The Cologne-based startup dataMatters, a spin-off of RWTH Aachen University, has introduced urbanOS, which it claims is the world’s first operating system for Smart Cities. This municipal operating system functions similarly to computer or smartphone operating systems but is optimized for the “smartification” of urban infrastructure, ranging from traffic management and waste disposal to energy supply and public safety. According to the company, the “digital town hall” is highly scalable – meeting the needs of cities, districts, and municipalities, from small towns to mid-sized cities and even large metropolitan areas.
Similar to modern smartphone operating systems like iOS for the iPhone, urbanOS is equipped with an app store. Municipal utilities and private companies can offer their services in the urbanOS app store, allowing service providers to access them for a fee.
urbanCockpit: A Glimpse into the Future
The new municipal operating system is based on a multi-layered model: sensors, municipal data space, artificial intelligence (AI), data-driven decision-making, and optimized services for both citizens and local governments. Dr. Daniel Trauth, founder and CEO of dataMatters GmbH, explained the principle: “A wide range of sensors captures what’s happening in the city. This information is transferred to a municipal data space, where it is processed using AI. The results are displayed in an urbanCockpit, allowing decision-makers to gain a real-time overview of what’s actually happening in their city, similar to a pilot steering an aircraft.”
The key feature: The AI even looks into the future, so the urbanCockpit not only displays the current situation but also provides a detailed forecast of future conditions. “This gives municipalities an unprecedented factual basis for urban decision-making,” said Dr. Daniel Trauth, highlighting a major advantage of the new operating system for Smart Cities. He gave an example: “Cameras in buses and trains can precisely capture how many seats and standing spots are occupied at different times on various lines. Based on this data, the AI can generate recommendations to optimize public transportation, factoring in events like festivals, football games, or cultural events. The result is greater public transportation acceptance among citizens, more targeted staffing, and reductions in costs and environmental impact.”
First Operating System with Federated AI
According to research by dataMatters, urbanOS is the world’s first operating system to integrate a Federated AI (Federated Learning) from the outset. Federated Machine Learning means that an AI model is trained across numerous devices without centralizing sensitive data.
Another groundbreaking feature: In addition to Federated Learning, urbanOS consistently relies on so-called Edge Computing. This means that all data is cleaned of any personal references at the moment of collection. For example, cameras that count pedestrians, cyclists, and vehicles to optimize traffic flow delete all faces and license plates on-site. No information is transmitted to the municipal data space that could directly or indirectly lead to identifying individuals.
“Data anonymization at the point of collection” through the combination of Federated AI and Edge Computing is what dataMatters calls this new paradigm of conceptually integrated data protection. “Municipalities want a Smart City, but not a surveillance city,” explained Dr. Daniel Trauth, CEO of dataMatters. “Therefore, protecting citizens’ sensitive data is of the utmost priority.” It follows almost naturally that all data is processed exclusively in data centers located in Germany and subject only to German law. No data is transferred to foreign data clouds—an important consideration given the patchy data protection in countries like the USA, where many common cloud providers are based. “The much-demanded autonomy in digitalization is fully ensured at the municipal level with urbanOS,” assured Dr. Daniel Trauth.
Artificial Intelligence from the Smart Power Plant
The type of Artificial Intelligence used within urbanOS can be freely chosen by each municipality or city. “We can integrate any Large Language Model,” said Dr. Daniel Trauth, highlighting the flexibility. It is also up to the municipal authorities—such as the mayor or district commissioner—whether the AI should be operated in a local data center or sourced externally through a cloud service. The same applies to the data space where all municipal information converges to be ready for AI analysis. “If needed, we provide both the data space and Artificial Intelligence as a complete package,” said Dr. Daniel Trauth. “In this case, the municipality receives the full functionality, including AI analysis, from us, just like from a Smart Power Plant.” Alternatively, the municipality can choose to operate the data space and AI system independently and only use dataMatters’ operating system for “smartification.”
According to dataMatters, urbanOS already supports all common AI models and IT systems, allowing them to be seamlessly integrated into the municipal operating system. Technically, this is achieved through an “Application Programming Interface” (API) that encompasses all standard market interfaces. “We support countless connectors to sensors, wireless networks, database systems, as well as third-party software and OpenData portals,” stated Dr. Daniel Trauth. He also assured, “Any special requests from a municipality or even a state will be gladly fulfilled by us as part of a Smart City project.”
For the wireless connectivity of sensors, dataMatters relies on “Long Range Wide Area Networks” (LoRaWAN). These networks enable data transmission over long distances with minimal energy consumption. The LoRa radio standard was specifically developed for the “Internet of Things” (IoT), which includes the various sensors used in Smart Cities. It is estimated that well over ten billion IoT devices are currently in use worldwide.
Already Deployed in Real-World Projects
Dr. Daniel Trauth emphasized that “urbanOS was developed in collaboration with several cities and municipalities as part of concrete projects, not created in isolation.” He provided examples: In the city of Dormagen, located between Cologne and Duesseldorf, numerous streetlights are equipped with sensor boxes placed about three meters above the ground. The sensors inside measure environmental factors such as humidity, CO2 levels, particulate matter, and noise, while also counting pedestrians, cyclists, and vehicles passing by. The city’s sensor network helps identify areas with high traffic congestion, provides retailers and restaurateurs with valuable insights into customer flows, and assists in more targeted planning and evaluation of city events. Through “intelligent” parking management, it is possible to balance the goal of creating car-free zones with the desire of local businesses to attract customers, preventing further revenue loss to online shopping. Additionally, the system identifies areas with excessive heat exposure, allowing the city to protect the population during summer with shading measures to combat the effects of global warming. All data flows into the municipal data center, which operates with urbanOS.
The city of Huerth, located near Cologne, has also optimized waste disposal using urbanOS. Public waste bins have been equipped with ultrasonic sensors that measure the fill level and transmit the data wirelessly to the Smart City operating system. There, artificial intelligence determines the most efficient route for the garbage trucks to empty the bins. By dynamically adjusting the previously fixed route, unnecessary trips are avoided, saving about 20% in costs and reducing CO2 emissions by approximately 30%, while ensuring that the waste bins do not overflow. “Cost savings, reduced environmental impact, and better citizen service are the typical features of a Smart City,” said Dr. Daniel Trauth.
In the Coesfeld district in the Muensterland region, which includes eleven cities and municipalities with a quarter of a million inhabitants, several use cases are currently in the pilot phase. These include: continuous monitoring of water quality in lakes and rivers, air quality monitoring (particulate matter, CO2, temperature), boosting retail through real-time information on pedestrian flows, energy and resource monitoring (electricity, gas, water), parking space management (directing traffic to available parking spots/garages), litter prevention, and automatic irrigation of trees and green areas to prevent drought stress.
According to dataMatters, urbanOS is currently in an early launch phase in over 20 cities, not only in Germany but also in Belgium, France, and the Netherlands. “Most municipalities understandably prefer to go public only once the projects are significantly more advanced,” said Dr. Daniel Trauth. In the future, dataMatters will provide updates on the expansion of the new operating system for Smart Cities on the website www.urbanos.datamatters.io. The site will also feature first smart applications in the style of a video game (“Smart City Heroes”) with “Data Dan” as the main character.
More than Just Connecting Public Administration
Dr. Daniel Trauth distinguished urbanOS from the simple computer networking in public administration, which is already done with conventional operating systems like Windows or Linux. “Smartification is not just about administrative processes; it’s about connecting to the real world where citizens are living their daily lives.”
The CEO of dataMatters referenced estimates suggesting that the average citizen in Germany interacts with a government office three to ten times per year. “However, on a daily basis, they’re out on the streets, waste collection occurs several times a week, and, ideally, energy supply runs smoothly without interruptions,” Dr. Daniel Trauth explained, emphasizing that the “smartification” of municipalities extends far beyond just public administration.
Density in Urban Areas Drives Smart Cities
Dr. Daniel Trauth highlighted the urgency of making our cities “smarter” with the help of statistics. According to the United Nations, for the first time in human history, more people have lived in urban areas than in rural areas since 2008. It is estimated that by 2030, over 60 percent of the world’s population will live in cities, and by 2050, this will rise to about two-thirds. “The challenges associated with this urban concentration are immense and can only be addressed through Smart Cities,” explained the CEO of dataMatters, emphasizing why the development of an operating system specifically optimized for urban environments was long overdue.
Today, cities account for about 70 percent of global energy consumption, despite occupying only five percent of the Earth’s landmass. This is accompanied by a steadily growing urban demand for water, land, building materials, local services, air quality management, and waste management. Cities are under constant pressure to offer better services, increase efficiency, reduce costs, improve effectiveness and productivity, and counteract the overload of infrastructure and environmental stress. “These challenges can only be tackled with Smart City concepts,” Dr. Daniel Trauth pointed out.
Intelligent Infrastructure as the Foundation
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a specialized agency of the United Nations, has defined a Smart City from over 100 different definitions as follows: “A smart, sustainable city is innovative and uses information and communication technologies, among others, to enhance the quality of life, efficiency of urban operations and services, and competitiveness, thereby meeting the demands of present and future generations in terms of economy, society, and environmental impact.”
“The term Smart City describes a comprehensive concept for a city where data, in the form of smart—’intelligent’—infrastructures, plays a key role. This includes the following areas: buildings, mobility, energy, water, waste management, healthcare, and digital infrastructures,” explained Dr. Daniel Trauth, adding, “All these areas are covered by urbanOS.”
Smart Cities are the Future
The concept is based on five interlocking digital layers: a widely distributed sensor network, connectivity to “gather” the data, data analysis with predictive functionality, an automation layer, and a city network that connects the physical and digital infrastructure. “urbanOS provides the digital backbone for all these areas,” said Dr. Daniel Trauth. “It is designed to capture, aggregate, and analyze the immense amounts of data from these completely different fields using AI.”
The global market for Smart Cities is currently estimated at over $700 billion and is expected to grow to around $4 trillion by 2030. The German Smart Cities market is currently valued at approximately 8 billion euros and is projected to reach up to 47 billion euros by 2030. “The potential for Smart Cities is immense, and urbanOS is entering the market at exactly the right time,” said Dr. Daniel Trauth.
Looking Ahead: Interconnecting Cities
Moving forward, the goal is not only to make individual cities smarter but also to connect Smart Cities with one another. The new urbanOS is already being used in pilot projects in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia as part of the funding initiative “DatenMarktplatz.NRW,” which aims to build a regional data ecosystem. urbanOS has also been launched in the states of Bavaria, Baden-Wuerttemberg, and Hesse.
Dr. Daniel Trauth outlined the future: “Several cities are establishing their data spaces in an urbanOS hub, where, with the municipalities’ consent, the data can be analyzed across cities by AI. This allows experiences to be pooled, and cities can benefit from each other. By using the urbanOS hub, municipalities can save significant costs, as they don’t need to build their own AI infrastructures,” according to dataMatters. Dr. Daniel Trauth emphasized: “Thanks to Federated Learning and Edge Computing, data privacy is inherently ensured in all these cases, as no information that could lead to conclusions about individual people is transmitted to the urbanOS hub.”
According to dataMatters, urbanOS is also prepared for the next generation of so-called actuators. While sensors collect data, actuators are devices that trigger actions, such as controlling traffic lights, managing digital displays, operating irrigation systems, or overseeing parking guidance systems. The “next generation” refers to innovative AI robots that are expected to be available in the coming years and could be used in municipalities as gardeners, cleaning staff, assistants for public services, or for security tasks. “What may sound like science fiction today will become everyday reality in a few years,” Dr. Daniel Trauth predicted. To help influence this development, he has taken on the position of Co-Chairman at the “Real World AI Forum” at the global think tank Diplomatic Council, which holds UN Consultative Status. In this role, he is part of the United Nations’ closest advisory circle.
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