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Argaleo wins national innovation award with solution for COVID-19 crowdedness

Startup Argaleo has won an important innovation competition of the government with its concept "Crowd Safety Manager". The competition asked for an innovative idea to control the crowdedness in the cities. Argaleo's solution is to measure, analyse and predict pedestrians in a digital 3D map of the city in order to improve corona safety. Argaleo wins an budget with which the solution will be rolled out and further developed in three Dutch cities.

In order to prevent corona infections, it is important that the crowdnedness in the city is spread and interactions betweens are minimized. A solution is, for example, one-way traffic. The first step, however, is to measure where it is crowded and where you need to make adjustments. Argaleo's solution is to visualize sensor information in a 3D dashboard to provide the right insights and advice.

Startup in Residence

The competition is part of the StartUp in Residence Intergov innovation program. A program in which governmental bodies, in this case the Ministry of the Interior, the Province of South Holland and the municipality of The Hague, work together with a startup. The jury chose Argaleo's solution from many entries because of the added value for society on the one hand, but also because it is feasible and scalable. It needed to be a solution that every Dutch city can use on the short term. The application does not use personal data and is therefore privacy-proof. Initially, three cities will use the system, but other cities can also apply directly.

Digital Twin

The solution is based on Argaleo's current 3D dashboard, the so-called Digital Twin, in which all kinds of data sources are linked and visualised. The focus of this concept is now on pedestrians. However, expanding to live information on bicycle, car and public transport is a simple step. The plan is therefore also to work together with the three cities towards a complete mobility dashboard that can also be used post-corona. For example at events in the city, if that is allowed again. "The smart linking of existing systems and data in our dashboard will provide new insights that every city can use in the short term in the fight against corona". Jeroen SteenbakkersDirector Argaleo

National innovations

The project is supervised by Future City Foundation in the City Deal 'A smart city, this is how you do it' of the central government's Agenda City programme. In Agenda City, cities, social partners and central government work together to strengthen innovation in Dutch cities. The application of Argaleo is a good example of this.

As a municipality, do you also want to participate in the innovation programme and the pilot?

"Together with three pilot municipalities from the City Deal we are building a tool that is also divisible and scalable to other municipalities. And that is also usable, after the corona era. We will share the new insights gained from this process with the other partners in the City Deal".

 

Jan-Willem Wesselink, programme manager of the Future City Foundation and quartermaster of the City Deal.