Slingshot Simulations - the Digital Twin pioneers

by Startacus Admin

The Leeds-based startup Slingshot Simulations that's on a mission to innovate by providing Simulation-as-a-Service and large scale Digital Twins

When changes need to be made to logistics, be it on a city-wide scale or something more localised, simulations are run to see what the various choices could end up looking like. Usually these simulations are a simple case of crunching numbers, and people thinking, ‘Well, this might happen, and people might do that’, and then the decisions are made, and that’s when everyone realises the things they didn’t think of. But, as is becoming the case more and more, we can turn to artificial intelligence to help with this.

University of Leeds spin-out Slingshot Simulations is one tech startup aiming to provide simulations as a service. Their platform creates a digital copy of a location, be it a warehouse, factory, or entire town, and then uses predictive analysis to determine all of the possible outcomes of the different changes that are being proposed, using data from multiple sources including buildings, traffic, people’s devices, and mapping data from NASA and ESA satellites, and applying it to multiple objectives. 

One simple example given by the startup revolves around a warehouse, both improving the way workers traverse the warehouse itself, and determining the best possible route to deliver from the warehouse to the customer, based on numerous factors.

Recently, Slingshot Simulations secured funding of £46,000 from Innovate UK and the Geospatial Commission, and launched a ‘Yorkshire Geospatial Twin partnership’ along with the councils of Leeds, York, and Hull, as well as Arup and the BT Group. 

This project is using the startup’s ‘digital twin’ simulation for these cities for city planners to plan and test changes within a 3D copy of the cities to improve various aspects of the cities, including congestion and pollution. A more pressing issue for some, given Brexit, is delays at the port of Hull, which Slingshot will also be able to help run simulations to improve logistics and avoid problems.

We think that such a scalable solution will become widely used, and we will be hearing the name Slingshot Simulations more often in the near future.

It's fantastic to see Innovate UK continuing to support innovative startups like this. Untangle and Boop are just two of the startups that we've previously featured which have been able to avail of similar funding to help build and develop their startups. 

 

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Published on: 9th March 2021