In 1929 the Sarolea company produced seventy-five motorcycles a day ‘ from its state-of-the-art factory in Belgium and was one of the largest motorcycle manufacturers in Europe’. However, ‘just thirty-four years later the famous motorcycle company was no more.’ The Second World War had many casualties, Sarolea being one of them! Half a century on, the rights were purchased for this once much-loved Belgian brand by twin brothers from Ghent and ‘a new motorcycling legacy was born’.
Architect Léon van Dievoet on his Sarolea at Blankenberge, 16 July 1934
Fast forward to 2018, Sarolea and Ghent-based ML6 are regarded as experts in machine learning and artificial intelligence. According to their website, the company has achieved a ‘first’ in the motorcycle world. ‘The MANX7, the latest fully-electric model of the vintage motorcycle brand, will come equipped with ML6’s Waizu.’ They say that ‘ While Waizu software was initially developed for a far-reaching optimization in industry processes, it is now being integrated into a motorized vehicle for the first time and aims to squeeze every last drop of autonomy and power to the benefit of the MANX7. Ground-breaking and 100% Belgian. Saroléa also intends to make the technology available to other manufacturers through a future platform.’
Sarolea co-founder Torsten Robbens shakes hands with Nicolas Deruytter, managing director of ML6, his twin brother Bjorn looks on
They add ‘Earlier this year, ML6 developed the predictive control platform Waizu that is entirely geared towards optimization of industry processes. The platform combines ML6‘s longstanding expertise in machine learning for predictive maintenance with pioneering research in the field of reinforcement learning and Google’s latest technological developments in hardware and cloud. This revolutionary software was developed for industry processes and allows companies to optimize numerous processes. Furthermore ‘Saroléa and ML6 joined forces to combine their respective know-how in electric powertrains and AI-driven process controls and applied those to the electric powertrain of the MANX7, Saroléa’s latest model. They use Google’s Edge TPU, a processor that was specifically developed for artificial intelligence, and installed it on the engine itself.’
In conclusion, CEO of Sarolea Bjorn Robbens comments “The potential of this technological application is enormous and reaches far beyond the motorcycle world. That is why Saroléa intends to market their technology in the near future and make it available to the entire automotive sector via a platform. “Buses, trucks, bicycles, automated guided vehicles; we are looking at the bigger picture here. We want to package the technology and know-how we have built up with our partner, ML6, and offer an off-the-shelf solution to other OEM players,” So 2019 looks to be a very exciting time for electric vehicles – read more.
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