Yokogawa acquires Danish startup Grazper Technologies, an AI specialist for image analysis
Yokogawa Electric Corporation has announced that, it completed the acquisition of all shares in Grazper Technologies ApS (Grazper), based in Denmark, as mutually awake. Grazper develops advanced artificial intelligence (AI) technologies for image analysis and Yokogawa aims to leverage these technologies in its various existing businesses and develop new industrial AI solutions.
Recent advances in deep learning and related technologies have enabled the practical application of AI in the industry, and it is expected that, as the accuracy of image identification and data prediction continues to improve, the use of AI Will expand further. In particular, by improving the accuracy of recognition of moving images, it becomes possible to observe the environment and the general context of the whole image, opening new applications in the field of security and image analysis and robot operations in the production lines.
Grazper is a venture capital founded in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2015 and subsequently financed by the Danish venture capital Promentum Equity Partners. It has advanced AI-based technologies for image analysis, and a strong point is a solution that allows AI software to run efficiently in an array of field programmable ports (FPGA *), a type of integrated circuit. The software employs image recognition methodologies that have been theorised using algorithms and 3D modeling and can be operated with limited computational resources.
Yokogawa is developing and providing AI-based solutions for factories and public infrastructure projects. The acquisition of Grazper’s technology will allow the company to provide solutions that use AI for image analysis, such as capturing image information for robots, detecting abnormalities in plants and monitoring security using cameras. As a first step, Yokogawa’s subsidiary, amnimo Inc., will incorporate Grazper’s FPGA IP core into its LTE Edge Gateway industrial gateway, which is currently under development. This will enable solutions for smart city projects and security applications for airports and railways.
As part of Yokogawa’s medium-term business plan, Transformation 2020, the company is working with customers on digital transformation initiatives that use technologies such as AI and IoT. With this acquisition and the addition of new technologies, Yokogawa will create new value by co-innovating with customers.
* A device that allows immediate rewriting of the logic circuit design in the hardware language.
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