Cologne-based start-up dataMatters, a spin-off of RWTH Aachen University, has launched 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 optimised for the “smartification” of urban infrastructure, ranging from traffic management and waste disposal to energy supply and public safety. According to the company, its “digital town hall” is highly scalable and can meet the needs of cities, districts, and municipalities, from small towns to mid-sized cities and even large metropolitan areas.

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.

The new municipal operating system is based on a multi-layered model: sensors, municipal data space, artificial intelligence (AI), data-driven decision-making, and optimised services for both citizens and local governments. According to dataMatters founder Daniel Trauth: “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.”

urbanOS integrates a Federated AI (Federated Learning), allowing its AI model to be trained across numerous devices without centralising sensitive data. According to dataMatters, this is unique amongst smart city management systems.

The company also employs edge computing, with all data cleaned of any personal references at the moment of collection. With the system, cameras that count pedestrians, cyclists, and vehicles to optimise 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 anonymisation 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,” Dr Trauth. “Therefore, protecting citizens’ sensitive data is of the utmost priority.” It follows almost naturally that all data is processed exclusively in data centres 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 digitalisation is fully ensured at the municipal level with urbanOS,” assured Dr. Daniel Trauth.

“We can integrate any Large Language Model,” said Dr Daniel Trauth. It is up to municipal authorities whether AI should be operated in a local data centre 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 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 integrated into the municipal operating system. This is achieved through an API covering all standard interfaces. “We support countless connectors to sensors, wireless networks, database systems, as well as third-party software and OpenData portals,” said Dr Trauth. “Any special requests from a municipality or even a state will be gladly fulfilled by us as part of a Smart City project.”