PPI Project Final Report - Team 5d27j0td1cyubi5.cloudfront.net/uploads/upload/asset/22/c979a53f4bb6ec...PPI Project Report 5 2. Description of the concept 2.1 Background Cities of

Copenhagen PPI Project Team 5: CPH:SENSE

Final report

CPH:SENSE PPI Project Report

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Table of contents

1. Executive Summary 3 1.1 The concept 3 1.2 Business case 3 1.3 Test results 3 1.4 Recommendations 3

2. Description of the concept 5

2.1 Background 5 2.2 Concept description 6 2.3 Innovation focus 8

CPH:SENSE 8 The Copenhagen Capsule 8 The Smart City Platform 8

2.4 The new and unique features in CPH:SENSE 8 2.5 Added value and return on investment for the City of Copenhagen 9

3. Business case of the concept 11

3.1 Market Potential 12 3.2 Scalability 12 3.3 Risks and challenges 13

4. Testing and Results 14

4.1 End-user definition 14 4.2 Pre-Analysis 14 4.3 Testing 15

LAB Testing at Aalborg University Copenhagen 15 FIELD testing 15

4.4 Proof of concept 17 4.5 Hypotheses to be verified 17 4.6 Field Testing Results and Discussion 17 4.7 Testing Equipment 18 4.8 Time Plan (Gantt Chart) 18 4.9 Conclusions 19

5. Recommendation 19 5.1 What are your recommendations for the City of Copenhagen? 20


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1. Executive Summary

1.1 The concept

CPH:SENSE is an Intelligent Traffic Solution consisting of two layers: The Copenhagen

Capsule and the Smart City Platform. The capsule is a small box consisting of a low cost

computer and various sensors. The capsule can be placed in light poles for tracking

relevant traffic flow and weather data in real time. The box will send the data to the

Smart City Platform, which is the open software system to manage and interact with the

data captured. Both the hardware and software solutions are based on open architecture

frameworks and technology making it possible to update and keep maintenance of the

solution without changing the basic framework.

1.2 Business case

CPH:SENSE can bring significant advantages for the City of Copenhagen by creating and

maintaining a widely distributed network of sensors constantly sending real-time data

for analysis and optimization through an overall traffic management dashboard. The

solution will integrate with existing infrastructure, but providing higher quality outcomes

for lower costs and energy consumption. All the data is gathered and stored in one place

and optimization, reports and interventions regarding traffic flow, cleaner air and public

services can be managed all from one integrated and holistic system.

1.3 Test results

An extensive pilot test was conducted in order to check the effectiveness and the

potentials of CPH:SENSE. The test results proved the added value of the proposed

concept.

1.4 Recommendations

Our recommendation is that the city keeps and develops the PPI process framework.

The framework makes it possible for other stakeholders e.g. SMEs and knowledge


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institutions to interact and create synergies through a bottom-up process allowing

innovative solutions to be developed and tested directly to fit the city’s political agendas

and existing infrastructure. Furthermore it creates a creative community of stakeholders

and vendors within Smart City industry to meet, share knowledge and foster

collaboration.


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2. Description of the concept

2.1 Background

Cities of the future are evolving into dense networks of services constantly trying to

tackle congestion, traffic, energy and public services in more agile and intelligent ways.

With the recent advent of notions like Internet of things, Big Data and the explosion of

cheap sensors, a variety of new possibilities have evolved in the domain of Intelligent

Traffic Solutions.

Through the PPI framework Aalborg University Copenhagen and Leapcraft have

joined forces to explore new potential Intelligent Traffic Solutions supporting the

existing services offered in Copenhagen. The main objective for the group was to create

a new meaningful and holistic solution addressing a wider variety of stakeholders and

users of the city.

As most of the current services run in parallel as disintegrated operations managed

side-by-side by a few key stakeholders, we found a more holistic, integrative and user-

centered approach to be appealing. The invariable Smart City challenges are to integrate

an effort to face the countless data sources and massive volumes of distributed data,

where moving from data to information and then information to meaning becomes the

new, lucrative, but challenging domain.

We have identified 3 key challenges for driving this project:

! How can we create a solution, which helps the integration of services and

operations that currently run distinguished in parallel?

! How can we foster the engagement of a wider array of SMEs, knowledge

institutions and individuals to contribute to helping municipalities offer better

services?


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! How can we utilize the new technological possibilities in a more integrated and

holistic form?

This initial direction led to the development of the CPH:SENSE

2.2 Concept description

The CPH:SENSE is a large scale project aiming to make the mobility in Copenhagen

smarter. The system consists of two interlinked layers: The Copenhagen Capsule and

The Smart City Platform.

The Copenhagen Capsule makes out the base layer of CPH:SENSE. It is a box that can be

mounted on light poles and other similar infrastructure throughout the city. The capsule

contains a small, but very powerful computer, which consumes very little power and is

built on open architecture technology. Various environmental sensors and camera-

based detectors are connected to the computer, which gather real-time information

about the immediate surroundings of the capsule. This enables the capsule to measure:

Traffic flow of bikes, cars and pedestrians, noise, pollution, humidity, temperature and

light levels. All these parameters are constantly measured and processed locally in the

capsule. They can thereafter either be transferred directly through Ethernet cabling or

streamed through a built-in 3G-modem. For capturing the traffic flow of a normal street

crossing a minimum of 2 capsules is needed. To see the full potential and scalability, a

distributed array of Copenhagen Capsules would need to be implemented throughout

the city. The system can then provide real-time data from the capsules sensing their

nearby environment and streaming the data directly to the second layer of the system:

The Smart City Platform.

The Smart City Platform manages all the data received from the capsules and creates

the basis for an eco-system consisting of three main areas: The Smart City Services, The

Smart City API and The Smart City Market. The Smart City Platform is the central

management portal in which the inspectors and decision makers in City of Copenhagen


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can access and manage the data. The Smart City Services are a number of bespoke

solutions based on the aggregated data for optimization purposes such as improving

traffic flow, create real-time analysis and better documentation as well as reducing fatal

accidents. The Smart City API will help software developers take active part in the

creating new applications, tools and functionalities. The Smart City Market makes it

possible to trade data, services and applications to strengthen the level of value,

innovation and contribution contributed by the suppliers.

As mentioned the overall idea has been to create a solution, which brings a better

interaction and integration between user and data. The common interest for both citizen

and the City of Copenhagen is to improve mobility, which is obtained through better

control of traffic flows and an improved understanding of the population’s movement

flow. We base our solution upon on-board camera recognition and open-architecture

hardware platforms.

Overall creating a system with CPH:SENSE for improving the capturing, processing

and managing of traffic data.


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2.3 Innovation focus

CPH:SENSE

The innovation focus for the entire project is to develop a fully integrated traffic data

solution for capturing, processing and managing mobility services through both

hardware and software.

The Copenhagen Capsule

Through The Copenhagen Capsule the innovation focus is to create a low-cost open

architecture hardware platform, which makes it possible to distribute a configurable

sensor network across the City of Copenhagen. Future steps would be to develop and

possibly export the solution and distribution network to other cities internationally.

The Smart City Platform

The innovation focus of The Smart City Platform is to aggregate data through an easy to

use data system. The barrier for non-programmers is reduced significantly due to user-

centered design and easy drag-and-drop user interface. As a result the data can be

spread across a wider audience with increased usability and accessibility.

2.4 The new and unique features in CPH:SENSE

-‐ Open architecture

o Able to update and change the algorithms

o Able to add new functionalities

o Other communities can contribute by creating applications using the API

-‐ Low cost

o Low hardware cost

o Low power consumption (500W to 5W)

o Low maintenance

o Cheap replacement

-‐ Local processing

o Able to store only processed (non-sensitive) data


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o No need for data encryption

o No storage of images – No privacy issues

-‐ Configurable and modular

o Plug and play additional sensors

o Create different sensors for

-‐ Compatibility with existing sensors / protocols

o Successfully tested with existing loop detectors

-‐ Multimodal sensors, capturing and data

o Sensors: Air humidity, air temperature, lighting and pollution levels, bike,

car and pedestrian flow detectors

-‐ Provide & visualize information to users

o Visualization and customization

o Trend and pattern recognition

o Real time analysis, notifications and alarms

o Forecasting and simulation modes

-‐ Improvement of existing infrastructure

o Timestamps and local processing

o Lower maintenance

o Lower power consumption

-‐ Primary focus on bicycles and pedestrians

o Specifically developed for Copenhagen

o Clean and green enforcement

2.5 Added value and return on investment for the City of Copenhagen

The CPH:SENSE can bring significant advantages for the City of Copenhagen by creating

and maintaining a widely distributed network of sensors constantly sending real-time

data to the overall traffic management dashboard. All the data is gathered and stored in

one place and optimization, reports and interventions regarding traffic flow, cleaner air

and public services can be managed all from one integrated and holistic system.


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Moving from distributed management systems and a wide variety of inputs on traffic

flow to one integrated solution is key for improving the transportation flow through the

city as well as planning for events and intervention and securing strategic political

objectives as for example CO2 neutralization in 2025.

As an example the municipality will get the possibility of increasing safety, pace and

more sustainable transport around the city, as well as supporting the decision-making

processes about the redesign of road connections and traffic flow.

As the perception of received social value increases for the citizens, the desirability

and drive to contribute take part in the development of the Smart City initiatives does

too. Driving desirability holds the key to needs for proper and safe use of street spaces

can be served by using the knowledge and the wisdom produced by the proposed

system. Through the open framework the citizens will themselves have the possibility to

work, play and interact with the data possibilities. Bringing desirability to the citizens and

incentives for the SMEs and shop-owners to participate in the system creates a unique


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opportunity for a platform, which enhances the interrelation and feedback loops

between the city administration and city users. Furthermore a new market is developed

for trading both data, preset filters and smart applications that holds a large potential to

increase the creative Smart City innovation as well fostering a community for joint Smart

City development.


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3. Business case of the concept

3.1 Market Potential

The basic premise and precondition for the business model for the CPH:SENSE to be

viable and having the potential widespread effect lies upon the City of Copenhagen to

invest in the capsules and their distribution as well as the building of the platform. One

of the core business opportunities lies in the creation of a data marketplace, where

vendors can trade data, filters and applications for access, profit or for free. The

hardware solution can be exported and the software solution can be white-labeled and

configured for implementation in other countries and cities. Thus there will be a two-

folded opportunity to reach returns on investments through both the in-build market

revenue and export generated income.

3.2 Scalability

The proposed system is scalable and applicable to different levels of resolution, from

one street or space to a neighborhood or a whole city. As a modular system it can grow

over time. Different scales of functionalities and sensors can be updated and improved

with time and therefore the investment from the city can also be set to fit priorities. The

open architecture makes it easy to start pilot projects, test communities building up new

features and functionalities.

With scalability further improvement of traffic flow, reduce accidents, improve public

services etc. can be reached. Furthermore private enterprises can benefit from the

solution through saved time and costs through improved data analytics. The exact

impact can’t be foreseen, but examples for potential markets could be deriving from

footfall counting, route planning, optimized logistics and public transportation. The

underlying open structure of the Copenhagen Sense makes it perfect for supporting a

wide variety of markets, the creation of new markets and other creative uses. Next step


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of the scalability comes through the export to other cities and applications for the

platform. Examples could be indoor shopping malls, stadiums, subways etc.

3.3 Risks and challenges

The risks can be divided into four areas:

• Implementation

o Legal aspects of installing cameras and recording data locally

o Ethical issues and social acceptance on installing cameras on the

streets

• Reliability

o Security of the city capsule (in terms of theft, hacking etc.)

o Data capturing in heavy weather

o Software efficiency and reliability

• Community

o Awareness of open architecture advantages

o Securing a high level of interest from contributors

• Sustainability

The challenge of implementation and reliability relies strongly upon the investment and

willingness to support. The reliability can be established through the initiation of a pilot

project for testing and generating data standards. Implementation is relying on that the

municipality to play an active role in the first iteration of CPH:SENSE.

The challenge of community and sustainability is medicated by the City of

Copenhagen’s communication to private third parties and involvement of public entities.

Incentive structures can be initiated to speed up the process as for example legal

regulations, tax deductions etc.


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4. Testing and Results

4.1 End-user definition

For the aforementioned demos the end-user for this stage was defined as the traffic

managers in the municipality. As the demos primarily tested the design of the capsule,

functionalities and integration with existing traffic systems, the citizens were not chosen

to be brought in at the early stage. Rafael Figueiredo, municipal traffic engineer, was

integrated in the process and brought in for feedback on each iteration loop.

Furthermore continuous conversations with the ITS-leading persons gave direction of

the strategy, goals and provided indispensible feedback. The report and video

productions are for this stage therefore also aimed towards the municipality. Rafael

furthermore helped by giving information on the current status of the capturing,

processing and management of traffic data in Copenhagen. In the next stages the end-

user will include the citizen, who will be taking part in the iteration loops related to

citizen use.

4.2 Pre-Analysis

An investigation phase has been carried on thanks to the availability and kind

collaboration of Københavns Kommune, in the person of Rafael Figueiredo. During this

phase, beside an analysis of the Industrial and Academic State Of The Art, we could get

physical access to some of the currently used traffic control stations around the city and

analyze their working as well as their “pros and cons” together with the expertise of

Rafael.

Three locations were selected and visited together in two different times:

VH – Valby Hallen, Andersens Vej 3, 2450 København ()

Ø1 – Trianglen 2-4, 2100 København Ø (a complex street intersection, featuring some

already-in-place experimental traffic control products for the tracking of bikes)


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Ø2 – Østerbrogade 120, 2100 København Ø (a pedestrian and bike lane near to a traffic

light, part of the experimental traffic control project seen in Ø1, and near to a pre-

existing control station with Loop Detector)

The knowledge gathered from this on-field analysis, helped very much the focusing and

development of our prototype; it also led us to identify good locations for the later

testing of our prototype.

4.3 Testing

LAB Testing at Aalborg University Copenhagen

One location was chosen to run laboratory tests: AU – A.C. Meyers Vænge 15, 2450 København SV.

A controlled testing environment was created in the Electronics LAB at Aalborg

University Copenhagen in order to test the prototype as long as it was developed; here a

Loop Detector Simulator was also built in order to test the retro compatibility of our

system. In this location we could also run a first set of dedicated tests of all the

environmental data acquisition, as well as a set of tests dedicated to verify the easiness

of setup, connection, storing and streaming of data, plus a monitored power

consumption test that rated the effective power consumption of the device below 5 W/h

(making it possible to imagine the prototype becoming a solar powered device).

FIELD testing

Two locations were chosen to test the prototype in the real field.

Ø2 – Østerbrogade 120, 2100 København Ø (this is one of the three locations visited

together with the KK representative. The choice of this location above the others

was made in order to make it possible for us to test also the retro compatibility

module that we designed to acquire data from a pre-existing loop detector

station; this site was offering in fact access also to one loop detector). This site is


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featuring a pedestrian and a bike lane near to a traffic light, and a pre-existing

control station equipped with a Loop Detector.

SV – Sydhavnsgade 26, 2450 København SV (a big street near to Aalborg University

Copenhagen Campus). The choice of this other testing site let us position our

Copenhagen Capsule at a very elevated height (on the top of the Aalborg

University building) permitting thus to have a more complex field of view to be

analyzed by the Computer Vision Algorithms.

SV Location was used mainly to test the Computer Vision Algorithms in order to cover

different types of street spaces and consequently different transport modes: trucks, cars,

bikes and pedestrians. The testing on this location was carried on many days during the

months of March and April 2014.

Ø2 Location was used as well to test the Computer Vision Algorithms (covering in this

case mostly bikes and pedestrians), but also to test the retro compatibility of our system

with a standard Loop Detector Station. The access to this test location was possible

again thanks to Rafael Figueiredo, from Københavns Kommune. The test in this location

could be carried on from some hours during the afternoon of Thursday 20th March,

2014.

Both Locations Ø2 + SV were used also to test the acquisition of environmental data,

sampling:

-‐ Light intensity [lux]

-‐ Noise level [dB]

-‐ CO concentration [KΩ]

-‐ NO2 concentration [KΩ]

-‐ Air Humidity [%]

-‐ Air Temperature [C]


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4.4 Proof of concept

The proof-of-concept can validate if the concept is technically feasible, through the

development of a prototype and demonstrate the added value to the end users, through

the visualization of use cases.

4.5 Hypotheses to be verified

Hp 1. low cost

Hp 2. low maintenance

Hp 3. low power consumption

Hp 4. configurable / modular

Hp 5. easy setup in-situ & small size board

Hp 6. tracking of bikes, cars, pedestrians + environmental data

Hp 7. local processing for no privacy issues

Hp 8. compatibility with the existing systems already in place

Hp 9. efficient visualization

Hp 10. storing of processed data

Hp 11. streaming of processed data

4.6 Field Testing Results and Discussion

Location Ø2 covered and satisfied the testing of Hypotheses: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8

Location SV covered and satisfied the testing of Hypotheses: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10

In total, all the hypotheses were covered and proved to success during the two field

tests we conducted. All the hypotheses were also previously covered to success during

our LAB testing phase.


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From the later testing emerged anyway that two points still need improvements in order

to push our prototype to a next level:

-‐ Hp. 8: the retro-compatibility module could be tested with success in our lab with a

Loop-Detector simulator that we built. The real loop detector station on location

Ø2 unfortunately could not be tracked during the field-testing because the loop

station itself was not working. Luckily we could acquire anyway the only signal

coming from the loop station, who proves is enough to prove that our retro

compatibility module is working, but consequently to this unfortunate coincidence

we feel it necessary to state here that more field-testing is needed about this point,

in a next phase of the project;

-‐ Hp. 9: the ‘efficient visualization’ test successfully proven to be feasible: tracking

and visualizing in real-time the flow of bikes, pedestrians, and cars; but in order to

take our product to a next level we feel some work still needs to be done on the

representation of aggregated data trough a dashboard

4.7 Testing Equipment

Only equipment by AAU and Leapcraft will be used. A capsule consisting of single board

computers, cameras, mics etc.)

4.8 Time Plan (Gantt Chart)

end$jan end$feb end$march end$Aprilweek$3

week$4

week$5

week$6

week$7

week$8

week$9

week$10

week$11

week$12

week$13

week$14

week$15

week$16

week$17

week$18

Creation)of)city-capsule)(soa,)audio)+)video)-)Weather)proof)case)–)client/server)application)to)send)data))-)AAU

Compatibility-Configurability:)Easy)bridge)to)existing)sensors)/)Demo)how)to)plug)a)new)sensor)/)how)to)change)the)software)-)AAU

WP2

Computer)vision)technique)(soa,)detecting,)recognition)tracking)of)bicycles)and)pedestrians))-)AAU

WP3

Stakeholders,)end-users)needs)/)Visualizations)/)Dashboard)(compatibility)with)existing)systems)))-)LC

WP4Live)demo)of)the)city)capsule)–)AAU/LC

Video)regarding)community)contribution/)data)store)(cost-income)analysis))-)LC

Product)demo)video)-)LC

WP1

WP5


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4.9 Conclusions Technical feasibility:

-‐ The current technology is mature (low-cost single board computers have become

very powerful)

-‐ Computer vision algorithms for detection/tracking/recognition have become very

efficient

-‐ The City Capsule features open architecture and can be updated and further

developed according to future needs and developments.

Added value for the user:

-‐ Effectively capturing multimodal traffic data

-‐ Producing real-time information and visualization

-‐ Storing processed data, also from cameras, without privacy issues

-‐ Improving the representation of the data flow (specially designed dashboards)

-‐ Intelligent use of the information as support for key decision makers

-‐ Re-use of information (community support)

-‐ Easy update of the software

-‐ Low cost

-‐ Low maintenance

-‐ Low power consumption


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5. Recommendation

5.1 What are your recommendations for the City of Copenhagen?

Our recommendation is to keep and develop the PPI process framework for this kind of

innovation and technology driven tenders. This framework makes it possible for other

stakeholders e.g. SMEs and knowledge institutions to interact and create synergies

through a bottom-up process. For creating innovative, holistic and usable applications

the traditional top-down approach including mostly the city and large private city

contractors misses out on the input and contributions from the smaller agile and fast

moving companies. This framework also allows the innovations to be developed and

tested to fit the political agendas and the already existing infrastructure of the city.

Furthermore it creates a creative community of stakeholders and vendors within Smart

City industry to meet, share knowledge and foster collaboration. All in all enhancing the

development of Smart City solutions and growth within the industry.

Copenhagen, 7th May 2014.

Documents

PPI Project Final Report - Team 5d27j0td1cyubi5.cloudfront.net/uploads/upload/asset/22/c979a53f4bb6ec...PPI Project Report 5 2. Description of the concept 2.1 Background Cities of