Our center has been awarded as the most innovative company in ICT in a competition in which 48 of the best EU-funded innovations developed by companies, research centers, start-ups or university spin-offs, have participated

CATEC has won the prestigious 2017 Innovation Radar Prize, an initiative promoted by the European Commission through the Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content & Technology (DG CONNECT), with the aim of promoting innovations from all over Europe that present a high potential for its later application in the market.

CATEC has achieved this recognition thanks to the development of a new pioneering worldwide technology that allows the use of aerial robots and small unmanned aircraft, popularly known as drones, that will be used to perform industrial inspections (such as ultrasonic) that require contact. This technology, called AEROX, was imposed in the final phase of the competition, in which the final decision of the jury composed of various experts decided to award the global prize to CATEC for “its advanced drone system for air contact”.

The result and the award ceremony took place dutring the event “ICT Proposers Day”, held in Budapest (Hungary) and in which seven other European innovations framed in different categories were recognized. Miguel Angel Trujillo, head of the AEROX’s team, and Anibal Ollero, CATEC’s scientific advisor, and main researcher of AEROARMS, were in charge of collecting the prize in Budapest.

 

With this award, CATEC is consolidated as a European technological leader in the development of technologies and applications with drones to be used in different industrial sectors. Specifically, the new drone created by CATEC is able of performing inspections that require contact, for example, with ultrasonic sensors, which represents a great step further for the use of this type of aerial robots in different tasks, that not only allows to “see” from air, but also to “touch and feel”. The initiative is part of the European project AEROARMS, in which the University of Seville also participates.

CATEC technology has focused on solving real industrial problems and has been advised by leading international companies in industrial inspection, in order to create a technology with a high level of maturity and that attracts the interest of the industry. “Achieving the Innovation Radar Prize is a great opportunity for us to increase the knowledge of this technology and to awaken the interest of the industry to exploit it,” adds Antidio Viguria, head of the Avionics and Systems Division of CATEC.

Demonstrative video of AEROX:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQdMlfK8VjY