25-01-2021
SCENE is now reality. The second campaign of Pilot Tests for the European innovation project “Smart City on the Edge Network Enhancements” (Call H2020-EIC-FTI-2018-2020, FTI - FAST TRACK TO INNOVATION FTI), of which AlmavivA is a partner, validated the final version of the IoT platform for Mobile Edge Computing, through three different Use Cases.
In the platform, a series of intelligent gateway (IGW) devices are positioned in vehicles driving through the city and interact along the route with different sensors scattered all around, to collect data which are then sent to the service center (the SCENE Service Platform). Thanks to the Edge Computing functions, it is possible to install apps on board the IGW devices that can interact through a complex mechanism with proprietary sensors.
Portugal, France and Italy hosted the test campaign during which, due to the current health restrictions, the consortium kept contact with the teams on the field through a virtual room.
The Portuguese pilot used a sensor based on AI technology for detecting cars double-parked in the city of Matosinhos. The French pilot, based in Rennes, monitored the air quality. The Italian pilot, held in Catania in a historical building of the project partner AMT, focused on the monitoring of critical infrastructures and buildings using motion and vibration sensors. A total of six IoT sensors were positioned on the inner and outer walls of the building to be monitored. Two different types of sensors were used: the first consisted of two programmable sensors based on Raspberry technology, designed and manufactured in-house by AlmavivA and equipped with an accelerometer, gyroscope and thermometer; the second type consisted of four beacon commercial accelerometers based on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology.
In the Italian pilot a network of three IGW SCENE devices was deployed, two installed on an AMT line bus and a third inside the building to be monitored. The day began with a stress test conducted to measure the performance levels of the central Service Platform in processing high amounts of incoming data. The two Raspberry sensors were suitably configured for generating messages at a frequency of one hundred milliseconds. The pilot test then continued with a lower level of traffic for the entire day, by lowering the work frequency of the two Raspberry sensors down to 250 milliseconds.
Moreover, in the Italian and French pilot tests another fundamental component of SCENE was validated, namely the Content Delivery System, which is aimed at offering Internet connectivity and on-demand contents on buses equipped with IGW devices.
Over one million different IoT readings were received, processed and recorded in the Data Lake of the SCENE Service Platform throughout the entire test. The data were analyzed by AlmavivA using the Analytics functions, implemented to monitor the platform’s level of performance.
The pilot test revealed the flexibility and potential of the SCENE platform in monitoring critical infrastructures—the cultural heritage, historical buildings or other infrastructures—also in sensitive areas from a morphological point of view, as in the case of Catania, which is a seismic zone. The dashboards created proved to be a useful analysis tool for supporting appropriate maintenance intervention on the monitored asset.
