EkoNET – Environment Monitoring Solution

DunavNETwww.dunavnet.eu

EkoNET - Problem Statement

• Rising need to measure and monitor environment parameters such as temperature, humidity, air quality etc.

Currently expensive stationary monitoring station are used • A real-time data is currently not available• People are detached from the air quality monitoring

process, but acutely aware of impact air quality has on their health

• Introduction of ICT technologies makes possible of fast introduction of cheaper sensor technologies and better utilization of data 2

Air quality monitoring is extremely important as air pollution has a direct impact on human health.

EkoNET - Overview

The ekoNET service is designed to provide a complete end-to-end solution for the environmental monitoring following the design concepts used within the Internet of Things domain (IoT). The system comprises all necessary components namely devices, back-end infrastructure and client applications (web and mobile).

It offers:• A real-time air pollution monitoring in urban and rural

areas that utilize low cost sensors• Using wireless systems for transmission of measured

data and vizualisation of data in a real-time

3

EkoNET - Overview

The ekoNET devices contain the following components:– Measurement devices to monitor the environmental

parameters (gas and atmospheric condition sensors)– GPS module (location)– GPRS – mobile network interface (data transfer)

Together with the following modules ekoNET devices represent the whole environment monitoring system:

– data server (data storage and processing)– web and mobile application (data visualization)

4

EkoNET - Overview

• For the air quality estimation, electrochemical gas sensors are utilized which measure: CO, CO2, NO, NO2 and O3, as well as particle monitor PM2.5 and PM10

Particulate matter (PM) is an air pollution term for a mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets found in the air. The pollutant comes in a variety of sizes and can be composed of many types of materials and chemicals. Particles that are small enough to be inhaled have the potential to cause health effects. Of particular concern is a class of particles known as fine particulate matter or PM2.5 that gets deep into the lung.

• Other environment parameters are measured using sensors, such as: noise, temperature, humidity and air pressure

5

EkoNET - Environment Monitoring Solution

6

ekoNET device with low-cost electrochemical gas sensors

Deployed ekoNET device

EkoNET - DunavNET Solution

7

ekoNET system architecture • The ekoNET devices are connected to the ekoNET platform serving as the back-end cloud infrastructure. There are several variants of the ekoNET devices depending on the deployed location (indoor/outdoor), type of sensors used (air quality/safety) and usage (stationary/personal).

• The collected data from the sensors is transmitted to the back-end infrastructure (Communication Server component) via the mobile network (CoAP)

• The cloud platform the permanent storage of data (data storage within the Data Server component), data cleaning and processing functionality (Data Server and Data Processing components) as well as a set of visualization widgets (Visualization Engine component).

EkoNET - Results

8

5 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 5 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 5 0 0 3 0 0 0 3 5 0 0 4 0 0 0 4 5 0 0 5 0 0 0 5 5 0 0

8 0 0

9 0 0

1 0 0 0

1 1 0 0

1 2 0 0

1 3 0 0

1 4 0 0

T i m e [ m i n ]

Cou

nt [A

D u

nits

]

C O

5 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 5 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 5 0 0 3 0 0 0 3 5 0 0 4 0 0 0 4 5 0 0 5 0 0 0 5 5 0 0

2 5 5 0

2 6 0 0

2 6 5 0

2 7 0 0

2 7 5 0

2 8 0 0

2 8 5 0

2 9 0 0

2 9 5 0

3 0 0 0

T i m e [ m i n ]

Cou

nt [A

D u

nits

]

N O 2

Figures shows respectively the CO and NO2 measurements from 12 ekoNET devices taken within the same time interval and corrected with the associated gains and offsets calculated using calibration equations. On Y axis are presented values obtained in AD units, i.e. in the values obtained from gas-sensors in Volts converted by A/D convertor in appropriate AD units (12 bits coder is used).

In order to get the accurate results the sensors need to be calibrated. q Using gas chambers with known concentrationsq Using data from stationary measurement stationsq On the fly re-calibration

EkoNET - Results

9

The data can be visualized in a real-time using the appropriate web or mobile applications (see Figure).

EkoNET - Business Canvas

10

EkoNET - Solutions

The ekoNET service will be designed to be able to work in two modes:

o as a standalone solution or o in combination with other smart city and enterprise

platforms.

The standalone solution will be suitable for small to medium municipalities and enterprises that do not already use other platforms. In the case of large cities and enterprises, in particular those in the oil and gas industry, who use large scale smart city and asset management platforms, the ekoNET service will be integrated in collaboration with the providers of these platforms, effectively using them as sales and promotion channels. The following platforms are considered currently:

o IBM’s Maximo (asset management framework used extensively in oil and gas industry),

o Thingworx (used as smart services platform by mobile operator Etisalat),

o Xively (IoT platform with large community support).

11

EkoNET - Customers

qSmall to medium municipalities and enterprises

qLarge cites

qThe oil and gas industry

qPersonal monitors (future models, possibly in

collaboration with partners)

12

EkoNET - Markets

The company strategy is firstly to address geographically close markets in Europe.

o The EB700 has been deployed 4 years ago on buses in the city of Pancevo,

Serbia

o Two devices are deployed in Oslo (Norway) as a part of a small pilot.

o It will be deployed in 40 elementary schools in the city of Belgrade (Serbia)

as part of Citi-sense project (www.citi-sense.eu).

o It is planned to deploy several devices in the open-pit coal mine

o Monitoring device will be made for city of Novi SadDunavNET is also looking to extend our sales to the USA, and the initial discussions were also being held regarding potential installation of devices in the Middle East.

13

Competitors/Collaborators

• The AirBase (http://www.myairbase.com/) offers a similar model, with the following differences: – devices are more expensive;– the monthly fee is higher and does not include mobile

application;– it is based on proprietary protocols.

• Similar service is offered by the Envirologger (http://www.envirologger.com/). However, the prices are few-fold higher.

• Libelium (http://www.libelium.com/) offers devices which are comparable in terms of the cost, but are using less accurate gas sensors.

• Xively and Thingworx are platforms that our services can be deployed on, hence do not represent competition, but potential sales channels.

14

Areas for Collaborations

q Calibration servicesq Physical models of individual sensorsq developing multi dimensional model for various

combination of sensorsq Collaboration with project partners (e.g.

Alphasense)

q Maintenance services

q Collaboration with project partners at different markets and vice versa – we can offer support to other companies

q Integration with large scale smart city and asset management platforms (IBM’s Maximo, Thingworx, Xively)

15

EkoNET – Future Plans

16

EkoNET is at stage 2 of Product Lifecycle. In the first stage it went through number of iterations to come up with the product which is:q reliableq user friendlyq uses mains power as well as solar

panels to recharge batteriesq can sustain difficult weather

conditions

The problem remains the same for all producers of new generation of air quality monitoring equipment and that is the accuracy and life time of cheap gas sensors, therefore in our product we strive to use the best available sensors combined with the latest in ICT to offer to the customer the best available product at a reasonable price.

EkoNET – Acknowledgment

17

Parts of the activities are funded by the EU-funded project (CITI-SENSE) under the European Union’s Seventh Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement No 308524, Area of Activity: ENV.2012.6.5-1 - Developing community-based environmental monitoring and information systems using innovative and novel earth observation applications, Period: 1st October 2012 – 30th September 2016.

DunavNET actively participates in number of European projects in the area of Internet of Things (IoT), constantly striving to translate the results from the innovative activities and research into the products.

DunavNET is a partner on CITI-SENSE (http://www.citi-sense.eu/) project, which consortium consists of 29 partner institutions from different EU countries, including SMEs, universities and research institutes. Project partners are brought together to utilize cheap sensor platforms for the measurements of the air quality indoor and outdoor, as well as using stationary measurement units as well as personal monitors.