The winners of the SPRINT Robotics Awards 2022 were announced at the World Conference Banquet which was held this year in Amsterdam. An annual event, the SPRINT Robotics Awards acknowledge and reward exceptional work in Inspection and Maintenance robotics in our society and are comprised of three different categories: Groundbreaking Collaborative Work towards Acceptance of Inspection and Maintenance Robotics, Scaling of a Robotic Solution, and New Innovative Technology in Inspection, Maintenance or Cleaning.
Waygate Technologies and PETRONAS were the first-place winners of the SPRINT Robotics Award for Groundbreaking Collaborative Work towards Acceptance of Inspection and Maintenance Robotics. PETRONAS collaborated with Waygate Technologies Robotics (WTR) on the adaption of the BIKE, a very versatile robotic platform for inspection in confined spaces and working at heights to the specific needs of PETRONAS.
Ekkehard Zwicker, General Manager of Waygate Technologies Robotics commented: “We are thrilled to receive this award together with our long-time partner PETRONAS. The results of our joint work on the BIKE robotic platform show how significant and successful true business collaboration can be. For Waygate Technologies, this prize marks another milestone in our strategy to strengthen our automated data caption capabilities and drive innovations that will enhance our customers’ productivity and competitiveness. I’d like to personally thank everyone involved in the project!”
Other winners in the Groundbreaking Collaborative Work towards Acceptance of Inspection and Maintenance Robotics category were: 2nd place, Flyability and 3rd place, Taurob.
In the category Scaling of a Robotic Solution, Diakont was the winner. Diakont developed, introduced, and now scaled the use of robotic systems that perform cleaning and desludging of surfaces in nuclear power plants, for the purpose of reducing worker exposure to radiation and also reducing costs through shortening of nuclear plant refueling outage duration. The other winners in the category Scaling of a Robotic Solution were: ExRobotics and Energy Robotics, 2nd place and Thread (formerly Airtonomy), 3rd place.
Voliro, Shell and Intertek were awarded first place for the SPRINT Robotics Award for New Innovative Technology in Inspection, Maintenance or Cleaning. Asset owner Shell, robotics company Voliro and service company Intertek joined together to develop a drone that can execute a full workflow of a coating spot repair. The true innovation relies on the automatic execution of surface preparation and coating application; that guarantees an asset lifetime extension of roughly five years.
Mina Kamel, CEO of Voliro remarked: “We are humbled to receive the 2022 SPRINT Robotics award for New Innovative Technology in Inspection, Maintenance or Cleaning. At Voliro we are on a mission to push the boundaries of flying robotics to improve safety and efficiency of assets inspection and maintenance. The collaborative project on spot repair solution with our partners Shell and Intertek started as a bold idea and now is a reality.” Erwin Loonen from Shell added: “We are honored to have received the award. Winning the award is the ultimate encouragement for working on bold ideas that previously seemed unattainable but are now within reach. The results that we made over the past 2 years have only been possible by dedicated hard work by a group of people from different backgrounds that truly believe that we can make a positive change with new technology.”
Flyability took home 2nd place for the category New Innovative Technology in Inspection, Maintenance or Cleaning, and ANYbotics, 3rd place.
The SPRINT Robotics Awards are awarded annually at the World Conference. As an end user driven organization, the SPRINT Robotics Program Committee (asset owners/operators) selected the winners.
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