On March 15 took place the launching event of the project “Disruption of Port OCR“. A project of the start-up AllRead MLT, subsidized by Puertos del Estado through the Ports 4.0 Fund and focused on helping ports and terminals in Spain to automate and streamline the traceability of goods transported by rail in their facilities.
The meeting, held in Barcelona, was attended by Oscar Sala, Director of The Collider, José Llorca, Head of Innovation at Puertos del Estado, and representatives of the ports and terminals that have supported the proposal, such as the Port of Barcelona, Port of Algeciras, Terminal Marítima de Zaragoza Services, APM Terminals Spanish Gateways and Hutchison Ports BEST.
Oscar Sala, Director of The Collider, highlighted how AllRead is proof that:
“We bridge the gap between science and market needs by creating technology startups that solve real problems. We understand the challenges, identify market needs and, from there, we build innovative solutions with an impact on society and industry, as in this case, the port industry.”
For his part, José Llorca, Head of Innovation at Puertos del Estado, said that with the creation of Puertos 4.0 and the funding of projects such as AllRead, the goal of Puertos del Estado is to make ports and port communities aware of the importance of digitization and adopt technologies that streamline their operations.
The goal of the project is, according to AllRead’s COO and co-founder Adriaan Landman:
“To rely on our technological innovation to democratize traceability solutions in rail freight, and improve the competitiveness of the port logistics sector.”
Moreover, for Adriaan, the vision of AllRead that convinced the various project participants is that by bringing out the full potential of its innovative reading technology, it frees itself from dependence on hardware.
It is a computer vision software solution that uses artificial neural networks. The system created is capable of detecting and reading in real time, using any of the cameras already existing in the port, the texts, codes or symbols of vehicles and containers from any image or video, even in complex environments of rain, low lighting, or high-speed movement, and even if they are partially damaged or barely visible. In this way, it is possible to:
- Fully monitor the supply chain without the high costs of procurement, implementation, or maintenance (up to 80% less).
- Offer greater accuracy.
- Very low processing time.
This innovation implies a significant reduction of delays and transit times by up to 25%, and significant economic cost savings (estimated at up to €80M per year) which, thanks to the implementation of cutting-edge technologies for traceability, will improve the efficiency of operations and reduce bottlenecks regardless of the size or volume of port operations.
In addition, it will also improve environmental sustainability by reducing emissions by up to 220,000 tons of CO2 and contribute to the commitment to rail transport, which is six times less polluting than road transport, and speed up the departure, entry and circulation of vehicles and goods.
In the words of Miguel Silva-Constenla, CEO of AllRead:
“This is a major challenge that will have a major impact on the supply chain and goods movements. Thinking about the multiple logistics nodes through which goods circulate throughout the entire journey, the beneficiaries are innumerable.”
The project, which starts in April and has an initial duration of 18 months, aims to further innovate and develop the vision technology and software to make it an even more robust and accurate, multi-platform, plug and play and easily scalable solution in any port or terminal, without the need for infrastructure beyond a fixed camera or cell phone, which will contribute to transfer all the economic and sustainability benefits to the Spanish port ecosystem
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