The UPC participates in the new ‘spin-off’ Smart Tower, a service for monitoring electric pylons remotely and autonomously

20/3/2020

Promoted by the researcher Lluís Gil, ‘Smart Tower’, the new spin-off of the UPC, provides a remote and autonomous service for monitoring electric pylons. This new technology-based company has been supported by The Collider, the innovation programme of Mobile World Capital Barcelona that seeks to connect scientific and entrepreneurial talent to create science-based companies.

The Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya · BarcelonaTech (UPC) forms part of Smart Tower, a new technology-based company promoted by Lluís Gil, researcher at the Laboratory for Technological Innovation in Structures and Materials (LITEM) and associated with the Department of Strength of Materials and Structural Engineering at the UPC. The aim of the new spin-off is to provide companies that have structural asserts (electric pylons) with comprehensive, remote, offline support to find out and monitor in real time the state of the structure and provide predictive analysis. This solution represent a competitive advantage for companies as it enables decisions to be made in a preventive way, before damage can be caused that interrupts services, with the corresponding compensation payments that have to be made.

Smart Tower provides mode diagnosis to determine the state of a tower in relation to its optimal state, and to detect any alterations that could indicate deterioration. The system incorporates artificial intelligence techniques and learning of structure behaviour. This means that more specific diagnoses can be made over time. The new company has been supported by The Collider, the Mobile World Capital Barcelona programme to promote technology-based spin-offs.