Three entrepreneurs had an idea about how farmers can reduce the death rate in newborn piglets. The idea is so good that the trio behind the company PorcoVision have been rewarded with a place in the European acceleration program for robotics companies RobotUnion.
The farmer is alerted of complications
Farmers are busy, but the Odense-based company PorcoVision may help them save time with their newly invented solution.
As the name of the company suggests, PorcoVision uses cameras for real-time monitoring of sows and piglets during birth. Video of the birth is livestreamed and artificial intelligence detects the duration of time between each piglet’s birth. If the time interval is worrying, the farmer receives a notification on his smartphone.
The hope is that the solution can contribute to more live-born piglets and ultimately a higher turnover.
Strong field of startups
In total, RobotUnion received 226 applications in the second and final application round of the program. PorcoVision is one of the 44 companies selected to move on to the next phase.
“RobotUnion’s recently completed application round has generally shown a very high level of applications”, says professional manager Thomas Sølund from the Danish Technological Institute. “Applications in this round have been of very high quality, the field has been hugely strong. It shows that there are more and more robot startups in Europe that are doing really well”, he says.
Danish robots for rehabilitation, sausage sorting and media productions
In addition to PorcoVision, two other companies from Odense – Proxima Centauri and Happtec – also managed to land a place in the program, which aims to discover, support and finance projects in the European robot industry. The selected companies work with industrial robots, drones and robots in the health sector. An overview of the winning Danish companies is provided below:
- Proxima Centauri is developing a robot to measure and sort intestines for sausages.
- Life Science Robotics is behind the rehabilitation robot Robert, who can retrain bedridden patients.
- Zoles has developed applications and 3D print services to be able to design and tailor individual orthopedic soles.
- Robofit gives highly injured citizens the opportunity to train independently with an intelligent, goal-oriented and motivational rehabilitation robot.
- Happtec is working to make it easier to integrate collaborative robots into a production line and create a platform for flexible production modules.
- Absolute Zero has developed a non-visible 360 camera drone for professional media productions.
In July the selected companies will pitch their ideas in front of a panel in true “Dragon’s Den” style. The field is then cut to 20 companies which progress to the next round of the program.
RobotUnion is initiated by 14 partners from eight different countries – including Denmark, which contributes 3 partners: the Danish Technological Institute, MADE and City of Odense.
Further information
Director
Joost Nijhoff
bjpo@odense.dk
+45 4046 9001