LIGHT AND SHADOWS

Their core work

Light and Shadows is a French technology SME specializing in immersive digital experiences — virtual reality, augmented reality, and 3D visualization — applied to industrial environments. In the SHERLOCK project they built VR-based training systems for workers collaborating with robots and exoskeletons, bridging the gap between human operators and advanced automation. In PLEIADES they contributed 3D and BIM-based visualization to a digital platform for managing nuclear decommissioning and dismantling operations. Their core value proposition is making complex, hazardous, or technically demanding industrial processes comprehensible and trainable through simulation and spatial computing.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Their first H2020 engagement (SHERLOCK, 2018) was squarely in human-robot collaboration — VR training, exoskeletons, safety interfaces, and AI-assisted cognition for factory workers. By 2020 (PLEIADES), the focus shifted toward industrial asset management and decommissioning, using BIM and 3D modelling rather than real-time human-robot interaction. The connecting thread is immersive 3D visualization: the same capability that trains operators to work alongside robots can also simulate dismantling sequences in a nuclear facility. This suggests the company is deliberately expanding from factory-floor safety applications toward higher-value, regulated-industry use cases.

They are moving from general industrial safety and training applications toward specialized, regulation-heavy sectors — nuclear decommissioning being the clearest signal — where immersive visualization commands higher fees and faces less competition.

How they like to work

Light and Shadows participates exclusively as a consortium partner, never as coordinator, which is consistent with a specialist SME that brings a specific technology stack to larger multidisciplinary projects rather than driving the overall programme. With 31 unique partners across just 2 projects, they operate in broad, diverse consortia — both SHERLOCK and PLEIADES are large collaborative efforts with many institutions. This pattern suggests they are comfortable as a technical contributor in complex EU consortia but have not yet positioned themselves as a project lead.

Across two projects, Light and Shadows has built connections with 31 unique partners spanning 13 countries — an unusually wide network for such a small participation footprint, indicating they joined large pan-European consortia rather than small bilateral partnerships. No single repeated partner is identifiable from the data, suggesting their network is broad but not yet deeply consolidated.

What sets them apart

Light and Shadows occupies a narrow but valuable intersection: immersive technology (VR/AR/3D) applied specifically to industrial safety, robotics training, and asset lifecycle management — not entertainment or generic enterprise use cases. Most VR/AR SMEs in France target consumer, retail, or generic enterprise sectors; this company has carved a position in advanced manufacturing and regulated industrial environments. For a consortium building around digital twins, worker safety, or decommissioning workflows, they offer rare domain-relevant immersive technology expertise from a company small enough to be flexible and fast.

Highlights from their portfolio

• SHERLOCK
  The larger and earlier of the two projects (EUR 406,500), it placed Light and Shadows at the frontier of human-robot collaboration — combining exoskeletons, mobile robots, VR training, and AI cognition into a single workplace safety framework.
• PLEIADES
  Signals a strategic pivot into nuclear decommissioning — a high-value, heavily regulated sector — using BIM and 3D platforms, demonstrating the company's ability to adapt its visualization expertise to entirely new industrial domains.