With an eye on combined heat and power generation

With a degree in Computer Engineering from the UPV and specialising in Systems Engineering, Automation and Industrial Computing (ESAII), it can be said that Ander Treviño, co-founder of Vi4Crane, is a pioneer in certain fields related to Vision and Artificial Intelligence. Terms with which we are familiar today but which were not commonplace at the beginning of the century.

His first foray into the world of industrial automation came in 2008 with Fatronik (currently in Tecnalia), when he joined the start-up Roboconcept. According to Ander Treviño, "it was an ambitious project", where the main objective was to automate processes using the Adept robot (currently Omron) Quattro (Fatronik patent), focused on the food sector. The mission was to design and manufacture production lines based on robotics and machine vision, such as food sorting, grading or packaging machines.

"Little by little we acquired knowledge in the application of Artificial Vision to industrial processes" which, in 2013, led him to combine his activity at Roboconcept with freelance work, offering services related to Artificial Vision and Artificial Intelligence to companies in the industrial sector, through innovation in their products or processes. During this period, Ander had the opportunity to meet, work and learn from many companies that motivated the approach of different projects and opportunities. Among them, "Vi4Crane was the one that caught my interest", partly because it was a sector with great projection, with low-tech processes and few companies specialising in them. But, fundamentally, because of the extensive knowledge of the sector and the market that its project partners had.

Vi4Crane was created in 2015 to provide technological solutions for bulk material handling processes in the energy cogeneration and steel sectors, among others. The agreement with a waste management plant of the Urbaser group to validate the technology bore fruit in 2020, and they currently have two projects underway and two more in the pipeline.

As promoter, partner and CTO of the company, Ander´s job is the technical management and development of solutions and technologies to monitor bulk material handling processes. The challenge: "to be a benchmark in the energy cogeneration sector".

Author: Vicky López