In 1969, for the first time in history, a non-military event commanded the scientific acumen of millions of people when Apollo 11 took the first men safely to the moon and back. Saturn V, the most powerful rocket ever built, launched this spacecraft. It was designed and developed under one of the greatest space architects and a pioneer of rocket technology, Dr. Wernher von Braun. With more than four decades of his life dedicated to professional scientific enquiry and progress, he developed several successful space vehicles and his team became the core members of NASA. After his death in 1977, his legacy marked by many contributions, many accolades and strong passion for scientific innovation, progress and entrepreneurship inspires countless today. In many ways, it also set the bar very high for the future generations to pick up where he left off.
This high standard for real-world innovation was adopted by the Wernher Von Braun Labs for Advanced Research or Von Braun Labs(VBL) in its endeavor to provide research, development and innovation services to business and government agencies. It was inspired by Dr. Wernher Braun’s ‘lean innovation’ approach to effectively produce scientific innovations. Mr. Dario Sassi Thober, CEO and founder, says that Dr. Wernheris VBL’s guiding light and the model used to offer new horizons to customers and partners. It was founded in 1997 in Campinas, Brazil as a private and non-profit organization focused on business intelligence, robotics and production of semiconductors, firmware, hardware and software for entities in healthcare, supply chain, automation, retail, manufacturing, transportation, etc. VBL is recognized for its capacity to successfully deliver highly specialized and complete solutions. It has helped many national and international level operations bridge private and government activities to realize collaborative technology solutions. Mr. Dario explains that his team is continually improving markets and has a systemic approach for modern projects.
Mr. Dario says, “VBL made a choice early in its story to be as independent as possible from other institutions, private or public. Being on your own as a R&D contractor pushes you to innovate in offering value well beyond you have asked for.” He explains that their early initiatives to invest heavily in R&D, to grow independently and to work as a R&D contractor account for their immense capability to innovate. These three early decisions have transformed the structure of their organization making it a distinguished presence in the scientific community. Although successful in many respects, they have faced challenges at every step of their journey.Its stride into the intelligent transportation services (ITS) space began with a dilemma concerning its very inception. Despite its risks, VBL ventured to bring its rich possibilities to fruition.
When government agencies reached out to this research institute for its services, many of them were in the dark about applying technology to enable necessities.VBL was ready to offer help.In 2011, it took up responsibility to fully design, implement and run a large-scale implementation of a secure 915MHz tolling system in the state of Sao Paulo. It helped support and integrate the systems of more than 50 companies and government bodies. With this, it demonstrated the first practical application of this technology in Brazil. It’s passive secure AVI tag, an ultra-high frequency tag providing high-speed performance with AES security,used by 1,600 automated tolling plazas is being expanded nation-wide. This solution is operational since 2014 and started being mass-produced in mid-2015 for millions of vehicles, accounting for billions of AETC transactions since. New versions of this solution are now being announced for AETC, EVR and AVI for worldwide implementation.
VBL was also a chief coordinator to the ‘Brazil-ID’ project to identify, track and authenticate products marketed in Brazil.VBL also formed the One Stop Secure RFID Alliance with experts namely SilTerra Malaysia, CISC Semiconductors and Xminnov to deliver more valuable solutions with less investment.Its other projects have involved several solutions in the Industry 4.0 segment like Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV), automatic inspections and Cloud Computing for operations and BI management.
VBL’s core expertise spans the design and development of semiconductors, the design and implementation of software, middleware and firmware, creating smart algorithms, the design and development of electronic products, optimizing manufacturing operations and vital services like consultancy, training and support. It also specializes in integrated circuit design and development, implementing the latest technologies to improve business, automation, data science, big data and internet of things. As Mr. Dario says, “We focus on developing high-tech solutions that go on to be a basis for multiple applications”, their solutions are designed to produce greater value for a variety of industries.
Today, VBL is a unique science and research facility capable of translating concepts from the paper to the real-world.And its vision stretches further into the future. Mr. Dariosays, “We are launching a new solution that expands interoperability to several platforms, including mobile phones, all connected to a blockchain-like system to make ITS deeply present in all indoors and outdoors operations under one language.”He elaborates that VBL will establish a comprehensive business to help this solution integrate players in the supply chain.It will also be a ‘solid working-horse’ for the industry to realize lean logistics and will be central for managing the life of its information.
VBL is a reference globally as it solves the dire need for innovation. VBL fosters synergy among its clients and their customers by catalyzing problem-solving, performance and growth. It’s widely recognized for its applied science offerings forging project success through testing each idea’s feasibility, step by step, to bring its real-world potential to life. This is how VBL indoctrinates Dr. Wernher’s ‘lean innovation’.
Mr. Dario says that customers always trust them to design, test and solve its needs from start to finish and create value for them. He says, “Due to our approach and experience, customers tend to look for our services when they have what it seems an insurmountable problem or want to create a new business department, not just a specific thing.” A few noteworthy customers includeFleetcor, ConectCar, CCR, Epson, Vydence Medical, Dell, and the State of Sao Paulo.
In conclusion, Mr. Dario shares future plans, “VBL is expanding relationships with for-profit companies that seek not only services, but a comprehensive innovation environment.” VBL will work to realize a larger environment to facilitate innovation via future business establishments. He sums it up, “We believe that idea and humbly try to expand it, making sure we help our customers with very, very short project runs that at each cycle provide clear business view in real operations right from the start. In this direction our industry partners are key to orchestrate it.”
