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Holo-Light develops intuitive mixed-reality software products for a wide range of industrial applications, such as the use of data glasses in production - including at Festo. (Image: Festo)

"We have to keep an eye on the future and are therefore always on the lookout for good ideas," explains Dr. Frank Melzer, Chief Product and Technology Management Officer at Festo. "It therefore makes sense to look around innovative start-ups." Partnerships and cooperation are an integral part of Festo's corporate philosophy. "That's why we support and promote start-ups and accompany them on their way into industrial practice," emphasizes Dr. Melzer.

ProGlove is used in logistics at Festo: the tugger train drivers use the wearable in assembly. (Image: Festo)

ProGlove develops wearables for industry - computer technologies that you wear on your body. Founded in 2014 by engineers and innovation consultants in Munich, the start-up tested the use of an intelligent glove with an integrated scanner in a pilot project at Festo's technology factory in Scharnhausen. The focus is on improving and simplifying production and logistics processes.

With the solution from aucobo, production employees at Festo can use smartwatches to make flexible adjustments. (Image: University of Stuttgart/Max Kovalenko)

Simple networking of different interfaces, devices and machines - this is the goal of the Stuttgart-based start-up aucobo. The two-member founding team started work at the beginning of 2016. Their smart systems, such as a smartwatch, make it easy to exchange information between employees and machines. Production processes are thus optimally networked with one another.
Mobile machine operation with smartwatches is already being used at Technologiefabrik Scharnhausen. The solution increases machine availability and reduces unnecessary walking distances for employees in production.

The Austrian software developer Holo-Light focuses on Industry 4.0 solutions with augmented reality devices such as the Microsoft HoloLens. Users of such devices can digitally supplement their real environment with additional information. The HoloLens data glasses are being tested for the first time in a pilot project at the Festo plant in Rohrbach. The technology supports typical, repetitive processes, such as the employee training process.

Festo is currently testing and using solutions for the discontinuation planning of products with the Munich-based start-up Soley, which specializes in innovative smart data analyses. Previously, parts lists for products to be discontinued had to be compiled manually, dependencies identified and effects on assemblies and individual parts derived. It is now possible to make these work steps more efficient. kp

Techfounders Accelerator
Techfounders is a 20-week program in which technology start-ups and partners from industry are brought together with the aim of implementing initial applications in the form of pilot projects.
Website: https://www.techfounders.com/

M.Tech Accelerator
The program is supported by the state capital Stuttgart, bwcon GmbH, TTI GmbH, wizemann space and the Stuttgart Region Economic Development Corporation. After the application phase, 25 start-ups are accepted into the accelerator program throughout the year and supported for 12 months.
Website: http://www.mtechaccelerator.com/

Information on the start-up cooperations
https://www.festo.com/networks

Interested start-ups can contact Festo to implement ideas together as part of a cooperation. Contact by e-mail: [email protected]

Official opening of the M.TECH Accelerator
Tuesday, February 06, 2018 from 3:00 - 5:00 pm at wizemann.space (Wizemann Areal, Quellenstraße 7a, 70376 Stuttgart)