Voliro wins at Swissbau 2020

For the first time, a competition for the best start-ups in the field of construction technology was held at Swissbau 2020, a trade fair for the construction and real estate industry which takes place in Basel. Both of the winners of the ConTech start-up competition were decided by an expert audience.  Prior to this, a jury was formed to select the ten finalists. According to a press release published on startupticker.ch, Voliro Airborne Robotics from Zurich emerged victorious in the category of Planning. DES Digital Engineering Solutions from Poland was chosen as the winner in the category of Building.

Voliro focuses on the development of a new generation of autonomous flying robots. These are able to carry out construction and maintenance tasks at great heights. Their tasks include damage-free inspection, cleaning building facades, walls and windows in addition to painting and coating surfaces. Recently, Voliro worked in collaboration with the construction firm Losinger Marazzi in addition to Wagner SprayTech and Greutol by providing drones to help repaint the facade of a whole building at Spital Limattal in a new color. 

According to the press release, DES is a pioneer in the field of image analysis software. To this end, the company uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) and apps in order to cut costs in the ACE (architecture, construction, engineering) industry. The software developed by DES has already been used in the construction of the Great Belt Bridge in Denmark, for example, among other projects. This was the longest bridge construction project in Europe and the third-longest in the world. 

This inaugural Swiss ConTech competition was initiated by SwissProp Tech, an innovation network affiliated with the Swiss real estate sector. Messe Schweiz (MCH Group) are the organizers of Swissbau.