Libelium has launched a new line of Calibrated Gas Sensors that improve the accuracy readings of gas sensors present in both our Waspmote and Plug & Sense! lines. This new line is developed in response to requirements of customers who needed to get maximum accuracy in their industrial, environmental, agriculture and farming applications.

Applications that are improved by adding calibrated sensors include:

Environmental:

• Forest Fire Detection: minimum amounts of CO (30 ppm’s) need to be measured to detect combustion
• Air Pollution: strict regulations make it important to control gases such as: SH₂, Methane (CH₄), CO, air pollutants

Agriculture:

• Wine Production: toxic levels of CO
• Green Houses: O₂, CH₄

Farming:

• Animal Offspring Care: SH₂, Methane (CH₄), NH₃
• Toxic Gas Levels (waste): SH₂, Methane (CH₄), NH₃

Industrial:

• Indoor Air Quality: O₂, NH₃, CO
• Explosive and Hazardous Gases: O₂, H₂, Liquefied Petroleum (Isobutane, Ethanol)
• Storage Incompatibility Detection: SH₂, CH₄, Liquefied Petroleum (Isobutane, Ethanol)

Gas Sensor Board for Waspmote with Calibrated Sensors

What is the accuracy of non-calibrated sensors?

Up to now, with gas sensors without calibration we could get useful information on the overall range of a certain gas. This means we could get two types of information:

• Presence / Absence of a gas: useful for detection
• Average levels: low / medium / high

This information is useful for applications where knowing the relative levels is enough and where price is key factor, as non-calibrated gas sensors are cheaper than the calibrated ones. Take into account that air quality projects such as the Nest Smoke Alarm, the Air Quality Egg, or Smart Citizen work with non-calibrated sensors, in the same way that Waspmote and Plug & Sense! do up to now. This shows how knowing the relative values and the presence / absence of a gas is enough for many applications.

What accuracy do we get with calibrated sensors?

Why are some gas sensors not included in the calibrated list?

Some sensors such as CO₂, NO₂, VOC, O₃ NH₃, Air Pollutants 1 haven’t been included in the calibration process as the internal operation of these sensors do not allow setting reference points in the vacuum chamber. This means we can keep using these sensors to measure relative changes but not specific ppm measurements. In any case, these sensors are extremely useful to measure the overall kind of concentration (LOW, MEDIUM, HIGH) of each gas and to detect its presence in a given place to control specific events.

Plug & Sense! Environmental Model with Calibrated Sensors

These sensors are calibrated in the laboratory using a vacuum chamber and adding small quantities of the gas to create a specific response curve for each sensor. When purchasing a calibrated sensor, a calibration certificate is included, indicating the conditions of the calibration and the output of the sensor for the three calibration points. From this data we obtain the concentration value in ppms (which is the final value we want to measure).

For more information about the Libelium’s new line of Calibrated Gas Sensors contact our Commercial Team.

Libelium launched a Smart Water wireless sensor platform to simplify remote water quality monitoring. Equipped with multiple sensors that measure a dozen of the most relevant water quality parameters, Waspmote Smart Water is the first water quality-sensing platform to feature autonomous nodes that connect to the Cloud for real-time water control. Waspmote Smart Water is suitable for potable water monitoring, chemical leakage detection in rivers, remote measurement of swimming pools and spas, and levels of seawater pollution. The water quality parameters measured include pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), oxidation-reduction potential (ORP), conductivity (salinity), turbidity, temperature and dissolved ions (F-, Ca2+, NO3-, Cl-, Pb2+, I-, Cu2+, Br-, Ag+/S2-, BF4-).

The Waspmote Smart Water platform is an ultra low-power sensor node designed for use in rugged environments and deployment in Smart Cities in hard-to-access locations to detect changes and potential risk to public health in real time.

Waspmote Plug & Sense! Smart Water model

Waspmote may use cellular (3G, GPRS, WCDMA) and long range 802.15.4/ZigBee (868/900MHz) connectivity to send information to the Cloud, and can accommodate solar panels that charge the battery to maintain autonomy. Smart Water nodes are ready to deploy out of the box and sensor probes can be recalibrated or changed in the field, with kits provided by Libelium.

“Smart Water is an improvement on existing water quality control in terms of accuracy, efficiency, and low operational costs. For municipalities, water quality detection and monitoring systems have to be reliable, autonomous, and flexible,” said David Gascón, CTO at Libelium. “With Waspmote, a full Smart Water solution is now available at a price point ten times less than current market solutions, for better management of water resources.”

Applications:

• Potable water monitoring: Common chemical parameters include pH, nitrates and dissolved oxygen. Measuring O2 (or DO) is an important gauge of water quality. Changes in dissolved oxygen levels indicate the presence of microorganisms from sewage, urban or agriculture runoff or discharge from factories. A right level of ORP minimizes the presence of microorganisms such as E. coli, Salmonella, Listeria. Levels of Turbidity below 1 NTU indicates the right purity of drinking water.
• Chemical leakage detection in rivers:  Extreme pH or low DO values signal chemical spills due to sewage treatment plant or supply pipe problems.
• Swimming pool remote measurement: Measuring oxidation-reduction potential (ORP), pH and Cloride levels of water can determine if the water quality in swimming pools and spas is sufficient for recreational purposes.
• Pollution levels in the sea: Measuring levels of temperature, salinity, pH, oxygen and nitrates gives feedback for quality-sensing systems in seawater.
• Corrosion and limescale deposits prevention: By controlling the hardness of the water we can avoid the corrosion and limescale deposits in dishwashers and water treatment devices like heaters. Water hardness depends on: pH, temperature, conductivity, and  Ca+/ Mg2+ concentrations.
• Fish Tank Monitoring (Aquaculture/Aquaponics): Measuring the water conditions of aquatic animals such as snails, fish, crayfish or prawns in tanks. Important values are pH, Dissolved Oxygen (DO) and water temperature.
• Hydroponics: Plants that take the nutrients directly from the water need a precise pH and Oxygen in water (DO) levels to get the maximum growth.

Smart Water Sensor Board + Probes for Waspmote OEM

Specific Ion Monitoring Applications:

• Drinking water quality control: Calcium (Ca2+), Iodide (I-), Chloride (Cl-), Nitrate (NO3-), pH.
• Agriculture water monitoring: Calcium (Ca2+), Nitrate (N03-), pH.
• Swimming pools: Bromide (Br), Chloride (Cl-), Fluoride (F-), pH.
• Waste water treatment: Cupric (Cu2+), Silver/Sulfide (Ag+/S2-), Lead (Pb2+), Fluoroborate (BF4-), pH.

Waspmote Smart Water Technical Characteristics:

• Sensor probes measure more than 12 chemical and physical water quality parameters such as pH, nitrates (NO3), dissolved ions (F-, Ca2+, NO3-, Cl-, Pb2+, I-, Cu2+, Br-, Ag+/S2-, BF4-) dissolved oxygen (DO), conductivity (salinity), oxidation-reduction potential (ORP), turbidity, temperature, etc. Pollutants can be detected and treated in real-time, to ensure good water quality over an entire water supply network. Extreme pH values may indicate chemical spills, treatment plant issues, or problems in supply pipes. Low levels of DO may indicate the presence of microorganisms due to urban/agricultural runoff or sewage spills. ORP measures how well water sanitization is working.
• Waspmote transmits sensor readings to the Cloud via 3G, GPRS, or WCDMA cellular connections; in the case of several nodes located in the same zone, Waspmote sends values to the Meshlium Internet Gateway via long range RF bands 868MHz and 900MHz. Sensor data is available in real time, even from sensor nodes situated in remote locations.
• CE / FCC / IC certification and quad-band cellular connectivity (850/900/1900/2100MHz).Waspmote supports any cellular connection provider, and is ready for deployment in any country in the world.

The new Smart Water sensors are available for both Waspmote lines:

• Waspmote Plug & Sense! [Ready to deploy in final projects]
• Waspmote OEM [To be embedded in a third party product line]

Download here the Smart Water Technical Guide.

For more information about the Libelium’s new Smart Water Sensors contact our Commercial Team.

IoT market moves from pilots to full-scale projects requiring local support worldwide

SAN JOSE, Calif., and ZARAGOZA, Spain—March 31, 2014—At the EE Live! Conference today, Libelium confirmed the expansion of its distribution network to VARs in Asia Pacific, Europe and North America to meet the strong demand for IoT applications in agriculture, environmental control, Smart Cities and Smart Water.

Libelium’s local distributors in the U.S., Australia, China, Germany, New Zealand and South Korea will sell and deploy IoT solutions based on Libelium’s Waspmote wireless sensor platform. Asia Pacific includes some of the world’s fastest growing urban areas: Navigant Research forecasts that annual Smart City investment in Asia Pacific will quadruple by 2023, to reach $11.3 billion. Similarly, market momentum in Europe and North America is strong for precision agriculture and Smart Cities projects now progressing from pilot to full-scale rollout. Libelium has opened a U.S. office to support customers in these markets.

Libelium Distributor Network: http://www.libelium.com/contact/#distributors

“Currently, 80 percent of Libelium’s revenues come from export, with our wireless sensor network technology deployed in agriculture and Smart City projects that require local partners,” said Javier Martinez, Libelium Vice President, Business Development. “Many cities in developing and developed countries are adopting sensor solutions to reduce energy use, monitor environmental conditions, optimize mobility, and to improve infrastructure for the future.”

Libelium is poised to expand its global distribution network on five continents in 2014, with special interest for VARs in LATAM and the Middle East. To locate or propose a distributor, please contact: commercial@libelium.com; telephone: +34-976-547-492.

Libelium Distributors / VARs

• Australia/New Zealand: M2M Connectivity provides distribution and technical support for wireless M2M products and technologies including cellular (LTE/3G/GSM), satellite (Iridium/Inmarsat/Globalstar), industrial short-range wireless (Bluetooth, WLAN, ZigBee) and modems, modules and accessories. www.m2mconnectivity.com.au
• China: PuTianTongDa Technologies (PUTD), a network equipment supplier and services company located in Beijing, serves customers in the areas of environmental protection, meteorological monitoring, petrochemical, power transmission, transportation and water conservation. www.putd.com
• Europe: EXP GmbH – Germany
  EXP-Tech is one of the largest DIY online shops in Europe. www.exp-tech.de
• North America: Premier Wireless Solutions (PWS) is a value-added distributor and solutions provider offering a full spectrum of RF technologies, systems integration services, testing & certification, and cellular data plans. www.pwsstore.com
• South Korea: Founded in 2012, IREXNET is active in three key business areas: network integration, solution integration, and IoT products. www.irexnet.co.kr
• Worldwide: The online DIY retail store Cooking Hacks serves developers, designers, engineers, inventors, and makers for projects with sensors, robotics, actuators, Arduino and Raspberry Pi. Creators of the Arduino Xbee shield, among other add-ons, Cooking Hacks began selling Waspmote OEM worldwide in September 2012. www.cooking-hacks.com

With the the addition of the Turdibidy sensor to the Smart Water solution Libelium completes the range of water quality sensors available for Waspmote and Plug & Sense! platforms. The new set include: pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), oxidation-reduction potential (ORP), conductivity (salinity), turbidity, temperature and dissolved ions (Na⁺, Ca⁺, F^-, Cl^-, Br^-, I^-, Cu²⁺, K⁺, Mg²⁺, NO₃^-).

Turbidity is the haziness of a fluid caused by individual solid particles that are generally invisible to the naked eye. The measurement of turbidity is a key test of water quality. Nephelometers, or nephelometric turbidimeters, measure the light scattered at an angle of 90° by one detector from the incident light beam generated by an incandescent light bulb. Readings are reported in Nephelometric Turbidity Units (NTU).

The measurement of turbidity is important in the next scenarios:

• Urban waste water treatment (inlet / outlet controls)
• Sanitation network
• Industrial effluent treatment
• Surface water monitoring
• Drinking water
• Aquaponics
• Hydroponics

The new Turbidity sensor probe has a range from 0 to 4000 NTU (0-4500mg/l), and allows to detect if the measured water is potable (< 1 NTU) or not, as it has an accuracy of 1 NTU. The sensor probe comes calibrated from factory although periodic calibration is required to maintain the maximum accuracy; to do so Libelium provides calibration kits.

Drinking Water Standards
Governments have set standards on the allowable turbidity in drinking water. In the United States, systems that use conventional or direct filtration methods turbidity cannot be higher than 1 nephelometric turbidity units (NTU) at the plant outlet and all samples for turbidity must be less than or equal to 0.3 NTU for at least 95 percent of the samples in any month. Systems that use filtration other than the conventional or direct filtration must follow state limits, which must include turbidity at no time exceeding 5 NTU. Many drinking water utilities strive to achieve levels as low as 0.1 NTU.

For technical information read the Smart Water Technical Guide.

For purchase information please contact the Commercial Department.

Open Aquarium and Open Garden IoT solutions use Arduino and Open Source APIs

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., and ZARAGOZA, Spain—Today, at Dreamforce 2014, Libelium launched two new sensor platforms that automate control and maintenance tasks in aquariums and in gardens through wireless connectivity and using open source APIs. Designed for Makers, the new IoT solutions are based on Arduino, and include specialized sensors to measure parameters vital to aquatic life in ponds and fish tanks, or for indoor and outdoor gardening.

Open Aquarium monitors factors in water such as temperature, pH, conductivity; it measures water levels and leakage, and deploys actuators that can feed the fish, regulate water heating / cooling, activate pumps to change water or administer medicine, and control light intensity to simulate day- and night cycles. The sensors send information using wireless interfaces such as Wi-Fi, GPRS and 3G, for a perfect solution to monitor complex Aquaponic installations.

Open Garden includes a suite of sensors such as humidity, light, temperature, or soil moisture to monitor plants for optimal care wherever they are situated. Its actuators can control irrigation, and activate lights and oxygen pumps. A Hydroponics kit is also available including pH and conductivity probes.

Each product comes with a complete open source API, and a web application that allows collected information to be stored in a database and visualized from a browser or from iPhone or Android smartphone devices. Open Aquarium and Open Garden are designed to work with both U.S. (110V) and Europe (220V) power requirements.

“We design connected technology using open source code to help makers discover, improve, and scale new sensor-based solutions for the Internet of Things,” said David Gascón, CTO at Libelium.

Immediate Availability

Kits for both platforms are available for purchase on the Cooking Hacks website, Libelium’s open hardware division. Pricing starts at 199€ (~$250). For further information, please see:

Open Aquarium
http://www.cooking-hacks.com/documentation/tutorials/open-aquarium-aquaponics-fish-tank-monitoring-arduino

Open Garden
http://www.cooking-hacks.com/documentation/tutorials/open-garden-hydroponics-irrigation-system-sensors-plant-monitoring

For more information about our products contact the Libelium Commercial Department.

Urban and territorial management systems based on wireless sensor networks already maintain and prevent the disruption of essential city services, in Smart City installations across the globe.

By linking the physical world to the Internet, Internet of Things (IoT) wireless sensor technology can improve resilience in such areas as civil protection; telecommunications; energy, electricity; water supply; urban maintenance; traffic management.

Cities adapt for resilience

Pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation, the 100 Resilient Cities (100RC) organization supports a view of resilience that includes not just the shocks—earthquakes, fires, floods—but also the stresses that weaken the fabric of a city on a day-to-day basis. By addressing both factors, a city can improve its response to adverse events, and is overall better able to deliver basic functions in good times and bad, to all populations.

Cities in La Garrotxa span a region comprising protected lands, urban areas and industry

Urban resilience through city management

This key idea motivated Opticits, a Barcelona startup from the IQS-University of Ramon Llull, to work with Sigma, a public municipal organization in charge of environment and services, to create and deploy a City Resilience Management platform that integrates Libelium’s Waspmote Plug & Sense! sensor nodes and Meshlium gateways.

Opticits’ experience in the industrial and petrochemical sectors led it to develop an IT and management solution that makes cities urban resilient, more efficient and sustainable. Based on collaboration among local authorities, the system guides urban planning decision makers and city managers.

Early Smart City pilots and proof-of-concept projects have evolved to larger scale installations designed to stay in place for decades. In Spain, Opticits’ initial urban resilience assessment project in Barcelona (1.621.000 inhabitants and 102 km2) was reproduced at laboratory scale in Tremp (6.200 inhabitants and 310 km2), then subsequently deployed on a wider scale with a regional focus in La Garrotxa (54.000 inhabitants and 534 km2).

La Garrotxa serves as a test bed for managing resilience in a community of 21 municipalities, with a model that other urban areas may readily incorporate.

La Garroxta is a region in the Girona province of Catalonia, located between the Pyrenees Mountains and the Mediterranean Costa Brava. Well known for its volcanic natural park, the region of over 50,000 inhabitants has an industrial tradition and an agricultural one, and is noted today for its meat industry. This mixed urban-industrial economic profile is representative of many areas of Europe, and the population enjoys a per capita income well within the EU average.

The region of La Garrotxa, located between the Pyrenees and the Costa Brava

With Opticits’ HAZUR software platform, those charged with managing resilience are instantly alerted to potential cascading effects, and are provided with the detail and information they need to adequately respond. The system helps manage the complexity of the situation and develop strategic planning choices. HAZUR includes an assessment module to determine which sensors to deploy. Information from the Waspmote nodes feeds into a city management dashboard to monitor levels of the river, CO2, fire sensors, among the 40 different types of sensors deployed.

Sensor deployment: Large, open, flexible

In La Garrotxa, 35 Waspmote sensor nodes power three main application configurations, measuring parameters for forest fire prevention, river flood monitoring, and ambient control, such as air quality and greenhouse gases. In each configuration the Waspmote Plug & Sense! nodes are equipped with solar panels and rechargeable batteries, to ensure years of autonomy. The Waspmotes themselves are IP65 rated and designed to be highly modular to allow a sensor to be removed or added in seconds. In La Garrotxa, the devices communicate via Wi-Fi and are able to reach upwards of 40 km in Line of Sight (LOS) conditions using the 868MHz module.

Forest Fire Prevention (11 nodes)

In this configuration Waspmote Plug & Sense! Smart Environment monitors four different parameters to detect and prevent forest fires, with sensor probes in trees and on rooftops measuring:

• Temperature
• Humidity
• CO2
• CO

Waspmote Plug & Sense! Smart Environment sensor node

River Monitoring / Flood Prevention (16 nodes)

• Waspmote Plug & Sense! Smart Metering includes ultrasound sensors for liquid flow detection and distance measurement.

Detail of river monitoring sensor node placement in Olot, La Garrotxa

Antenna and sensor node placement to detect water level for flood prevention

Ambient Control (7 nodes):

• Waspmote Plug & Sense! Smart Environment includes calibrated sensor probes to measure air pollution, gases and the presence of industrial solvents.
• CO2
• NO2
• Air Pollutants I (NH3, SH2, ethanol and toluene)
• Liquid petroleum

Smart Environment sensor node can harvest energy and receive new calibrated probes

Also deployed in the wireless sensor network are eight Meshlium gateways in place outdoors throughout the area to ensure long-range transmission of data to the Cloud, and several external Wi-Fi antennas to boost Wi-Fi coverage. Meshlium is a Linux router that works as a multiprotocol gateway for the Waspmote wireless sensor networks. Meshlium can contain five different radio interfaces; including Wi-Fi, 3G/GPRS, Bluetooth, ZigBee, and can integrate GPS modules for mobile and vehicular applications.

Installing sensor nodes in optimal locations for forest fire detection

WSN Deployment: Location, Location, Location

The territory of La Garrotxa is a mix of town, countryside and rugged forest in an area protected by environmental regulation and historical patrimony laws. Setting up the wireless sensor network included a planning phase to analyze sensor placement, taking into account antennae range, positioning of solar panels in forested areas, and the design and construction of structures to install the river sensors.

Once in place Waspmote sensors effectively capture and transmit the information needed to monitor water quality, air pollution, fire hazards, and other threats that the local resilience managers can read in real time. The high performance of Waspmote makes the readings accurate and data transmission is highly reliable. “Libelium’s wireless sensor networks are an integral part of bringing an affordable solution to La Garrotxa,” said Ignasi Fontanals, CEO and co-founder of Opticits. “The great thing we identified with the Sigma team is that the Libelium sensor platform is so easy to deploy and scale. That makes a big difference as cities and regions adapt to unforeseen changes now and in the future.”

Opticit’s HAZUR dashboard is the basis of many system tools used to oversee the data capture and integration, and to track and manage key performance indicators (KPI) that support working structures and responsibilities in regional services. The system is managed with a software dashboard, known as a “situation room,” where La Garrotxa resilience managers view an interdependence map that displays the vulnerability and resilience of the infrastructure networks.

A user’s view of Opticits’ HAZUR situation room software interface

Urban planning is long term

For Francesc Canalias, General Manager at Sigma, the effectiveness of the Opticits system relies on data from Libelium sensor devices. “To bring urban resilience to La Garrotxa, we had a plan for the long term and needed a sensor network platform that was extremely flexible and adaptable, able to meet the dynamic requirements of various urban services that work as an ecosystem. Libelium’s Waspmote sensors and Meshlium gateway were easy to install and integrate with HAZUR, so they are the perfect fit in this regard.”

With the implementation of HAZUR and Libelium sensors, the territory of La Garrotxa can readily manage critical facets of its infrastructure and public services. The system installation has already led to greater cooperation between public and private interests within the region, who continue working together to identify threats and remedy areas of non-compliance.

“The Internet of Things represents an opportunity for industry and entrepreneurs to invent and innovate, to deploy technology that leads to a better quality of life. Spain is fertile ground for the Internet of Things because necessity, know-how and the means come together to solve problems,” said Alicia Asin, CEO and co-founder of Libelium.

Technological innovation may bring its greatest benefits in projects of social utility. In Barcelona and in La Garrotxa, city managers and IT project managers have created a new working dynamic by setting priorities that align communities as they strive to improve resilience for neighborhoods and for an entire region. Spain is developing an ecosystem comprised of technology enterprises, universities, private industry, municipalities, regional government stakeholders working together to benefit cities where we live and work.

Read more about our product lines in Waspmote, Plug & Sense! and Meshlium websites.

If you are interested in purchase information please contact the Commercial Department.

Environmental degradation has put many marine species in danger of extinction, risking damage to the planet's biodiversity.

The Fluvial Aquarium of Zaragoza

For most people the aquatic environment is a great unknown. Aquariums offer the possibility to study and enjoy these fascinating ecosystems without the need for long and expensive trips. Aquariums are a great educational tool that can raise public awareness about the need to preserve the lives and habitats of aquatic animals, and make people aware of the importance of biodiversity.

One of the objectives of a modern aquarium is to publicize the ecology of lakes, rivers, seas, and oceans, as well as their current environmental risk.

The Fluvial Aquarium of Zaragoza is the largest of its kind in Europe. It has more than 2.5 million litres of water in 70 aquariums and aqua-terrariums. It houses the largest freshwater tank in Europe, with 1.7 million litres of water and a depth of 9 meters, and contains species of freshwater fish from five continents.

Fluvial Aquarium of Zaragoza

The aquarium recreates the world's most important river ecosystems: the Nile (Africa), the Mekong (Asia), the Amazon (America), the Murray-Darling (Oceania) and the Ebro (Europe). It hosts over 100 species and 1,000 individuals, respecting their natural conditions.

The Project

The majority of animals that live in the aquarium are extremely sensitive to changes in environmental conditions. For the fish to thrive, thorough and regular monitoring of various physical and chemical parameters in the water is necessary.

In each system, a suitable range is defined for these key parameters. These are maintained within appropriate levels through filtration systems and regular water changes, biomass control, and maintenance of the systems.

Thanks to the collaboration between Libelium and the Aquarium of Zaragoza, measurements at the freshwater aquarium and a terrarium are taken several times per hour instead of once a day.

The main goal of the water-monitoring project is to automate the measurement of physical and chemical parameters in the tanks, improving the reliability and frequency of the data collected, and simplifying the tasks of the Aquarium of Zaragoza staff.

The Monitoring cycle works as follows:

Aquarium of Zaragoza Solution Diagram

• Every five minutes, the Smart Water sensors installed by Libelium measure different air and water quality parameters in the aquarium and the terrarium.
• Data is captured and digitized by Waspmote. Two different nodes located in the same zone send values to the Meshlium Internet Gateway via long-range 868MHz band.
• Meshlium, Libelium's multiprotocol router, is used in this project to gather all the data from the sensor nodes and transmit them in the Cloud. In this project, Meshlium also stores all the data internally to build a data historic.
• Aquarium technicians can access this data in real time to know the status of the aquariums and terrariums and correct any anomalies.

The diagram above shows the probes, the nodes, the sensor network and its connection to the Cloud.

The Piranhas Aquarium

In the freshwater aquarium, a recreation of the Amazon River, more than 20 piranhas (Pygocentrus nattereri) and 3 false piranhas or pacús (Colossoma macropomum) live in 13,300 L of water. The physico-chemical properties of this tank are soft and acid waters, typical of this great river.

The freshwater aquarium is home to more than 20 piranhas

The selected solution for the freshwater aquarium was Libelium Smart Water. It can be used to monitor different parameters related to water quality such as temperature, pH, Electroconductivity or Dissolved Oxygen in water, among others. Monitoring these parameters helps aquarium technicians ensure animal welfare.

"Changes in the optimal conditions of both types of aquatic environments can be detected now in minutes, ensuring the quickest reaction of the aquarium team. Waspmote Smart Water is the first water quality-sensing platform that connects to the Cloud for real-time water monitoring,” said David Gascón, Libelium CTO. "The wireless sensor network we have deployed in the Aquarium of Zaragoza simplifies remote water and air quality control."

Smart Water probes measure ORP, Electroconductivity, pH, Dissolved Oxygen, Temperature

The particular parameters analyzed in the piranhas’ aquarium include:

• ORP (Oxidation Reduction Potential): Amount of electrons in water
• EC (Electroconductivity): Amount of salts dissolved in water
• pH (pH): Acidity of water
• OD (Dissolved Oxygen): Amount of oxygen dissolved in water
• WT (Temperature): Water temperature

The complete range of Smart Water sensors available for Waspmote and Plug & Sense! platforms include: pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), oxidation-reduction potential (ORP), conductivity (salinity), turbidity, temperature and dissolved ions (Na⁺, Ca⁺, F^-, Cl^-, Br^-, I^-, Cu²⁺, K⁺, Mg²⁺, NO₃^-).

The Anaconda Tank

In the terrarium, also located in the Amazon River area of the aquarium, live an Anaconda and seven different fish species offspring. Nearly 300 specimens from eight different species, living in harmony in 8,000 L of water. For this snake weighing over 25 kilograms and nearly 3 meters in length, a specific measurement of humidity, temperature and luminosity is required.

The Anaconda Tank

The solution chosen for this installation was Ambient Control. This specific Plug & Sense! model monitors basic environment parameters using temperature, humidity and luminosity sensors.

One of the main challenges we encountered during the Aquarium of Zaragoza project was to place the devices without disturbing the animals. A key point was to affect the animals’ environments as little as possible.

Libelium collaborated closely with the Aquarium of Zaragoza technical staff to find the best location for Ambient Control in the terrarium.

Parameters analyzed in the Anaconda tank:

• TH (Temperature and humidity): Temperature and humidity in the terrarium.
• LUX (Luxes): Amount of light

"The advantages of the real time control system are endless compared to the traditional systems. Now we can monitor the entire Aquarium from a smartphone, and we are saving money every day," said Javier González, Aquarium of Zaragoza Technology Director. "Having a data measurement record is clearly an additional advantage. Now the data is stored automatically without any effort on our side."

Data Visualization

It is possible to check remotely in Meshlium all the data taken by the nodes. You can find in the screenshots below two examples of monitored data: Water Temperature and Conductivity. Clic to enlarge.

Meshlium Water Temperature Data

Meshlium Conductivity Data

Conclusion

Biodiversity is fundamental to human existence on Earth and used in a sustainable way, is an unlimited supply of natural resources, providing many essential goods and services to society. It is closely connected also to the health and welfare of people, and is key to social and economic development.

It is the task of all of us to protect our environment, to act sustainably, to learn about and care for the species that make up our essential aquatic ecosystem.

For more technical information about Smart Water read the Smart Water Technical Guide.

For further information about our product lines go to Waspmote and Plug & Sense! website.

If you are interested in purchase information please contact the Commercial Department.

Award-winning smart beehive project is a unique platform to monitor honey bees remotely and in real time, within the hive.

Honey bees have throughout history been a keystone species, pollinating an estimated 70 percent of all plants and underpinning some 30 percent of the global food supply. Because the viability of beehives is a critical predictor of the planet’s future health and agricultural sustainability, reports of a precipitous decline in the number of colonies around the world have stirred considerable alarm.

Bees are a predictor of the planet’s future health

Researchers, environmentalists and public policy makers alike are focused on understanding this current ebb of productivity, which has been associated with several likely factors:

• Global warming has accelerated the growth rates of damaging pathogens such as mites, viruses and fungi. It has also seriously upset the natural rhythms adapted to by bee populations over centuries of previously consistent seasonal weather patterns.
• Pesticides used in crop production are ingested and transmitted back to hives via bees during pollination, resulting in the spread of damaging disease, weakening and very often the total collapse of colonies.
• Increased atmospheric electromagnetic radiation associated with exponential growth in the numbers of cell phones and wireless communications towers is believed to interfere with the bee’s ability to navigate in flight.

Reading Beehives

Researchers understand that any meaningful response to these environmental changes and potentially related threats will first require analyzing conditions within bee colonies.

The Solution

The students used as their starting point Waspmote, a modular hardware sensor platform developed by Libelium that can connect any sensor network and wireless technology to any cloud platform. The UCC team integrated gas and hive condition sensors, ZigBee radios, 3G and GSM communications to look at the impact of carbon dioxide, oxygen, temperature, humidity, chemical pollutants and airborne dust levels on the honey bees.

Waspmote Smart Beehives

Dr. Emanuel Popovici, the Director of Embedded Systems Group at UCC, called the winning project an exceptional nexus at which “long established technologies and beekeeping practices meet the latest advances in electronic technology.”

Data from initial observations of the project were captured in two scientific papers and three invention disclosures with smarter hive features and experiments currently being carried out at the UCC Embedded Systems Laboratory. A second deployment of the UCC “smart beehive” is planned to further study sensor combinations used in the first phase. All data will be made available.

Monitoring Beehives Team

PhD candidate Fiona Edwards Murphy spearheaded the group project, co-supervised by Dr. Popovici and Dr. Padraig Whelan, of the school of Biology, Earth and Environmental Sciences (BEES) at UCC.

“If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left,” a quote often attributed to Albert Einstein once warned. “No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.” In 1901 the prominent Belgian writer Maurice Maeterlinck published “The Life of the Bee,” and helped to popularize the idea that the bee was a vital ecological linchpin. The work was originally written in French. Maeterlinck provocatively suggested that we owed our civilization to the bee, that readers might conclude that the extinction of the bee would lead to the collapse of civilization.

What neither Einstein nor anyone else could not predict was the use of smart technology to integrate beehive sensors and digest the data they collect. Such platforms have a critical role to play not only in ensuring pollination but, ultimately, in monitoring, understanding and managing precious global resources of all kinds.

Technology: Wireless sensor networks

Sending data to the Cloud using GSM - Remote Monitoring Beehives Diagram

For the engineering study, the group selected Libelium’s Waspmote wireless sensor platform because of the wide range of sensors available. Waspmote Plug & Sense! sensor nodes integrate more than 70 sensors, adapting to any wireless sensor scenario such as air and noise pollution, irrigation control, livestock tracking, vineyard monitoring, water quality, etc. With its waterproof enclosure, Waspmote Plug & Sense! is suitable for outdoor deployment, and sensor probes are easy to add or change. Another requirement for the honeybee project was the ability to harvest energy, and the Waspmotes installed are energy neutral with solar panels that allow the nodes to work autonomously for years, thanks to Waspmote’s extreme low power consumption. It was important that the sensor node fit inside the beehive, without impeding activity of the beekeeper and to avoid any interference with the bees.

Waspmote nodes installed in the beehives measure CO, CO2, O2, temperature, humidity, chemical pollutants (NO2, H2, NH3, Toluene, Isobutane) and airborne dust, all important indicators of the health of the bee colony within. One objective of monitoring is to send important real time information directly to the beekeeper; another is to collect data for analysis, and to build a database that enables partners in biology to study pests and diseases.

Waspmote Plug & Sense! Smart Environment model - Up to 6 sensor probes

Technologies involved in the Monitoring Beehives (2B) OR! (2B) Project

The sensor nodes communicate via Zigbee and form a network. A gateway node or Meshlium multiprotocol gateway receives the sensor data for transmission to the Internet – the Cloud—via Ethernet, Wi-Fi or 3G/GPRS, depending on available connectivity. The sensor data collected at the hive is readable on mobile devices, PCs, smartphones or tablets, and can be integrated into maps or geographic information systems (GIS), or easily imported into third-party applications or databases for analysis.

Monitoring Beehives Cloud Options

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) blend high connectivity, low power, and interoperability with electronic devices and diverse data systems.

Read more about our product lines in Waspmote, Plug & Sense! and Meshlium websites.

If you are interested in purchase information please contact the Commercial Department.

What is particle pollution?

Particle pollution (also known as "particulate matter") in the air includes a mixture of solids and liquid droplets. Some particles are emitted directly; others are formed in the atmosphere when other pollutants react. Particles come in a wide range of sizes. Those less than 10 micrometers in diameter (PM10) are so small that they can get into the lungs, potentially causing serious health problems. Ten micrometers is smaller than the width of a single human hair.

Skyline of Jena, Germany, in dusty morning

The size of particles is directly linked to their potential for causing health problems. Small particles less than 10 micrometers in diameter pose the greatest problems, because they can affect the lungs and heart. Larger particles are of less concern, although they can irritate the eyes, nose, and throat.

• Fine particles (PM2.5). Particles less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter are called "fine" particles. Sources of fine particles include all types of combustion, also motor vehicles, power plants, residential wood burning, forest fires, agricultural burning, and some industrial processes. PM2.5 contains more toxic heavy metals and hazardous organic pollutants and can go directly to the lungs. It is more easily attached to bacteria and viruses in the environment, so the particles have greater impact on ecology and human health.
• Coarse dust particles. Particles between 2.5 and 10 micrometers in diameter are referred to as "coarse." Sources of coarse particles include crushing or grinding operations, and dust stirred up by vehicles traveling on roads.

How can particles affect your health?

Long-term exposure, is associated with problems such as reduced lung function and the development of chronic bronchitis and even premature death.

Short-term exposure to particles (hours or days) can aggravate lung disease, cause asthma attacks and acute bronchitis, and may also increase susceptibility to respiratory infections. In people with heart disease, short-term exposure is linked to heart attacks and arrhythmias. Healthy children and adults may experience temporary minor irritation when particle levels are elevated.

About the Libelium Particle Matter Sensor:

The new particle matter sensor uses light scattering theory and particle counting technology and can accurately detect the number of particles in its surroundings to provide useful reference data for environmental improvement. With the new dust sensor we can obtain information about particle size and density ranging from 1um to 10um (PM1 / PM2.5 / PM10).

• Sampling interval: 200ms
• Flow rate: 1L/min
• Particle count rate: 20,000 particles/second

Plug & Sense! Smart Environment PRO with new particle matter - dust sensor (PM1 / PM2.5 / PM10)

What about pollen particles?

Libelium is currently integrating a new particle sensor focused on the detection of pollen particles. These particles are in the range of 10um to 100um and need complementary technology tfor proper measurement. The pollen sensor detects the particle thorough the light scattering method, using one light emitter and two light receptors, and discriminates pollen from other particles with two factors: "scattered light intensity" and "degree of polarization".

With this capability, the node will be able to detect airborne particles and discriminate cedar pollen from road dust by checking scattered light intensity and polarization degree.

Plug & Sense! Smart Environment PRO with new particle matter - dust sensor (PM1 / PM2.5 / PM10)

The Particle Matter - Dust Sensor have been included in the new Gases PRO Sensor Board (this board has a wider range of gas sensors available and highly increased accuracy), and is one of the key features of Libelium's new Smart Cities sensing solution, Smart Environment PRO.

For more Technical information go to Waspmote and Plug & Sense! website, and to the Gases PRO Technical Guide.

For more information about the new Particle Matter - Dust Sensor contact the Libelium Commercial Department.

If you are exploring IoT possibilities with a pilot project, setting up a demo to engage with potential customers or just comparing technology options, time is the most important factor.

We have created five different demo kits addressing the most dynamic IoT verticals and one evaluator kit to ensure you get started in as fast as possible. The vertical kits are factory programmed, include a visualization plugin in Meshlium (only available in demo kits) and five hours of technical consultancy so that you can have a working demo just by powering on the devices.

Meshlium visualization plugin allows to:

• Visualize real-time data.
• Show measured data graphically between different time periods. It is possible to select for example last week, or last month data.
• Compare different parameters in the same node, and check their historical evolution in a comparative way.
• Geolocate the nodes via GPS and a communication module, and check in a visual map the data measured for each node.

It is possible to store data both in Meshlium internal database and in an external one, synchronizing Meshlium with a company management platform or ERP. All the data can be easily exported in different formats such as CSV, TXT, Excel, etc.

Compare different parameters using line charts

Geolocate nodes and data measured in visual maps

Smart Cities Demo Kit

The Smart Cities Demo Kit allows real time monitoring of key parameters in cities, such as sound and light to make noise urban maps, or to develop adaptive lightning systems.

Smart Cities Demo Kit

Weather control and air quality applications can be carried out thanks to humidity and temperature sensors and pollution detectors (CO2, NO2, CO, O3). Trash collection routes might be optimized with the ultrasound detection of rubbish levels in containers.

Related case study: Smart City project in Serbia for environmental monitoring by Public Transportation.

Smart Agriculture Demo Kit

The Smart Agriculture Demo Kit enables monitoring of environmental parameters in agriculture, vineyards, greenhouses or golf courses.

Soil moisture and temperature, humidity, leaf wetness and atmospheric pressure sensors allow to control the amount of sugar in grapes to enhance wine quality, as well as to control micro-climate conditions to maximize the production of fruits and vegetables in green houses.

Smart Agriculture Demo Kit

The three levels of depth of the soil moisture sensor are helpful to reduce waste of water by selective irrigation in dry zones. On the other hand, controlling humidity and temperature levels in hay, straw, etc. can prevent fungus and other microbial contaminants.

Related case study: Smart Agriculture project in Galicia to monitor vineyards with Waspmote.

Smart Parking Demo Kit

The Smart Parking Demo Kit enables detection of free parking spots. It is designed to be buried in parking spaces and to detect the arrival and departure of vehicles with an electromagnetic field sensor.

Smart Parking Demo Kit

It includes PVC casings for mechanical impact and ingress protection. The use of PVC ensures that radio communication is not hindered.

Related case study: Smart Parking and environmental monitoring in one of the world’s largest WSN.

Smart Environment Demo Kit

The Smart Environment Demo Kit allows to monitor temperature and humidity, as well as measuring levels of CO, CO2 and O3. This kit can be used to control air pollution from cars and toxic gases generated in factories and farms (CO and CO2). These same gases can be monitored to ensure workers and goods safety inside chemical plants, and to reduce the presence of ozone in the drying meat process in food factories.

Smart Environment Demo Kit

A relevant application for this kit could be forest fire detection, just by controlling combustion gases and preemptive fire conditions in order to define alert zones.

Related case study: Smart Factory: Reducing Maintenance Costs and Ensuring Quality in the Manufacturing Process.

Smart Water Demo Kit

Smart Water Demo Kit is equipped with multiple sensors to improve and simplify remote water quality monitoring (pH, Dissolved Oxygen, Conductivity, etc). Using this kit swimming pool conditions can be remotely controlled, and cities can benefit by monitoring the quality of tap water.

Smart Water Demo Kit

Chemical leakages and pollution levels in rivers and in the sea can also be prevented by real time measurement of pH and conductivity levels.

Related case study: Water Quality Monitoring in Europe’s Largest Fluvial Aquarium.

Evaluator Kit

This kit is designed to compare different radio technologies or create customized demos. It contains the most demanded products in our catalogue, so that you do not need to spend lots of time configuring your order.

To ensure you start testing the products as soon as possible, we include 1 attendee place at Libelium training course where you will learn from installing the IDE to program Waspmote (more info about training courses here).

Finally, we also include a 3 hour package of online technical consultancy, to solve quickly any doubt you may have when getting your hands on Waspmote. Both training courses and consultancy hours are given with Libelium R&D engineers.

Evaluator Kit

For more Technical information go to Waspmote and Plug & Sense! website.

For more information about our products and to know all the components in every kit contact the Libelium Commercial Department.

The building industry needs to reduce the environmental impact generated by its activity to improve the sustainability regulations compliance and, at the same time, increase its competitiveness reducing costs.

This is the aim of the VisionTech4Life, an initiative as a result of Basque Country companies and research centers cooperation, to know and mitigate the environmental effects which implies any civil work.

For that, they have developed an environmental impacts detection system in real time which allows measure water quality an other atmospheric parameters based on Libelium wireless sensor networks technology.

This project has been deployed in the “Villapérez” water treatment plant construction, located in Oviedo (Asturias, Spain).

Oviedo, Asturias, Spain

Helped by the Environmental Surveillance Plan which exists in the construction, they identified the surroundings and made the most sensible points in order to measure the water, air and noise quality. For these last parameters, they selected the check points close to houses placed in that area. In these points were installed the noise and particle matter sensors.

Water sensor calibrating works in the water treatment plant

The project is equipped with four Waspmote Plug & Sense! Sensor Platform connected by a Meshlium Gateway with an outwards public IP. One of the nodes has a M2M connection and the three others use a Zigbee 802.15.4 communication protocol.

Water treatment plant monitoring

The four Waspmote Plug & Sense! Sensor Platform installed monitor the following environmental and water quality parameters:

• Waspmote Plug & Sense! Smart Water: Turbidity, Oxidation-Reduction Potential (ORP), pH, Dissolved Oxygen (DO) and Temperature.
• Waspmote Plug & Sense! Smart Environment: particle matter PM1; PM2,5 PM10, and Temperature, Humidity, Pressure atmospheric.
• Waspmote Plug & Sense! Smart Cities: day, evening and night Luminosity.
• Waspmote Plug & Sense! Smart Cities: Luminosity and temperature.

The National Park of Manú in Peru is one of the most impressive nature reserves in the world and it is the home for a great biological diversity. The UNESCO recognized it in 1987 as World Heritage Site and Biosphere Reserve. Nevertheless, this wide range of plants and animals, although they are protected, are also threatened by climate change. In order to preserve these and others species, some Peruvian professional researchers have led a project with the aim to monitor nature behavior in real time and habitat.

National Park of Manú, Peru

Sensors in a remote nature reserve

The path to acess to the National Park of Manú last many hours and goes across roads and rivers. During this way is really common to suffer temperature changes, from a burning sun to heavy rain. The rain-forest is such a unique area that is vital for researchers data collection in order to analyse this particular information.

RFID Radical Solutions, a Peruvian company that offers M2M solutions, has installed Libelium’s Waspmote Plug & Sense! Smart Environment and Waspmote Plug & Sense! Smart Agriculture in this project. With this two wireless sensor platforms different parametres from water and air are collected. The communication protocol applied to communicate the Waspmote Plug & Sense! Sensor Platform with the Meshlium Gateway was LoRa 900MHz with a high-range-transmission.

Waspmote Plug & Sense! Smart Agriculture and Environment schema

In this project, led by the Peruvian engineer Jorge Camus, there have been installed several cameras and 25 wireless sensors which, through an aerial, emit the information about what is happenning in at least 30 kilometres of the nature reserve via Internet to anywhere.

There have been installed five Waspmote Plug & Sense! Sensor Platforms to control different parametres in order to preserve the rain-forest environment:

• Three Waspmote Plug & Sense Smart Agriculture: digital humidity + temperature (sensirion), atmospheric pressure and weather station WS-300.
• One Waspmote Plug & Sense Smart Agriculture PRO: digital humidity + temperature (sensirion) and solar radiation.
• One Waspmote Plug & Sense Smart Environment : temperature, humidity, CO₂, NO₂, O₂, CO, CH₄, air pollutants, O₃ and atmospheric pressure.

“This area is really rough but there is no doubt that is the most suitable one to see how the world behaviours in its natural state. So that, I think that this is the best place to carry out a project about environmental monitoring”, considers Jorge Camus, engineer of the project.

Plug & Sense! Smart Environment

Real time data for researchers

Akara Resources, subsidiary of ASX-listed Kingsgate Consolidated Limited, is the leading gold producer in Thailand owning the largest and most important gold mine in the country: Chatree.

The Chatree Mining Complex is nearly 300 kilometres far from Bangkok. The mine operators were under pressure from a community and government regulator that perceives that adverse impacts are being experienced by the local communities due to their proximity to the mine. In fact the mine operations had been suspended in the past due to this concern.

However, the innovative EnviroSuite – Libelium solution provides the mine operator with an advanced system to manage risks of impact on the community and enables them to keep track of any evolving issues using real-time data rather than a perception of unmitigated risks.

Chatree, Thailand

The project in the mine, led by Pacific Environment, has a main goal: strengthen Akara’s committed to its corporate and social responsibilities with local villages surrounding the Chatree Mining Complex. The project includes four different lines of action:

• Monitoring module for real-time meteorological and air quality updates.
• Modelling module for predictive and risk management operations.
• Complaints Management.
• Blast Management.

Chatree Mining Complex

Libelium Wireless Sensor Network has been installed to control air quality parameters and to monitor real-time weather changes. The mine´s air quality will be monitored by Libelium’s Waspmote Plug & Sense! Sensor Platform in real-time and stored using EnviroSuite’s Air Quality Module. The archived data can be accessed for use in compliance reporting and back tracking for accountability.

Hydrogen Cyanide (HCN) and Temperature sensors from Libelium Plug & Sense! Smart Environment PRO have been used in order to measure some parameters. In this case, the nodes communicate directly with EnviroSuite Cloud Platform through 3G. One of the aims of the project is maintaining a strong environmental management system adjusted to regulatory and social licenses in order to improve the relationship with Public Regulation Organizations.

Installation diagram of functioning

Plug & Sense! Smart Environment PRO has been designed to meet the regulations and demands of governments and municipalities for Smart Cities or Air Quality deployments. One of its key features is the calibrated Gases PRO Sensor Board which is able to monitor environmental parameters such as temperature, humidity, pressure, particle matter in the air (dust) and 16 different types of gases.

It is generally known that miners are exposed to some health risks during their working hours. They are in contact with different substances that could result in some illness related to respiratory system. By controlling and monitoring air quality some of this threats can be reduced in order to improve and lengthen their working lives

“The result of the project has been successful using EnviroSuite with Libelium Sensors to further enhance our environmental management and bring an even greater level of accountability and transparency to our most important stakeholders”, affirms Greg Foulis, Kingsgate Limited CEO.

EnviroSuite Cloud Platform visualizer

EnviroSuite is the Cloud Platform used for data visualizing. Through the Air Quality Module data collected can be real-time monitored and analysed. “EnviroSuite is quickly gaining international recognition for the vital insights it delivers to help companies reach operational and regulatory goals, as well as providing essential transparency for community relations”, consider Pacific Environment CEO, Peter White.

The project carried out by Libelium and Pacific Environment could be deployed in other metal mines. EnviroSuite’s Platform has previously been deployed in other projects related to the mining sector in coal and iron ore mines in Australia with clients such us BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, and Anglo American.

Contact:

If you are interested in purchase information, please contact our Sales Department.

More info:

• For technical details on Waspmote hardware, sensors and how to program a Smart Environment PRO application: Gases PRO Technical Guide
• Read more about Libelium sensor product lines in the Waspmote, Waspmote Plug & Sense! Sensor Platform and Meshlium Gateway websites.

References:

• EnviroSuite: www.EnviroSuite.com
• Pacific Environment: www.pacific-environment.com
• Akara Resources: www.akararesources.com
• Kinsgate Consolidated Limited: www.kingsgate.com

Discover our IoT Kits at The IoT Marketplace!

Today, at Sensors Expo, Libelium has launched ten new kits for The IoT Marketplace with applications for Smart Cities, Smart Buildings, Water Management and Environmental Control. The company keeps on expanding interoperability and facilitating the access to end solutions in the IoT.

Following up with the integration of new Cloud platforms to deliver fully integrated IoT solutions, The IoT Marketplace -launched by Libelium on March 2016- will add new kits featuring solutions in Smart Cities, water management, smart buildings and environmental control. These kits work out of the box and offer complete solutions from sensors to Cloud to speed up IoT adoption.

AWS, C2M, Devicelynk, Devicify, IoT Ticket, Loriot, Nexmachina, SensorInsight, Sentilo and Reekoh are the new ten partners joining The IoT Marketplace.

“The Internet of Things generates a lot of hype but the lack of integrated solutions from hardware to application level is a barrier for fast adoption. The IoT Marketplace is removing this barrier”, considers Alicia Asín, Libelium CEO.

The IoT Marketplace is a one-stop click-and-buy online store that offers fully integrated solutions from hardware sensors to cloud applications to speed up IoT adoption. The IoT Marketplace features out-of-the-box IoT kits containing programmed sensor devices connected to specific Cloud applications for use in pilots or proof of concept projects in the minimum time to market.

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New fully integrated solutions

Libelium will exhibit these new solutions at Sensors Expo & Conference, between June 22 and 23. Ana Sancho, KAM of Agriculture, Water and Environment will give a speech about “Precision Farming: Sensors to Improve Crops & Farm Management”, at 10:20 on June 22.

More info at The IoT Marketplace.

If you are interested in purchase information, please contact our Sales Department.

Smart Agriculture and Organic Farming are two trends strongly linked. In the United Kingdom are walking hand in hand for a while to improve competitiveness of small producers. Senseye, a UK software company focused on prognostics and conditions monitoring, decided to develop a project with organic farmers to increase their crops and make them sustainable.

Since the beggining, the Senseye engineer team detected a lack of freely available public data in matter of agriculture issues, so they decided that it was necessary to work elbow to elbow with farmers and deploy a sensor network around the country to collect data.

United Kingdom

This project was deployed in 9 farms located across the UK, form Riverford Organic Farms in Devon to Spen Farms run by the University of Leeds. The aim of this project was to be able to capture useful data to start predicting measurements and events that could help farmers and agronomists to save time and money with its farms. In this project, the type of farm was not determining, because it has been deployed in a diverse range of crops, from vegetables to grain.

There was not any similar project so the system deployed was built from the ground-up. Besides, there were some ‘musts’ that defined the project. First of all, the solution must have a competitive price. Besides, the devices should be easy to setup and, of course, with low maintenance costs. Finally, the systems should have the ability to send data to Senseye cloud service with a minimal fuss.

Precise location where the sensors were deployed

It was considered some providers but finally Libelium devices were choosen because of some reasons:

• The best comparative price and value for money.
• All the sensors were integrated and available.
• The API and the codebase.
• The Waspmote Plug & Sense! Sensor Platform ‘ready out of the box’ idea.

Libelium sensors being installed in the farms

In this case, Senseye chose Waspmote Plug & Sense! Sensor Platform, fully equipped with Libelium sensors, because of its features of automatic functioning, high resistance, durability and easy implementation. In fact, one of the experts involved in the project, Joe Britto, highlights these features about Libelium products: “We managed to install each unit on average in about 20 minutes“. Specifically the devices installed were the following:

• Five Waspmote Plug & Sense! Smart Agriculture PRO, with Digital Humidity & Temperature probe, Soil temperature probe, Solar radiation probe and Soil moisture probe.
• Twelve Waspmote Plug & Sense Smart Agriculture, with Digital Humidity & Temperature probe, Soil moisture probe, Soil temperature probe and Weather Station WS-3000 probe
• Four Waspmote Plug & Sense Smart Environment, with NO₂ probe, NH₃ probe, CO₂ probe, Temperature probe, Humidity probe and Volatile Organic Components sensor probe.

Ready-to-be-deployed solutions involving smart cities, air quality, water and environmental concerns designed to help cities thrive.

SensorInsight®, an Internet of Things (IoT) solution provider, today announced its partnership with Sigfox in the U.S.A. to offer Internet of Things (IoT) solutions based on Libelium technology to cities nationwide including new offerings on large-scale environmental sensor deployments such as monitoring solutions used to detect potentially hazardous conditions in urban areas, schools, hospitals, and factories.

“This three-way partnership building off of our already existing strong partnership with Libelium demonstrates how our real-world solutions and proven technologies are working in harmony to build more livable, workable and sustainable cities,” said Joey Bernal, Co-founder and President of SensorInsight®, and CTO and Managing Partner at Element Blue. “We have come together to join forces in IoT leadership for creating smarter cities for future generations.”

With a common goal of working together to develop and build a better future for cities and their citizens, SensorInsight, Libelium and Sigfox will be focusing on implementing large-scale environmental monitoring deployments. By analyzing and sharing monitoring data within their communities, municipal governments can efficiently work in conjunction with citizens to take actions to identify problems in a geographical area.

SensorInsight and Libelium have partnered together previously on IoT projects, and now this new, three-way partnership builds on their progress and momentum that the two partners have achieved bringing the IoT Revolution one step further by joining efforts with an important network of partners to ensure the maximum interoperability with IoT sensors and hardware platforms.

“We are thrilled to join forces in this triple play partnership with SensorInsight and Libelium enabling environmental smart cities initiatives across the U.S.,” said Michael Orr, VP Sales and Partnerships, Sigfox, North America. “Sensorlight and Libelum, coupled with Sigfox unique connectivity eliminates three of the biggest barriers in IoT; cost, device battery consumption, and scalability, is a powerful solution to address key issues facing municipalities today.”

Environmental Monitoring of Air Quality and Pollution

As international concern about greenhouse gas emissions and air quality continues to grow on a global scale, many organizations, cities, and government bodies are seeking non-regulatory ways to monitor their Air Quality Index and promote public safety. With SensorInsight, not only can stakeholders monitor and report on air quality in real-time, but they can view history and identify trends, empowering them to take action to reduce emissions and protect public health.

Last year, SensorInsight participated in a pilot study for The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) New Sensor Scale. The EPA monitors air quality with a national network of sensors that collect regional data for enforcement of and research on the Clean Air Act and National Ambient Air Quality standards. The EPA Air Quality Index (AQI) is designed for regulatory monitoring and to calculate the health effects from exposure to toxic environments over longer periods. The Sensor Scale has been designed to help citizen scientists and non-regulatory users to understand quickly how local real-time monitoring may impact them.

The EPA designed the Sensor Scale to be used with non-regulatory, commercial sensors that collect information in real-time that can be then shared and validated against regulatory monitors. Users can enjoy outdoor activities by referencing the Air Quality Index to plan outdoor activities and may consider adjusting outdoor activities, especially if ozone sensitivity exists. SensorInsight has worked in conjunction with this sensor scale to report any irregularities in real-time.

Discover our SensorInsight IoT Kits at The IoT Marketplace

Volcanoes are one of the most unpredictable and impressive natural phenomenons. Worldwide researchers and scientists have always been trying to discover what happen inside volcanoes to predict future eruptions that will save lives. Their activity has provoked along years great disasters destroying entire settlements with lava flows and also endangering the environment or human health due to gas emanations or ash falls.

Some vulcanologists are currently focused on working with the latest technology to monitor in real-time everything that happens inside and outside the crater to predict eruptions. Qwake, a global brand that merges ground-breaking scientific expeditions with cutting edge technology to drive positive change, has trusted in Libelium technology to develop a wireless sensor network in the Mouth of Hell, Masaya volcano in Nicaragua.

Masaya volcano (Nicaragua)

Masaya is one of Latin American most active volcanoes. In fact, in 2008 during September, November and December the caldera threw ash and steam rising a height of 2.1 kilometers. At this time, there is a lava lake in one of the craters with 600 m₂ dimension that offers an unprecedented glimpse into the dynamic behavior of magma plumbing system including cascading as explosions, emission of lava jets, etc.

Real-time control at Masaya volcano with 80 sensors

Qwake team, with explorer and filmmaker Sam Cossman, Nicaragua government, Libelium and General Electric (GE) have worked in this project to bring the first volcano online. The expedition took place along July and August 2016. The team was looking for a wireless monitoring system able to collect, transmit and store data in real-time. For this reason, they chose Libelium to get information directly from the crater.

Sam Cossman at Masaya volcano

Our CTO, David Gascón, was a member of the expedition and experienced in first person the impressive landscape around Masaya volcano. “We are glad to contribute to a project that will help to save million of lives, not only in Nicaragua, but also in worlwide projects monitoring other volcanoes”, has argued David Gascón

David Gascón, Libelium CTO, at the Mouth of Hell

In order to access safely to Santiago Crater, the open air lava lake, Sam Cossman and his expedition team developed a zip line system to solve some previous challenges and efficiently descend personnel and gear there. It allowed to install the Waspmote Sensor Platforms next to the crater to get data in one the most extreme and challenging environments.

Location of the expedition camp at Santiago Crater

The Sensor Platforms deployed in Masaya volcano were Waspmote Plug & Sense! Smart Environment PRO and Waspmote Plug&Sense! Ambient Control as data repeaters. Sensors connected to Waspmote Plug & Sense! Smart Environment were more than 80 and measured CO₂, H₂S, temperature, humidity and atmospheric pressure.

The expedition team with all the sensors deployed in Masaya volcano

The encapsuled sensor platforms were vacuum-sealed to be protect against the heat inside the crater and also in areas next to the volcano. There were around 150 degrees Farenheit (about 65 Celsius degrees) where most of the sensors will be placed, although parts of the active volcano reach 800 to 1,000 degrees Farenheit (between 426 and 537 Celsius degrees).

Waspmote Plug & Sense! Smart Environment PRO sent information directly to Meshlium Gateway and in some cases to Waspmote Plug&Sense! Ambient Control when there was low signal acting as repeater stations. This data was sent through XBee900HP. The IoT Gateway collected data and sent the information through 3G to GE database were after was visualized in Predix, a cloud-based software platform GE developed for the Industrial Internet.

Deployment at Masaya volcano

One of the explorers from Qwake, Hugo Nordell, explained the benefits of using Libelium technology in Masaya volcano project: “Our team was able to quickly setup and ensure that data was captured correctly. This allowed us to focus on solving actual problems related to deploying the sensors inside the crater and bringing the Masaya volcano online, rather than having to deal with connectivity and underlying data transfer”.

Public service by saving lives and opening data

The main aim of the project has been building a digital early warning system to predict volcano eruptions. This information will be used by researchers and data scientists to build a family of “digital twins” to simulate digitally what is happening inside the cater.

Waspmote Plug & Sense! installed next to Santiago Crater and Meshlium out of Masaya volcano

The vulcanologist who has participated in Qwake project, Guillermo Caravantes, has been widely researching about Masaya. He has explained that it represents “a real danger” for inhabitants from villages next to the volcano. “We could potentially have millions of lives at risk. It could happen at any time and the problem is that we are not able to predict when this could happen or what sorts of signs from the volcano”, asserted Guillermo Caravantes, vulcanologist from Qwake.

The ultimate goal of the project is providing a public service by giving access to the general population and decision makers enabling them to experience an active volcano in real-time. The predictive analytic tools built on the cloud-based platform uses a combination of data gathered over more than 20 years of fieldwork at Masaya and also information gathered by the sensors connected to Waspmote Plug & Sense! Sensor Platforms installed in this project. All this data will help to anticipate volcanic crisis, and act as a pioneering, first-of-its-kind Early Warning System. After this project, the expedition believes that there is potential for huge applications in worldwide volcanoes.

To discover more about Masaya volcano expedition and the wireless sensor network development view our photo gallery.

If you are interested in purchase information, please contact our Sales Department.

More info:

• For technical details on Waspmote hardware, sensors and how to program a Smart Environment PRO application: Gases PRO Board Technical Guide
• Read more about Libelium sensor product lines in the Waspmote, Waspmote Plug & Sense! Sensor Platform and Meshlium Gateway websites.

Discover our Smart Environment Vertical Kit at The IoT Marketplace

Gritting orders of salt to melt ice and snow on roads have increased dramatically during 2016/17 winter in the UK. Councils have ordered around 1.3 million tonnes of salt ahead of the winter gritting season (between October and March). This has almost doubled the number from the previous year and 100,000 kilos more than the amount used in the severe winter of 2010/11.

Mayflower Smart Control, a company that provides solutions for the management of exterior lighting and associated illuminated equipment, has been approached by Amey and Hampshire County Council to discuss the use of smart technology to find a solution to the use of excessive and unnecessary gritting of roads during cold weather.

Winchester (Hampshire, UK)

The project has been deployed in different locations on a priority 1 gritting route in the Winchester area (Hampshire, UK). Mayflower Smart Control has trusted Waspmote Plug & Sense! Sensor Platform to develop a pioneering project that will enable highways maintenance teams to make more informed gritting decisions based on local weather conditions.

Weather stations to assist decision making

Decisions regarding when to grit a road are generally based on weather forecasts provided by various suppliers, including the Met Office. These weather forecasts are based on relatively large geographic areas where road surface temperatures can actually vary by as much as 15◦C.

A technician during the deployment

These wireless sensor networks monitor road surface temperatures and weather specifically on gritting routes, enabling winter service teams to make better informed decisions. The devices are attached to street lighting columns that use the Mayflower Smart Control street lighting control network to communicate with analysis platforms.

In the project the devices used are the Waspmote Plug & Sense! Smart Agriculture PRO and Weather Station WS-300 with different sensors: atmospheric pressure, humidity, temperature, anemometer, pluviometer and wind vane. These installations in five points of the roads allow monitoring weather conditions such us wind gusts and speed or rainfalls to prevent and detect the need of gritting. For road temperature, the company has deployed third party sensors.

Diagram of Mayflower deployment

Mayflower’s control system is based around ZigBee communication protocol, and Libelium sensor platforms used in this project are offered with the ZigBee compatible devices. “Libelium has a wide range of sensors, and most of these are of interest to local authorities in analysing environmental conditions”, has explained Patrick Mitchell, Managing Director of Mayflower Smart Control.

Libelium Plug & Sense! Sensor Platforms send the information from the sensors through ZigBee to Mayflower Gateway. All the data gathered on the Gateway is sent to the Cloud using 2G and 3G to be visualized in Sentilo platform, based on Amazon Web Services. This information is useful for making decisions in real-time and also for future forecasting of weather and road conditions.

Sentilo dashboard based on AWS

Reducing costs and enhancing the environment

The initial challenge of the project has been to demonstrate immediate operational benefit and savings being able to make a go/no decision in marginal situations. Winter Service Provider decision makers, Amey for Hampshire, are receiving up to date, accurate, localised information on surface and air temperatures in order to assist in gritter area decision making.

Data generated by weather stations during this winter will be analysed during 2017 summer time and on the basis of the results will be used next winter. “This is an exciting innovative project that will enable Hampshire County Council to make better use of its resources; this new approach could lead to a radical overhaul of how we focus on the problem of when to grit a road”, has said Rick Robinson, Amey’s Director of Technology.

Deployment in a road at Hampshire County

This smart solution is not only saving money for the council in terms of cutting down the amount of salt, but also by reducing the local authority’s carbon footprint, with fewer gritters out on the roads and man-hours wasted. It is estimated that up to three days per year can be lost to crews waiting on stand-by when not required.

Rob Humby, Executive member for Environment and Transport at Hampshire County Council, has considered that “the initial outcomes from the Smart Winter trial are very encouraging and the County Council is keen to explore how new and innovative technologies such as the Mayflower system and the ‘Internet of Things’ can be embraced to deliver the most effective and efficient winter maintenance services to our residents”.

Snowy road at Winchester (Hampshire County Council)

Smart street lighting networks, developed by Mayflower Smart Control, give areas greater coverage and provide city managers with the ability to install other compatible low-cost sensors or applications which provide more granular data.

Mayflower Smart Control aims to install the IoT devices to CMS system everywhere to monitor weather and road conditions to help gritting services. Nordic countries in Europe or urban areas at high altitude can be next projects to develop the wireless sensor networks. It depends on the priorities of local authorities and the road system of each country.

That’s Solent TV, a local television station on the south coast of England, has broadcasted a report explaining the project of Mayflower Smart Control to improve highways management in the UK.

For more information about our products contact the Libelium Sales Department.

More info:

• For technical details on Waspmote hardware, sensors and how to program a Smart Agriculture PRO application: Smart Agriculture PRO Technical Guide
• For technical details on Waspmote hardware, sensors and how to program a Smart Agriculture application: Smart Agriculture Technical Guide
• Read more about Libelium sensor product lines in the Waspmote, Waspmote Plug & Sense! Sensor Platform and Meshlium IoT Gateway websites.

References:

• Mayflower Smart Control: mayflowercontrol.com
• Amey: amey.co.uk
• Hampshire County Council: hants.gov.uk

Discover our Libelium-Sentilo Smart Cities Solution Kit at The IoT Marketplace

You can find also the digital article at Heraldo.es.

Read the entire article at Digital AV Magazine.