Somnox, a sleep support robot created in the Netherlands, has been declared the winner of the Robotdalen Innovation Award 2017, at a prize ceremony held in Västerås, Sweden.
At the event held yesterday, Danish start-up company Berger Neurorobtics also received the special prize Emerging Technologies Award.
The judges — Narges Asadi, Industrial PhD candidate, Volvo Construction Equipment and Petter Ögren, Associate Professor, CAS, KTH Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm — said, “The Somnox sleep support robot is innovative, addresses an important problem in society, is close to commercialization, and has a plausible scientific support for solving the problem addressed.”
By gathering various data about the sleeping cycle, Somnox simulates human breathing rhythm and assists the user in falling asleep. The pillow-shaped product is controlled by a mobile application and can offer light and sounds, which makes its use easy and appealing for an ordinary user.
By winning the Robotdalen Innovation Award 2017, Somnox receives a sum of SEK 150,000 (approximately €11,000) where SEK 50,000 is prize money and SEK 100,000 is offered to be used to develop the concept in cooperation with Robotdalen.
The internationally oriented competition is directed at innovators, entrepreneurs, graduate and postgraduate students from all over the world who have ideas, concepts or solutions with commercial potential and breakthrough technology, addressing certain fields of robotics and automation.
Peter Stany, Innovation Driver at Robotdalen, added, “This robotized product, which is the first non-medical solution for sleep support, is in line with our focus on new technical solutions for health care and comply with our efforts to develop what we call Technology for Independent Life.”
At the ceremony, the Danish team Berger Neurorobotics was also appointed winners of the special prize Emerging Technologies Award 2017, for its solution regarding advanced machine learning technologies, addressing important issues and needs in the fields of physiology and health. The team receives SEK 75.000, of which 25.000 is prize money and 50.000 is for development.
The first Robotdalen Innovation Award was awarded in 2012. Previous prize winners include Bioservo Technologies, Inerventions, Tinkerbots, Furhat Robotics, Odico Formwork Robotics and CRG. The Emerging Technologies Award was awarded for the first time this year.
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