July 04, 2022

Fuelics: There is no way for a tech company to innovate without research | Interview

ahedd DIH is an open innovation ecosystem that constantly evolves. ahedd builds collaborations with partners with exceptional know-how in offering digital transformation and innovation solutions using Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and Internet of Things applications.

In this interview, Evangelos Angelopoulos, CEO and co-founder of the deep-tech company Fuelics, one of the core partners of ahedd, introduces the expertise and the solutions that the company offers, explains the value of collaborating with ahedd and NCSR Demokritos and highlights the impact of research on industry and vice versa.

A few introductory words about Fuelics

Fuelics is a deep tech IoT manufacturing company with a complete end-to-end offering in fuel management and smart city technologies. Fuelics offers battery-operated edge-computing sensors and a sophisticated cloud-based infrastructure to cover the needs of the refuelling industry and offer diverge and holistic Smart City services.

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The problem
The problem

Beyond TRL9 - what lies ahead in the evolution journey of a mature product?

Fuelics has been initially incorporated in order to offer repository fuel management and refuelling services to owners of stationary fuel tanks. It was the first ever company in Greece to introduce a fuel-level battery-operated sensor and the first ever company to utilise Narrow Band Internet of Things technology as the communication medium. The ultrasonic fuel level sensors Fuelics developed have the ability to measure and locally execute business logic rules (using sensor’s intrinsic edge computing capabilities) and therefore create notifications and alarms regarding the state of a tank. In Middle East, the largest telecommunication provider is using our sensors to avoid having the cellular base stations run out of fuel. In UK, a refuelling company is using our sensors to digitally transform their fuel delivery business, optimize tanker routing, improve customer satisfaction and create sales leads based on accurate diesel level readings.

The solution
The solution

The collaboration with ahedd DIH, the Smartchain experiment - DIH World project & the impact of research to the Industry

Smart City technologies

Fuelics has a portfolio of services that include a holistic asset monitoring service for buildings (electricity, diesel, gas, water), an occupancy sensor used for parking and anti-parking applications and a set of data NBIoT loggers that can extract information from smart meters with pulse or mBus output. The latter is being used to offer water management services to cities in an innovative and low cost way. This technology has been installed in NCSR Demokritos campus to monitor water consumption and pave the way to more sustainable water usage by identifying and eliminating water leakages.

The collaboration with ahedd DIH – The non-revenue water project at NCSR Demokritos

Fuelics has utilised NCSR Demokritos campus as a digital playground in order to provide non revenue water applications, by introducing a highly accurate measurement system empowered by Fuelics Data-logging edge-computing battery-operated electronics. We have closely collaborated with the Digital Innovation Hub of NCSR Demokritos, ahedd, not only to showcase the data captured by our devices but also in creating a common API interface, therefore providing researchers with real-time series of data where they can apply AI and deep learning techniques, a field where NCSR Demokritos excels. This collaboration has paved the way for in-depth technical collaboration that we strategically support.

The Smartchain experiment: A synergy between ahedd DIH and Fuelics – DIH-World project

We had the opportunity to raise non-equity capital and further collaborate with ahedd by disrupting the coolchain transportation market. Fuelics designed and developed for the first time a rechargeable NBIoT battery sensor with the ability to measure humidity, temperature and accelerations in addition to providing positioning data. ahedd designed and developed an AI module for experimenting with the concept of using contextual information to add value to sensor data. The contextual information in this case is location-aware weather data and predictions.

This collaboration successfully delivered an end-to-end system that has the ability to track and trace food-related products while monitoring capabilities can be reconfigured based on the transferred products. Reconfiguration of the sensor measurement abilities is possible over NFC or over the air.

The impact of research to the industry and vice versa

There is no way for a tech company to innovate without research. Additionally there is no other way to evolve your products and services. Fuelics has an R&D DNA that powers the development of new products and enables the company to continuously be in the forefront. 

The experience working with ahedd and the synergies that benefit SMEs

A company has a focus, to sell products or services or a combination of both. Academic establishments have a mission to research and create low TRL technologies that can gradually become products either through technology spin-offs (and most probably using venture capital) or through collaborations. The SmartChain experiment proved that synergies can drive innovation, let alone new products and services. We are committed to not only to jointly pursue new funding, but to collaboratively design and develop high-end products in the fields of AI, where ahedd DIH excels.

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Lets meet,
Lets meet,

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