Last Wednesday, May 17th, the presentation of CARE-IMD project was held at the facilities of the Hovering Solutions project coordinator. The event was attended by a selection of leading companies in the elevator sector and the executive team representing the Elevator Business Federation.

What is CARE-IMD?

This is a project financed by the Ministry of Science and Innovation and the European Union (Next Generation EU) in which the partners Hovering Solutions, CAIBLAB and COMET participate.

The objective of the project is to create a technological base for the digitization of lift shafts and elevators through the use of Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs, unmanned aerial vehicle, for its acronym in English).

In Spain there are more than 1 million residential elevators. Taking this data into account, security and the importance of technological digitization represent a major challenge for the sector.

How can you create that technological base?

Within the R+D+i project, the technology is intended to be used for:

• The creation of a Digital Twin (virtual model that accurately reflects the physical model) to improve the functionality of elevators.
• The carrying out of inspection missions by unmanned aerial vehicles autonomously (without a pilot), and in collaboration with human operators.
• Study human-robot interaction. How autonomous aerial vehicles can collaborate with operators in inspection tasks (remotely or in person).
• Check the user experience (how the person perceives and uses the unmanned aerial vehicles) and the usability (the ease in interacting with this technology).
• Investigate the existing regulations and lay the foundations for the incorporation of the use of robots in Spanish legislation.

All this technology is made available to users. Because CARE-IMD is a project with a user-centered design, and for this reason, their participation is essential in all stages of project development.

During the presentation of the project

Hovering Solutions, presented the current capabilities of its autonomous aerial vehicles, in the company’s facilities and its possible utilities both in maintenance tasks and for the digitalization of the facilities.

Focus group: the attendees give their opinion

The objective of the presentation has had a double function. In addition to making the project known to companies in the sector, through a focus group (qualitative research method) opinions and concerns have been heard in order to adapt the CARE-IMD project to the needs of the sector.

The main purpose achieved in this meeting has been to involve elevator companies in the project and to propose a common goal that will allow tests to be carried out and useful final results that will benefit both the business fabric of the sector and the end user.