10.3.23-Showcase-Osaka-Venti_Technologies

ANNOUNCER: Thank you very much, Rio, last indeed, but hopefully, not least, Venti Technologies.

SJOERD CECLERCK: This is the Port of Singapore. Every year 36 million containers move through this port. That's 100,000 containers per day that need to be transported, moved, stacked, taken up, taken down. That is why Venti technologies is in Singapore because we strive to be a global leader in autonomous vehicle systems for the logistics market-- ports, airports, factories, warehouses, so moving containers and a container port, moving baggage or cargo on an airport, moving the output of a factory to a yard, moving goods across warehouses autonomously without drivers.

We have deep roots in MIT. Our founder is Professor Daniela Rus already mentioned as founder of another company. We have many of her students as our PhD students on our team. We are currently 130 people, growing fast, 16 nationalities, amongst one lonely Belgian, and that's me.

Our customers tell us that we solve three major problems, which is why we've chosen the logistics market. First, there is a global shortage of drivers. You, as a father as a mother, I would dare to assume that it is not your dream that your son or daughter becomes a truck driver, right? That's the situation around the world. So there is a 100,000 shortage of drivers.

Secondly, when you find the drivers, they are human. So they take holiday. They take lunch breaks. They take toilet breaks. They get sick. And frankly speaking, they are not very good at following traffic rules. A robot is simply speaking better at following rules.

And last but not least, in spite of rigorous safety measures in ports and airports, unfortunately, every year tens of people get killed in those environments. Getting hit by a container is not a healthy thing. It's a dangerous environment. So by taking the human driver out of harm's way, we also increase the safety of those environments, which is, of course invaluable.

How does it work? Well, it's the entire system we start by converting the vehicle. We do not build vehicles. We're a software company, not a hardware company. So we take the existing vehicles of the customer, and we convert them in so-called drive by wire, putting in systems so that you can steer them electronically rather than manually.

Then we map the entire environment. We have very dedicated algorithms to have very detailed maps of the environment we operate in. The core of the system is the autonomy stack, the software, the intelligence that makes the vehicle drive. And to complement that, there is a remote operations, think about it as a sort of a control center, where humans supervisors can assess a situation when the robot no longer knows what to do.

In our case, the remote operators will not take over. They do not joystick drive or take a steering wheel and drive. If you do that, you need very, very low latency. And that's not available in ports. So our remote operators assess the situation and give control back to the vehicle by telling it, it's OK you can pass or it's OK you can continue. So the intelligence is always at the vehicle site.

Our claim to fame is that we're very precise. We can park these 40 foot 20 ton containers with an accuracy of 2 centimeters. And why is that relevant? Because the cranes that load and unload these containers are also automatic, and they have a tolerance of about 5 centimeters. So we need to hit 5 centimeters. We actually do 2. I don't know how good you park with your car. 2 centimeter consistently, every day, 365 days a week, 24 hours a day, it's better than humans.

So we convert the vehicles, I mentioned that. Important also is, we do not add any infrastructure in the port. So we do not add sensors, beacons, transponders, antennas that guide the vehicle. We drive completely autonomously based on the intelligence in and the perception of the sensors, the LiDAR sensors. It's vehicle that controls its own movement. It is not being guided.

This is probably the most important part. This is a real video, very short-- there's a longer one on the booth-- of one of our vehicles in operation in the Port of Singapore. It's very fast. But I'll guide you through it.

It stops at the stop sign because it reads the stop sign. It does what you and I does. It looks left, looks right, heads in to the lane. There, it stopped at a suspended load. That's one of the rules in the port. You cannot pass a suspended load. Here, it does this 2 centimeters precision waiting for the crane that you will see lifting the container at the left side. It's already gone. It's very fast.

Then it drives back. Same thing, stops at a stoplight, looks left, looks right. It's in mixed traffic with human drivers. All these other trucks that you see are human drivers. Here, we drive at about 25 kilometers per hour. Here, the vehicle stops because at the left that you can just see above the mirror, there was another truck backing up that was not supposed to be there. So that detected, you stop, you wait till the hindrance is gone and, then you continue your traveling.

Why Japan? Why Korea? So that's what we do. That's in a nutshell more at the booth. But why Japan and Korea? Well all the issues that I've mentioned about shortage of drivers-- aging drivers, high cost of drivers-- are present both in Japan and in Korea. And of course, both of these are manufacturing countries, so there is factory outputs. They're also seaports, so there is a need for moving containers. And of course, some of the largest airports in the world are also in these countries.

So what are we looking for? People that work in a port, operate a port, move goods, factories that have factory output that needs to be moved to a yard. All of those are fantastic applications for autonomous vehicles.

Thank you very much.