2024-07-16 06:39:12
A month later, on July 2-6, the startup’s technology and products received huge interest and support from industry leaders at the world’s largest systems engineering conference in Dublin. The company’s stand and announcement attracted conference participants no less than industry giants IBM, Siemens and other global companies.
We were already used to hearing the name of another Lithuanian company – Kongsberg NanoAvionics UAB, which created the first Lithuanian space satellites, and now we see another success story. Kongsberg NanoAvionics, now a Norwegian capital company, was founded in 2014. and supplied small satellite components to partners in Europe and the USA. Although Sensmetry also has a branch in Sweden, it remains a Lithuanian company.
He himself created a company working in space
In 2019, Juozas Vaicenavičius and associates founded the second largest Lithuanian company developing unique software for space satellites. At that time, Juoz was not yet thirty. After completing his BA and MA in mathematics at the University of Oxford, he entered the PhD program at Uppsala University and defended his doctoral thesis in 2017.
“After studying mathematics at Uppsala University, I worked in a Swedish company, where I was responsible for automated driving. automated driving) uncertainty assessment and behavior prediction. As a young scientist, I was concerned about whether it is possible to significantly improve the management of uncertainties, whether it is possible to significantly improve the safety and reliability of cars and other systems,” says Juozas.
The desire to live and work in Lithuania prompted J. Vaicenavičius to look around at what is being developed here in the area of concern. “True, I met Steve Keen before that. He was a Cambridge graduate and I was an Oxford graduate, both of us specializing in closely related areas of mathematical modeling. Styvas had already worked with the largest car manufacturers for a couple of decades, and our views on the future of more advanced robotic systems were very similar.” At that time, neither Juozas nor Styvas could find a company in Lithuania where they could realize their knowledge and ideas, so they founded their own.
It is interesting that the startup, which started its activities five years ago without any external investments or loans, has always worked only profitably and has already reached 2 million in 2022. euro sales. Unique engineering software solutions created for the company’s clients from the USA and Europe helped to raise funds and employ thirty exceptionally talented people. Most of the company’s employees were educated at the best universities in the world and Europe: Cambridge, Oxford, ETH Zurich, Uppsala, Edinburgh, Manchester or Delft. Most of them work in Vilnius, and 4 employees are located in Uppsala. The average salary in the company is 5,000 euros.
The company’s teams are not intimidated by competition with global market participants. “The amount of capital does not always determine successful innovation. More often, the opposite is true: the more capital, the less innovation. Big companies are not always leaders in innovation. However, it is more difficult for small companies to find their way into global markets. We managed to do it quite early,” shares the experience of another employee of the company, Doctor of Mathematical Logic Rimantas Vaicenavičius.
First – solutions for cars, then – satellites
Like any business, the company has grown, overcome challenges, and evolved rapidly. Initially, the company worked with manufacturers developing the latest automated driving systems.
Nowadays, the latest cars are controlled by computers (the computer part of the car with software can cost more than all its other parts – engine, wheels, body, etc.). For representatives of the automobile industry, their reliability and safety are particularly important. Therefore, software was needed that could predict uncertainties and record the smallest malfunctions of engineering systems. For example, how should the car’s systems work in order to automatically react to unexpected, unforeseen situations or obstacles while driving at a speed of 130 km per hour.
“The problem was that information chaos prevailed in the autonomous engineering industry, everything was a mess,” observes Juozas Vaicenavičius.
“We turned to space very naturally, gradually. Both cars and space satellites are controlled by computers. Only if we can think of computer-driven cars as robots on the ground, then satellites are robots in orbit, above the earth. Space engineering is a field that requires extreme precision and reliability – after all, you can’t send an engineer into orbit to fix something in the satellite, Juozas says. – Therefore, reliability engineering services are in high demand in the space industry. If the satellite failed prematurely, the entire complex flight system would be lost. No one wants that, especially since some problems can be easily fixed in advance.”
J. Vaicenavičius is a very reserved person, but this time he is convinced that the company managed to create the best software product in the world. “First of all, because the SysIDE program we created is able to combine the most modern system engineering modeling language. Other companies have not yet done so. Therefore, the European Space Agency drew attention to this. Satellite manufacturers are satisfied – with our software product, they have the opportunity to model their space systems, test them, and therefore identify potential problems and solve them right here on earth.”
In order to introduce Lithuanian, European and US experts working in the field of space to the possibilities of their program, the company’s team also created a free open source version of its product, which has already been installed by more than 2,000 users in leading space, automotive and other companies and institutions around the world.
How do you ensure the safe flight of a space satellite?
A satellite is a robot in space that communicates with computer systems on Earth and has to perform its mission smoothly, that is, its mission should take place without the slightest disruption. On the other hand, the technical parts of the satellite – cameras, radars – are aging. Therefore, the control systems on the ground must record and predict all minor changes.
The company’s team created a digital twin (eng. digital twin), which collects information about all engineering systems of the satellite down to the smallest details. A digital twin allows not only to save information, but also to supplement or correct it. Through an innovative program created, the computers controlling the satellite can be constantly updated. In this way, the security and reliability bar is raised very high.
Complex space systems are further complicated by the fact that satellite traffic in space, as on earth, is increasing every year. “Of course, there is still much more space in space, but satellites will inevitably be equipped with the same autonomous systems as in modern cars, capable of reacting to traffic obstacles,” J. Vaicenavičius observes.
Prospects of the Lithuanian space industry
According to experts, the global space industry will jump to the top in the next 10 years. A report prepared by the McKinsey company in April of this year predicts that the volume of this industry will increase from the current 600 billion by 2035. up to 1.8 trillion US dollars. Several Lithuanian companies are already full-fledged participants in the space industry, their names are known both in the European and US markets, the prospects for the application of their products are really great and constantly growing.
Lithuania is pursuing the ambitious goal of becoming a space state, although it sometimes lacks qualified people and the necessary funding. All the leading countries support the space industry: as much as three quarters of the demand for the space industry is determined by the governments of the countries (after all, a space satellite is unaffordable for an ordinary person). Therefore, the space industry is strong in those countries with transparent, efficient and generous governments for the space industry.
2024-07-16 06:39:12