A solution for Quebec winters
Duration: 9m 20s
In this series, PROMPT General Manager Liette Lamonde invites you to discover the men and women behind the technological innovations developed in Quebec.
It now welcomes two innovation partners: Vincent Thomas from CIMMI – Imagerie et Expérience interactive and Jimmy Perron from NSim Technologies, who have developed an innovative solution to optimize snow removal activities for our municipalities.
Collaborations between CCTTs and companies demonstrate the positive impact of academic research on real-world projects, proving that working together is a valuable asset. Discover captivating excerpts from the podcast :
(Liette) Tell us about your project
We are developing a platform for managing public works operations. We computerize the routes taken by operators. So, we’ll put a tablet in the vehicle and tell the operator “here, turn right, raise the scraper, start the hangers, close it”.
There are school zones, and you can’t do U-turns just anywhere. So you can’t turn left in certain snow-clearing operations. There are traffic rules. So it’s very, very complex to set up routes like that. So we thought, yes, it’s a risky project.
To date, no one has managed to do it. Then, when we met CIMMI, through an acquaintance we had, there were resources in place to help us. There were grants in place, which told us: “Well, now might be a good time to explore this avenue, given that we were mitigating the risks to some extent”.
(Liette) We understand how rewarding it can be to collaborate, but we also know that there can be difficulties along the way. What challenges do you face in projects like this?
The main challenges were to enter an unknown field and to understand it better. However, thanks to the grant, we had time to explore several avenues, attack the problem from different angles and find the best solutions. One of the complexities was the number of constraints involved in automatically generating routes. For example, penalties for left-hand turns, or the use of lanes that don’t necessarily require snow clearance, but which can be used to leave a residential area and return further afield.
(Liette) I’m also thinking about the impact it’s going to have. What are they?
What we really want to do is reduce the use of machinery and the time spent on it. We want to reduce costs, we want to improve greenhouse gas emissions, and we want less heavy diesel machinery on the road.
(Liette) I encourage you to explore collaboration opportunities with academic partners, such as CCTTs (Centres collégiaux de transfert de technologie). There are 59 of them in Quebec. Take the time to discover them, because it’s a great way, as Jimmy explained, to de-risk your projects and find funding. We have an ongoing program offering grants to support these initiatives.
