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In the year of European Green Capital, Tallinn invites both Estonian and foreign companies to test their sustainable products and services suitable for a smart city. Estonian companies have already had the opportunity to test their products in Tallinn as part of the Tallinnovation program, but with the new program, this opportunity is now also extended to foreign companies. Today, at Merivälja, an innovation company called 10Lines tested their robot for parking lot marking.

At the address Kesktee 38, a new parking lot was marked by the smart 10Lines robot, which enables road marking to be done more accurately, efficiently, and with a significantly smaller ecological footprint. Parking lot marking is mostly a manual task, with nearly 70% of the time spent on measurements and pre-marking. 10Lines autonomous robots perform the job up to 7 times faster with a much smaller team.

“The technology developed by 10Lines contributes to achieving several goals outlined in Tallinn’s city strategy. Firstly, the robots will undoubtedly contribute to shaping a smart and user-friendly urban environment in the future. Secondly, road markings are a crucial input for autonomous vehicles’ navigation, meaning that 10Lines robots help prepare the urban space for traditional and autonomous vehicles to coexist safely,” said Janno Paas, co-founder and CTO of 10Lines.

The goal of the marking project is to provide primary road markings on various types of road projects in Tallinn, thereby improving the user experience of areas such as pedestrian tracks, parking lots, and other parts of the urban space. “During the project, we are exploring opportunities for using the 10Lines robot in the smart city environment. For example, testing the robot in collaboration with other devices, vehicles, or infrastructure,” added Tarmo Prints, co-founder, and CEO of 10Lines.

Tallinn’s City Enterprise Centre has developed two programs: Tallinnovation, in which 10Lines is testing its robot, and Test in Tallinn.

“Both programs invite entrepreneurs to develop and test their products in cooperation with Tallinn. Tallinnovation is a fund supporting smart city solutions, open only to Tallinn-based companies, and it is a competition-based measure where 100,000 euros are distributed among a varying number of companies each year. This year, we received a record number of applications – 25 in total,” said Mark-Emil Talivere, an innovation expert at the City Enterprise Centre.

In 2022, 10Lines received 30,000 euros for product development from Tallinnovation. The winners for this year will be selected and announced on June 14th.

Test in Tallinn is a Tallinn – European Green Capital 2023 ongoing and open program, which gives foreign companies the opportunity to test their products in Tallinn at their own expense, but gain access to our streets, buildings, and valuable experiences.

The first Test in Tallinn projects received approval from the innovation committee in April. Nine applications were submitted for the evaluation of the first projects, and three of them were chosen to proceed with: Green Gravels OÜ, a foam glass lightweight gravel production company; GScan OÜ, which develops solutions for 3D modeling based on cosmic radiation; and Hydro Engineration OÜ, dealing with hydrogen-based cleaning for internal combustion engines. On June 14th, the next batch of applications will be reviewed, and decisions will be made on which new projects to include in the program.

Photos: European Green Capital Office

More information: Mark-Emil Talivere, innovation expert mark-emil.talivere@tallinnlv.ee