we closed our first investment round for 100.000 € We also plan to proceed with a new funding round for 300.000 € before the end of 2020. We have prepared our investment proposal for that and we are currently sharing to different investment players, as an example we participated in an event promoted by EIC Business Acceleration Service Team: EIC Investor Day @ BPI France. The event was planned to for this March in Paris but finally has been performed by Internet due Covid-19 pandemic. As a result of this event we have started discussions with several Venture Capital companies looking to invest in Deep Tech start-ups. We also are working with The Crowd Angel crowdfunding platform specialised in Start-ups to promote the planned investment round.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

During this period, we have confirmed the market interest in predictive-sigma service in different countries and industrial segments. taking this in consideration we have a clear overview about the potential of the company and the platform.
This welcome from different markets has showed us the need to focus in a determined application and market to develop our first end product with the objective of demonstrate value and obtain resources to grow and attack other applications and markets.
We have seen the most important interest for the solution from the water sector, we believe that this sector has concrete problems where our solution can offer to them a clear and valuable solution. The water segment needs to have better acknowledgement about their operations and work with assets spread in the territory, that represents high maintenance costs in people and travel to maintain their assets. The water segment is also very interested in the improvement of efficiency and energy consumption control. Our solution offer to them a simple and cost competitive alternative to solve all these problems with a unique sales point.

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