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The very young Allorado has fired the lead bullet at Siemens' Best Application Contest (BAC), the competition that again this year looked for companies using Siemens technology in a pioneering way. Digitalisation and automation were the central theme. Allorado built the Allorado gateway with the Siemens SIMATIC IOT2050, which opens doors for numerous IoT applications. The solution was lauded during the nocturne at Indumation. The auTOMAATIC from AVT Europe and CDC Automatisation completed the stage. With thirteen cases collecting more than 2,200 votes online, this edition of the BAC was a hit.
Standardised programming, Industrial Edge, Cloud Connectivity, far-reaching virtualisation, simulation with SIMIT or state-of-the-art digital twins ... These are all technologies that seemed like future music five years ago but are today a reality and have a significant impact on industry and technological progress. Digitalisation and automation were therefore at the heart of this year's Best Application Contest.
“With the Best Application Contest, we want to show that, as a technology player, we put our money where our mouth is and that our solutions create great added value in practice, and that in a variety of sectors,” states Thierry Van Eeckhout, senior vice-president and Head Siemens Digital Industries Belgium. “The benefits of digitisation and automation are everywhere: product design, production (planning), engineering of a project, right through to maintenance and service. Through the Best Application Contest, we also want to discover how our customers and their end customers are reaping the benefits of automation in an innovative way.”
This year, Allorado emerged as the winner. The start-up has existed for barely one year and has one product, the Allorado gateway, which translates LoRa (long range) communication into readable input.
“There are hundreds of companies making sensors and all those sensors speak their own language,” testifies Bram Roelandts, co-founder Allorado. “Our gateway converts the payloads to telegrams that other systems based on, for example, KNX, BACnet, Modbus, can understand. We do that via a LoRa network for long-distance transmission with low power consumption. That, unlike expensive cables or a power-hungry Wi-Fi connection, makes it ideal for IoT applications.”
Allorado built the gateway using the Siemens SIMATIC IOT2050. “The SIMATIC IOT2050 is reliable and very interesting because Siemens allows us to adopt it completely. As developers, we also had a lot of support from Siemens and thanks to them we can roll out our product globally right away. We want to become the iPhone of the LoRa world. This gateway is an important step towards more efficient production as well as buildings. If we can bring that a little closer, then our mission is a success. This award is a great honour for Allorado as a young player, recognition for our solution, and proof that we are already on the right track.”
Silver and bronze were for AVT Europe and CDC Automation respectively.
AVT Europe, specialising in heavy-load AGVs (Automated Guided Vehicles) developed the Automaatje, an AGV that takes tomatoes from the sorting centre to the auction intact and runs on SIMOVE, Siemens' open AGV platform.
CDC Automation, which supports machine builders with electrical design and programming, developed a tool based on Siemens' TIA Openness API that allows them to automate the start of new projects. The tool itself creates the project in TIA Portal and automatically imports basic blocks including PLC, drives and HMI and connects them in a logical way. What used to take half a day now takes barely three minutes, allowing CDC to deliver cheaper and better work and even more on ease of use.
The 2023-2024 edition of the Best Application Contest was a great success. Thirteen cases were submitted this year, from growing mushrooms more efficiently to harvesting heat with the sun and getting drugs to market faster. “These are all strong success stories and the response was therefore immense. The various candidates appealed to their own supporters through online channels, collecting a total of more than 2,200 votes. This proves the growing success of the Best Application Contest and the fact that the quality and impact of our product portfolio resonate with the wider public in general and the industrial country in particular,” Van Eeckhout concludes.
Curious about all the cases? Discover them on the website of Siemens.
