Open Calls Results
TARGET-X launched two open calls to select up to 100 third parties distributing 6 Million € among them. The first Open Call was open from May until August 2023, the second Open Call was launched between December 2023 and March 2024.
The funding included a lump-sum grant of up to 60,000€ per third party for the performance testing or development of devices or solutions oriented to technology providers and use cases.
The proposed activities had to address performance testing or the development of devices or solutions oriented to technology providers and use cases applicable to only one topic in one of the following verticals: manufacturing, energy, automotive, construction, and other topics for the development of new devices/solutions as well as topics for evaluation with KPI (Key Performance Indicators) – & KVI (Key Value Indicators)-based methodological assessment framework.
An incredible 132 projects were submitted in the first Open Call. After a multi-step evaluation process, 26 benificiants from all over Europe were finally selected to receive funding to further enhance the development of devices or solutions with the help from TARGET-X mentors.
TARGET-X launched the Open Calls to strengthen important economic sectors in Europe by integrating 5G and 6G, accelerating the digital transformation. By learning about new projects and funding them, the prototypes can be used to implement technology ready for industrial usage. The projects help to define new requirements for the 5G and 6G development. The funding and development of the projects will make for an interesting journey.
Beneficiants from the first Open Call
Automotive
Road to Recovery by the company Logimade aims to revolutionize emergency medical services by utilizing 5G technology to enhance paramedics’ ability to manage complex health emergencies effectively. The project establishes a real-time communication channel that transmits video, audio, and physiological signals from paramedics in ambulances to medical experts in hospitals. Equipped with head-mounted displays (HMD), paramedics can send live video feeds directly to medical specialists at remote locations, enabling immediate medical guidance. Currently, Logimade has successfully established a 5G connection to send a video stream from the HMD.
The company Ada Guzey Engineering Ltd. and their project Hybrid Formation-Regulation Control for CAVs sent in their project for the vertical Automotive. The Hybrid Formation-Regulation Control for CAVs Project revolutionizes energy efficiency and security in connected and automated vehicles. Utilizing edge servers at the IDIADA 5G test center ensures low-latency communication of critical data such as vehicle speeds and control signals. The project’s prowess is showcased through prototype autonomous truck trailers, with entirely self-developed mechanical, electronic, and software designs.
Wego srl developed Volvero, an app for sharing vehicles that empowers private owners and businesses to recover ownership costs by sharing with local communities. MinervaS has developed a cutting-edge solution that optimizes the speed profile for drivers, enhancing safety on the roads while reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions, leading to a more eco-friendly and secure driving experience. The project Demeter combines MinervaS technology with Volvero’s car-sharing use case to actively engage end users in safe driving practices. Leveraging 5G for improved data latency and data rate, Demeter measures driving performance and trains the digital twin to monitor vehicles and drivers on the road. This enables the extraction of safety KPIs and the creation of a driver performance scorecard, with a reward system in place for safe driving behavior. The outcome is a European shared mobility platform where drivers can adopt safe and green driving habits, generating data to improve the digital twin.
It is estimated that the European automotive software market will grow by 7% CAGR from 2020 to 2030. With SPARTA’s secure, open APIs, the app developers will perform rapid integration, access data through standardized interfaces, reduce maintenance time, increase cross platform compatibility, augment error handling and testing. The open source project will thus reduce app development lifecycle significantly and has potential of very high shared gain for the entire automotive industry and its SW suppliers. In terms of market implementation, Digiotouch will offer SPARTA with a freemium model with free version released as open source while the premium version will be available with additional features.
CO-PARKNET is an innovative project by the company Flash Park with a mission to revolutionize urban parking and enhance Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs) through a cooperative perception infrastructure. Leveraging Flash Park’s 5G parking sensor network, the system continuously monitors parking spaces in real-time, providing drivers with precise and up-to-date parking availability information. By utilizing V2X protocols, data is shared, fostering cooperative perception among CAVs and the surrounding environment. The result is a seamless parking experience for drivers, envisioning a future where infrastructure and CAVs collaborate through data sharing, leading to improved urban mobility and enhanced safety.
Energy
Autonomous bearing monitoring powered by 5G and energy harvesting: HCP Sense bearing monitoring enables customers to prevent 80% of bearing damages with its unique lubrication monitoring system. 5G is the key to transmit this critical information from the bearing to the customer. But how to power the sensor and 5G connection in remote locations without energy supply? In bearings, abundant energy is available from the bearing’s rotation. In their project EHBear an autonomous sensor node, consisting of the unique HCP Sense bearing sensor, a 5G modem and a generator is developed which extracts the necessary power from the bearing rotation.
Our TARGET-X Open Call project builds an innovative energy forecasting software for Energy Communities where energy measurements are exchanged between sites, via reliable 5G technologies, focusing on rural areas. Given the fact that that no single forecasting method can achieve the highest accuracy in real life scenarios involving many different patterns of energy consumption, our innovative software chooses on the fly the best prediction algorithm based on user-defined input obtained from our web UI. We support the LSTM, RNN, and GRU algorithms and some of their hybrids, trained with PV solar dataset by our Mentor. Currently, we are finalizing the software and developing business models.
LENSE (Low-Voltage Energy Distribution Network Monitoring (LENSE)
Today, most electricity distribution network operators have tools to monitor High- and Medium-Voltage infrastructures, as well as connected smart energy meters to monitor and control usage at the consumer level. However, they still lack methods and products for monitoring Medium-Low Voltage substations. INSIGHIO develops -within the TARGET-X framework- a new, flexible, hardware-enabled and fully managed 5G-IoT empowered monitoring service. This solution substantially increases electricity distribution network visibility and observability, highlighting the potential of 5G to digitally transform the Energy sector, benefiting network owners, providers, regulators, and substation manufacturers.
Manufacturing
The company Astreo has developed a solution with their project ASTREO-ENERGY-5G that helps manufacturing companies save on energy costs and be more sustainable. This solution features a plug-and-play 5G energy sensor that captures real-time energy data from industrial machines and transmits it to the 5G edge. The extracted data is analyzed using intelligent algorithms to provide insights into consumption patterns inside the production plant, allowing real-time intervention. The system identifies inefficiencies and generates reports with optimization techniques, leading to up to a 30% reduction in energy costs. It has the ability to track CO2-e of each machine and process, helping companies define more precise decarbonization strategies.
Technology Evolution beyond 5G
Feron Technologies was selected to work in the implementation of the Golden Unit topic during the 1st TARGET-X Open Call for SMEs. With the mentoring support of Ericsson, our team has been working on the development of an open network benchmarking tool for 5G networks. This tool introduces an efficient combination of portable hardware (HW) units and agile software agents, acting as in-network vantage points. The 5G-BenchMotiv Golden Unit implements a real-time, real-world network evaluation tool that acts as a reference point for network performance by measuring radio, network, and application KPIs.