These startups are applying AI and robotics technologies in a spread of sectors, including agriculture, education, healthcare, IoT, manufacturing and more

Last Friday, 10 AI and robotics startups from Taiwan, Japan, Canada, India, Singapore and Germany battled it out to become the top dog of TAIRA’s first accelerator programme.

TAIRA is a government-led initiative launched this year to fast-track AI and robotic startups, by providing them with resources to develop their products and facilitate early engagement with potential clients amongst the enterprises in the Southern Taiwan Science Park.

In its inaugural run, TAIRA attracted and pre-screened over 100 international and domestic startups, brought in 23 regional AI and robotics finalists and featured 13 multinational corporation partners and mentors at its accelerator programme, including NVIDIA, Microsoft, IBM, TSMC, Delta, Advantech; and more.

LEADERG INC., a Taiwan-based startup providing AI robot solutions, emerged winner of the accelerator’s Final Pitch event. The company is an AI robot design house that developed its own AI educational software called OpenR8. In a nutshell, it enables users with non-technical backgrounds to design and adjust modularized and graphically represented algorithms.

“The idea of OpenR8 was inspired by the needs of society. Industries have been manufacturing robots and machines that reduce the need of manpower drastically. However, we understand the importance of employment and demand of high-level talents to implement and integrate AI into businesses; hence, the development of OpenR8 — to give every individual and company in Taiwan a chance to catch up with the rising tide of AI technology and applications,” said Li, founder of LEADERG INC.

Also read: Taiwan is poised to power the AI economy in the region

Following its win, LEADERG INC. will receive US$100,000 in grants and resources from the Taiwanese government to further develop and market its product to global markets with support from the Southern Taiwan Science Park, which includes access to its prototyping lab, opportunities to work with participating enterprises, accommodations and co-working space use.

The other 9 startups selected into TAIRA program will also receive a US$60,000 in grants and resources. They are:

  • Sea of Clouds: Sea of Clouds provides cloud-based IoT and video analysis technology. Its solutions, including traffic analysis and autonomous visual learning systems, have been applied to the transportation, agriculture and aquaculture sectors in Taiwan.
  • Clef Technology: Clef Technology is an IoT startup that non-invasive acoustic leakage detection technology, with advanced algorithms and acoustics processing techniques to detect for potential leakage in liquid or gas pipelines even before it happens.
  • MJI Inc.: MJI is a startup, headquartered in Japan, developing communication robots under the slogan “More Joyful Innovation”. MJI envisions a future in which robots can be a personal assistant in office, reception desk, hospital, or even a companion in your home.
  • CoolSo: CoolSo connects human hands with machines, using unique muscle activity detection technology applied to a wearable gesture control system, allowing users to control machines intuitively and directly with their hands.
  • GPlus IoT Technology: GPlus is a plug & play IoT platform — offline devices only need to connect to the GPlus platform via its wide range of communication modules to take advantage of ready- made frontend mobile apps and backend cloud-based services.
  • Akubic: Akubic is an IoT solution provider with water monitoring technology. Its sensors can measure and upload multiple water parameters to its cloud-based platform, enabling the monitoring, recording, and analysis of real-time data, providing alerts and enabling decision across aquaculture and water resource management related sectors.
  • GeStream Technology: GeStream Technology is an intelligent robot R&D and manufacturing company. Its products include educational robots, service robots, AI chatbots, industrial robotic arms, and robot control solutions.
  • Utopil: UTOPIL is a smart medication dispenser, assisting the elderly to take the correct medication on their own at home, with additional data analysis and auto alert to provide users a smoother and healthier evergreen lifestyle.
  • Weavair: WeavAir harnesses advanced sensor technology, algorithms and predictive analytics to manage high value HVAC systems, improve indoor air quality, save energy & streamline operations. Our devices measure 7 diagnostic metrics, streaming wirelessly in real time, helping automate and improve the performance of buildings and vehicles.

As Taiwan is set to become Asia’s hotbed for AI development, more government sectors like Southern Taiwan Science Park and programs like TAIRA will be bringing in more synergies and technologies from overseas to facilitate the growth of its domestic AI startups and tech industry.

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