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“AI to connect different information systems in transport and port logistics”, Infoport challenge for Opentop’s Business Growth Program

21/01/2024. Opentop continues to recruit startups alongside port logistics challenges for its Business Growth Program, extending its commitment to growing open innovation in a powerful industry.

Infoport is the entity behind this challenge “AI to connect different information systems in transport and port logistics”, to which startups can submit their proposals until March 31, 2024.

We talked about this challenge with Miguel Ángel Portugues, Head of innovation at Infoport.

How was this need identified and why is this challenge important for Infoport?

In Infoport we are specialists in integration and interconnection of systems practically from our beginnings as a company, being one of the basic components of our services. 

We are always looking for ways to innovate and apply the best technologies to facilitate and simplify the interoperability of information systems, in our particular case in the port logistics sector where it is of vital importance to achieve the digitization of processes.

What market opportunities can the solution to this challenge have in the port logistics sector?

Economic operators would be greatly helped by an AI-based solution to automate system integration work. 

The opportunities would be immense if we can enable platforms to interoperate automatically through algorithms or models that can interpret semantics and adapt them to the format expected by each platform.

What kind of startups is this challenge looking for (startup maturity, TRL of the solution, technologies, …)?

We are open to any type of startup that feels qualified to try to provide a solution to the challenge. We think that the current moment is the right time to raise it given the rapid expansion and evolution of artificial intelligence, from expert systems to deep learning, although we are possibly still talking about low maturity levels for this use case.

In this challenge we do not intend to apply a specific technology, but to find the technology that has more possibilities to be applied. For example, right now we are experiencing an explosion in the world of chatbots and conversational interfaces between humans and machines, although in this case we are looking to facilitate interaction between the machines themselves, which does not mean that this technology cannot be applied to this challenge.

Has any attempt been made to solve this challenge before, and how?

We are aware of some previous experience, although we have not been directly involved. 

We think it is better not to try to come up with a universal solution for any platform from the outset, but to focus on specific systems relevant to the port logistics sector, for example communication between operators and Port Community Systems, based on the messages exchanged and the semantic models established, and work with them to achieve error-free communication.

The challenge in detail

The digitalisation of processes and services in the port-logistics sector through the electronic exchange of information requires adaptations and integrations in the information systems of economic operators for each of the existing digital platforms. Economic operators must transform and adapt electronic messages from the format generated or expected by their systems to each of the formats of the different platforms, in order to enable the interconnection and interoperability of their systems and to use the services provided by those platforms. This task generates a significant consumption of development and maintenance resources in systems.

There are projects and initiatives underway to facilitate interoperability between transport services and information systems, but the exponential growth of Artificial Intelligence opens up a wide range of possibilities for new solutions that use this technology, so that the challenge for startups would be to explore new algorithms or methods that allow dynamically to generate error-free, and computationally efficient, integration models that understand the semantics of the different formats and allow interoperability between the information systems that must communicate with each other.

Don’t miss the opportunity and apply to this challenge before March 31st, 2024!