Innovation associate for future automatic mobile machining

2026-07-22

Picum offers a highly accurate mobile machining platform. Picum reverses the principle “the workpiece comes to the machine”. Our system comes to the workpiece. This is especially beneficial for large components, which are difficult to transport and don’t fit into most machining centres. Our customer requests are often repair and modification tasks. These tasks occur when the components are already at the usage site and not at the production site. In this case, a mobile system is highly beneficial, because transportation of the heavy work piece can be avoided. The platform can perform additive manufacturing with a welding process and metal cutting with a milling process. The system can operate automatically in its working space. However, an operator is currently needed for positioning the machine correctly in respect to the workpiece. The usability of our system would be highly increased if it can move automatically to the workpiece and if it can position itself correctly. This way set up times would be reduced. Furthermore, the operation of our system would be simplified. A technician with one week of training could operate the machine instead of a specialised expert. The positioning of the system follows always the same steps. An autonomous positioning system is therefore a great step forward. However, every repair or modification job is different in its details. For this reason, we need a highly sophisticated automation concept which goes beyond the state of the art. Picum is currently missing the capacities in human resources to develop and implement such an automation concept. As a young start-up and a small SME, Picum is currently not competitive on the German labour marked for specialists who are able to develop such an automatization. The “INNOSUP-02-2019-2020: European SME innovation Associate – pilot” programme is a great opportunity to resolve this problem.

Germany

2026-03-01