JR East Holds 5th Demo Day of Collaborative Program —— Doppler Lidar's Autonomous Driving Side Support “Metro Weather” Wins

On the 8th, JR East Start UP held the 5th demo day of the incubation / acceleration program "JR EAST STARTUP PROGRAM". This is a program to promote open innovation of JR East and startups. Thirteen of the 154 startups that applied were selected and participated in the program for about half a year, celebrating the demo day of the day.

This time, three proposal themes were set: "Regional co-creation," "Digital co-creation (DX)," and "Earth co-creation (SDGs)." In this article, we will introduce the five companies that won the prize by judging as a result of the pitch on Demo Day.

The following six people served as judges on Demo Day. The proposal was evaluated based on three indicators: "novelty," "business," and "how to utilize the resources of JR East."

(All photos in the text are from the live stream on the day)

[Startup Award] Metro Weather

Supplementary prize: 1 million yen

Metroweather is a startup that develops ultra-compact Doppler lidar. The Doppler lidar is a device that can analyze the wind direction and speed from the measurement by infrared laser light by observing the frequency transition due to the Doppler effect. Unlike anemometers and anemometers, it is often used at airports because it can grasp the wind condition in areas far from the place where it is installed. Metroweather has succeeded in miniaturizing the Doppler lidar based on its experience in developing large radars at Kyoto University. The observation distance is twice that of the competition, and the price is about one-twentieth to one-half that of other companies.

Metroweather proposes that this Doppler lidar can be used to detect obstacles on railroad tracks. In particular, we rely on visual inspection to ensure safety during construction and maintenance in the area adjacent to the business line where safety is of the utmost importance, and to check whether there are any obstacles such as tools on the track after the work is completed. , The introduction of Dopprider can contribute to the efficiency of safety confirmation work. Using a part of the suspended Oshio Line (Tokaido Freight Branch Line), we will verify the observable distance and the size of the object. It is also expected to be applied to home fall detection systems.

[Excellence Award] Kaminashi

Supplementary prize: 500,000 yen

Kaminashi is a platform that allows you to create field management apps for deskless workers without code. It is possible to replace the process, which was mainly managed with paper, with a tablet. Unlike paper, if there is a deviation or violation in the input content, an alert is issued to prompt correction, so the person in charge at the site can reduce work mistakes even without an administrator. Administrators no longer need to look at the paper and press the stamp, complete the confirmation with just 3 clicks per task, and save the task of posting to a spreadsheet for listing.

JR East has more than 10,000 vehicles nationwide, and more than 1,000 employees are engaged in maintenance work per vehicle factory. In the maintenance work, the flow of removing parts, repairing, recording on the form, and returning to the original state is taken, but before, JR East tried to digitize the form, but it ended in failure. This is because there are 600 processes in one vehicle, and if one of the front-end processes is delayed, multiple back-end processes are forced to be rescheduled. As a result, many buffers were set up in advance in the plan, which led to an increase in overtime. We aim to correct these problems by introducing Kaminashi. ..

[Excellence Award] 207

Supplementary prize: 500,000 yen

Solving the Last One Mile issue in logistics with two services 207. "TODOCU Supporter" supports the work efficiency of the luggage delivery staff of 200,000 individual business owners nationwide. Automatically digitize with AI-OCR and operators by simply scanning different formats of delivery slips from any company. Check the time spent at home by inquiring about the optimal delivery route and recipients in advance, reduce redelivery, and improve delivery efficiency by 90%. In addition, we provide a "skimmer flight" that allows even gig workers to deliver packages. By increasing the number of delivery bases, it will lead to further improvement of delivery efficiency.

Although the railway company's income dropped sharply due to the Korona-ka and station usage recovered to 70-80%, retail food and drink at station Naka remained at about 60% compared to FY2019. In 207, a delivery base will be set up in the station, and the last mile delivery by the gig worker will improve the efficiency by Shinkansen delivery and joint delivery of parcel delivery, and deliver the station Naka products in the original state. Already, at Shinagawa Station, we have succeeded in test sales and delivery of cakes from the station Naka facility and four fresh fish landed in Niigata in the morning to the Takanawa area. Utilizing JR East Logistics' Shinagawa base, he plans to carry out a full-scale PoC from January 15th to February 28th, and has set 2,500 deliveries as his KPI.

[Judge's Special Award] Meetu

Supplementary prize: 100,000 yen

Meetu develops and provides a platform for running a fan community online. Many entertainment industries have shifted online due to the Korona-ka, but since payment fees are generally 30% and platform fees are about 50%, the revenue that fans pay for membership fees and participation fees will reach the community owners. It will be small. Meetu does not collect platform fees, and because it is online, payment fees can be kept to 5%, and much of the revenue can be returned to community owners.

With JR East, we started the "Taketetsu Community" on November 10th. After offering a community-only photo session for 1,000 yen per month, the number of members reached 539 and the number of paid members reached 224 within 13 days of opening. By utilizing the side business approval system within the JR East Group, it has become possible for various people within the company to manage the community. Since the photo session held by this community is his official JR East, it also helps to raise safety awareness in railway photography. Next time, he will open a local line community and publish his NFT for each line.

[Judge's Special Award] ARK

Supplementary prize: 100,000 yen

To solve the crisis of protein sources caused by food problems and environmental problems, and the crisis of the marine environment, ARK is developing small aquaculture IoT hardware. Since it requires only 9.99 square meters and the space for one parking lot, there is no need to apply based on the Building Law, and it can be easily installed and moved. In addition, since it operates on renewable energy powered by solar cells, it can be operated even in places where there is no power supply equipment, and there are few restrictions on the location. Anyone can cultivate with automation by IoT. This hardware will be subscribed to along with fry, water, bait and management apps.

In line with the company's management vision of enriching rural areas, JR East proposes local production for local consumption of marine products using paid railway facilities. Recently, his IoT hardware will be installed at an unmanned station in the Hamadori district of Fukushima prefecture on the Joban line, which has been fully opened over nine years, and a demonstration experiment will be conducted. In the future, fishermen want to use it as a means to generate stable aquaculture profits on land, and it is envisioned that marine products cultivated at unmanned stations will be consumed locally. There are 600 unmanned stations within the JR East jurisdiction, and the plan is to consider horizontal expansion to other regions after seeing the results of the demonstration experiment and regional cooperation in Fukushima.

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