Blue Ocean Robotics will identify robotic potentials on Europe's longest suspension bridge - the Great Belt Bridge

lue Ocean Robotics and Sund & Bælt Holding A/S will in a new partnership explore development opportunities for the use of robotics for operations and maintenance on the Great Belt Bridge.

The management company of Europes largest suspension bridge, Sund & Bælt, is investigating new technology to ensure a more efficient and intelligent operation and maintenance of the Great Belt Bridge. Each year, operations, maintenance and capital reinvestments amount to approx DKK 500M. Thus, even small efficiency gains will generate a considerable cost saving in operations. Sund & Bælt wants to achieve this by utilizing innovative technology. Several initiatives are already underway, and the partnership with Blue Ocean Robotics, as one of the many initiatives, will help to identify new potentials available. The ambition is to make the Great Belt Bridge a focal point for Sund & Bælt to develop and apply new technology with Danish and international partners.

35,000 cars are passing the Great Belt Bridge on a daily basis and the number is expected to increase. At the same time, the condition of the installations deteriorates. Thus, new technology will play a significant role, so the traffic can run safely on the bridge that is open 24 hours a day, with maintenance being carried out efficiently. The RoBi-Roadmap partnership with Blue Ocean Robotics aims at identifying the tasks that can be carried out with robots in the future. With this knowledge about robotics, Sund & Bælt can begin entering into partnerships with leading technology partners capable of delivering the robot technology of the future.
- In some industries, Big Data, Internet of Things, sensors and robots are already a big part of the daily operations, but in the construction industry, new technology is only being used to a limited extent. This is something Sund & Bælt wants to change along with innovative partners such as, e.g. Blue Ocean Robotics. We have set ourselves the immodest goal that we want to be the market leader in the intelligent use of asset management in operation and maintenance among infrastructure owners, says CEO of Sund & Bælt, Mikkel Hemmingsen.
Blue Ocean Robotics merge robotic technology with partners strategic goals
Blue Ocean Robotics is a highly specialized company who is focused on developing new generations of robots for the global market. The development takes place in partnerships with strategic partners, that typically have a strong market position. Moreover, the development is based on a number of integrated technology platforms (TP-X), that ensure synergies across Blue Ocean Robotics' different partnerships. The co-development is based on a unique partnership model (RoBi-X).
The typical RoBi-X partner has a portfolio of physical products that can be transformed into a whole new generation of more intelligent products by utilizing robotic technology. Often it is a more disruptive or radical innovation, where the products are re-designed fundamentally, rather than just being an incremental upgrading of the products. The more intelligent robot-integrated products provide customers and users, with the opportunity for significant improvements in productivity, quality-of-life, and work environment. A typical partner can also be a service company or a construction company, such as Sund & Bælt, where services and construction activities, as in the case of Sund & Bælt, can be delivered completely or partly via robots. The robot transformation of physical products and services pave the way for creating scalable, digitized (IoT, Big Data, AI, Industry 4.0) and service-oriented business concepts with the partner and Blue Ocean Robotics.
- At Blue Ocean Robotics, we are pleased to enter into a partnership with Sund & Bælt, and it is quite interesting that we are going to identify robotic potentials for installations that include both bridges, roadways, and tunnels. We have already started identifying development opportunities through our well-proven RoBi-Roadmap program, which is part of our RoBi-X model. Here, we will uncover and map how robotic technology can be utilized for inspection and maintenance in water, on land and in air. This creates an optimal starting point for robotizing the construction industry which has only embraced robotic technology to a limited extent, states the three Co-CEOs at Blue Ocean Robotics, Claus Risager, Rune K. Larsen og John Erland Østergaard.


About Blue Ocean Robotics
Blue Ocean Robotics is a highly specialized company who is focused on developing new generations of robots for the global market. The development takes place in cooperation with strategic partners, which typically have a strong market position. While Blue Ocean Robotics takes care of the development and technology, the RoBi-X partner takes care of the global sale, service and production. The development of new solutions is based on a number of integrated technology platforms (TP-X) that ensure synergy across Blue Ocean Robotics' different partnerships. The corporations are based on a unique partnership model (RoBi-X). Read more on www.blue-ocean-robotics.com.

About Sund & Bælt
Sund & Bælt is a technology-driven infrastructure company that owns and operates the Great Belt Bridge, the Øresund Bridge and, soon to come, also the Fehmarnbelt Tunnel to Germany. Our fixed links across the sound increase the mobility of the more than 250,000 leisure, business and commercial travelers who use our infrastructure. Sund & Bælt's ambition is to digitize the operations of the large installations in partnership with external technology specialists such as Blue Ocean Robotics, to achieve a two percent saving annually for the next five years to the benefit of the Danish society. Read more on www.sundogbaelt.dk.


Contacts:
Thomas Midtgaard-Jørgensen, Vice President of Marketing, Blue Ocean Robotics ApS, tmj@blue-ocean-robotics.com, +4560124004
Lene Gebauer Thomsen, Head of Communications, Sund & Bælt A/S, +4533416261, lgt@sbf.dk

Link to press material:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B6gdRqigy-YvNVZUa2lrUU94QjA?usp=sharing
https://vimeo.com/channels/sundogbaelt

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