GALILEO MASTERS 2010: Robocortex, Nice Sophia Antipolis Regional Winner

The company offers parking assistance combining global navigation satellite systems and vision technologies. 3 questions to Manuel Asselot, VP Sales and Marketi

3 questions to Manuel Asselot, VP Sales and Marketing of Robocortex (Right position on the picture)

1 - What does your project involve? What are the particularly innovative aspects recognised by this prize?

These days, finding an available parking space in towns and cities is becoming increasingly difficult. Drivers waste a lot of time and fuel searching for a space. Our solution aims to help drivers find available parking spaces.

Our project is based on a simple and innovative idea, the combination of a GNSS system with computer-vision technologies. Parking spaces near the driver are either available or occupied and it is precisely this information that the driver needs, along with a real-time indication of the best direction to take to find somewhere to park. To do so, the first step consists of identifying the parking spaces by geolocating each of them. We then have all the parking spaces available to us in a database managed by a centralised server, along with their associated location details. Then we need to know, in real time, whether each parking space is available.

Using the GNSS system, a car with our solution can indicate to the server that it has entered or left a parking space. However, it is the vision systems that will play a key role in determining the availability of a parking space, video-surveillance cameras monitor the most popular spaces and on board mobile cameras in the cars monitor all the parking spaces in the driver’s field of vision. Both these camera types can then provide the server with the availability of each space, so that all service users can have this information in real-time.

Through the information from the GNSS and vision systems, our centralised server therefore knows the location of each parking space along with its availability in real-time. At any time, a driver can then use the server to find out about the closest available parking spaces by providing his own location details.

2 - What opportunities will you gain from this prize?

Our company Robocortex develops and markets vision-based software localisation solutions on two key markets, augmented reality applications and service robotics. For us, this prize is the opportunity to develop our product offer and our partner network by enabling us to implement this project.

Besides technological developments still to be used in our products, our project requires us to work closely with integrators to invent a geolocation system equipped with an on-board camera. Public authorities such as town halls or regional authorities must also play a part in this project.

The 2010 Galileo Masters prize gives us the necessary visibility and connections to arouse the interest of potential partners and consider associations to achieve our project. The 6 months free business premises at the PACA Est incubator and 10 consultation days which we have received from the Alpes-Maritimes Departmental Council, will help to speed up our development on our markets.

3 - How has your company integrated into both the overall and "mobility" ecosystems (mobile technologies and services) in Sophia Antipolis?  Which assets have you benefited from?

As a spin-off from INRIA in Sophia Antipolis, Robocortex has positioned itself as a highly innovative software publisher in the field of information technology. Mobility is a primary concern and our software is designed to meet key interaction requirements for mobile contexts, as much for smartphone users as for robots with on board mobile systems. Information technology is constantly evolving towards mobility and we are pushing our developments in this direction by marketing solutions which make it possible to create new applications with increasingly strong constraints in terms of mobility.

4- What are your prospects for growth and development?

Robocortex was founded in 2010 in Sophia Antipolis with the prospects for strong short-term growth and the intention to recruit approximately 10 doctors and engineers over the next 3 years to carry out our R&D programme.  In the same way, we are aiming for a quick international development, and plan to hire 5 to 10 sales representatives within 5 years.

 On the left on the picture : Ezio Malis, CEO of Robocortex

En savoir plus : conference.galileo-masters.eu/ presentations/ october19th/ road/ nice_sophia_antipolis.pdf