BMDV Digital Transport & Mobility Challenge

The German Federal Ministry of Digital and Transport (BMDV) is looking for solutions that use Copernicus data to solve major challenges faced by transport systems today.

The Finalists 2022

Discover the TOP 3 submissions to the BMDV Digital Transport & Mobility Challenge below. Please note, that finalists are presented in an alphabetically order of their submission title.

Adapting Infrastructure Maintenance to Climate Change

Team: Daniel Katz, Frédéric Chambeau, Charles Nguyen, Marion Echevard, Marc Lelarge

eOnsight uses satellite data to monitor infrastructures and determine their health, predict evolutions, generate maintenance alerts, and prioritise the planning of onsite visits.
This helps to optimise the maintenance of infrastructure and build its resilience in the context of climate change.
The eOnsight platform aggregates various data sources on top of Copernicus data using cloud computing technologies and displays the resulting visualisations directly to users via a web-based dashboard. Special attention is given to the user experience – a key differentiator – based on seamless integration into operators’ existing IT systems.
In the future, the service will offer a digital health logbook to evolve into a full “digital twin” for bridges – that is, a digital model that evolves virtually with the events impacting a given bridge in real life.

DriveClean – Using EO to Reduce the Local Emissions of Combustion Engines

Team: Hartmut Runge, Robert Klarner, Dr Frank Baier, Dr Pieter Valks

DriveClean is a data-driven solution for reducing the emission footprint of cars and trucks. It connects environmental route-related data with the engine control intelligence of vehicles. Air quality maps derived from Copernicus satellites and other sources show the exact road sections on which a vehicle will switch to its emission-reduced mode. As soon as the vehicle passes an air pollution hot spot, it significantly reduces its exhaust. DriveClean allows the combustion engine’s controller unit to lower its emissions and the concentration of the most critical pollutant types.
The biggest leverage lies in switching from fossil fuels to low-emission hydrogen, synthetic fuels or organic waste diesel, which are available in limited amounts. An air-quality digital twin with CAMS and Sentinel-5P as its key sources will make cars fit for the future.

LAIA

Team: Jonatan Domenech, Andrea Mora, Dulguun Gandbold, Pascal Memmesheimer

LAIA is a global humanitarian-aid application that uses Sentinel satellite data to observe war-torn areas and provide information on dangerous areas, safe corridors, and routes to food and supplies. The platform runs on predictive machine-learning algorithms that detect potable water, fires, smoke, and infrastructural destruction over time. It also uses in-situ measurements and user feedback to further improve and validate its results.

Want to know the winner of this year`s challenge?
Then join the Space Awards @ NSE – New Space Economy Expoforum 2022 in Rome on 1 December.

The Challenge 2022

Transport and mobility need to become future-proof, intelligent and sustainable. We are looking for:

innovative ideas to make traffic safer for everyone (e.g. traffic management, autonomous driving, barrier-free routing)
creative solutions for sustainable mobility (e.g. sharing solutions, disruption management, apps to combine different modes of transport),
climate-friendly freight and logistic solutions (e.g. optimised traffic routes, monitoring and reduction of emissions),
new concepts to monitor transport infrastructure (e.g. monitoring of bridges, roads and tracks, early warning systems).

Do you have more ideas? Don’t hesitate to submit them!

Your submitted solutions can target any mode of transportation to solve challenges at a local, national or international level. The concepts should demonstrate the added value of Copernicus data and services. Participants are encouraged to use Copernicus data along with additional data sources such as traffic information, or other mobility-related data. With the mCLOUD, the BMDV provides an access point to open data in the field of transportation in Germany.

Meet some of our previous Copernicus Masters BMDV Challenge Winners and learn about their innovative solutions (German video).

Rewards 2022

Cash Prize

The winner will receive a cash prize worth EUR 5,000.

Cloud computing

6 months access to the cloud computing platform CODE-DE and advanced training. Winners are invited to upload and publish their algorithms on CODE-DE.

Network

Access to DLR business networks

Event

Attendance and presentation at a transport related event of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) (if eligible).

ESA BIC Incubation

The winner will be able to apply for admission to an ESA BIC based in Germany. Your application will be consulted by the ESA BIC Bavaria. Upon successful approval the winner is eligible for EUR 50,000 incentive funding by ESA.

Additional Reward for the Overall Winner 2022

Cash Prize

EUR 10,000 if your concept gets selected as Copernicus Masters 2022 Overall Winner

Evaluation Criteria 2022

Submissions to the BMDV Digital Transport Challenge will be evaluated against the following criteria:

Innovation

Does the solution present a novel/new approach to solving transport challenges?

Societal benefits

Does the solution show significant value for today’s transport systems, society and/or the environment?

Technical Feasibility

Does the solution apply Copernicus data to provide value-added services to end-users?

Commercial Viability

Does the solution have real market potential?

About the German Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV)

This challenge has been issued by the German Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV) with support from the DLR Space Agency. Together with its executive agencies, the BMDV addresses issues related to transport and mobility, digital matters and spatial development in Germany. The BMDV is responsible for German participation in the Copernicus programme design along with the European Commission and other European players. It consolidates national interests and coordinates national accompanying measures.

Acting on behalf of the Federal Government, DLR Space Agency designs and implements Germany’s Space Programme, which integrates all German space activities on the national and European level. These activities include Germany’s national Space Programme and Germany’s contributions to the European Space Agency (ESA) as well as the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT). In addition, the DLR Space Agency shapes and monitors the Space topic within the European Framework Programme for Research and Innovation.