SMARTinfeld.de : one word, one village, one project. In the idyllic village of Martinfeld in the Eichsfeld region, which is also the headquarters of Alpha-Omega Technology GmbH & Co. KG, the company has committed itself to an ambitious project: to establish the village with the highest density of IoT applications in Germany, all running on a single shared network. With this goal we are in good company with large cities and urban areas that are launching pilot projects with individual applications as part of their digitalisation initiatives. IoT, the Internet of Things, is still a technical term for many citizens, one that few can picture clearly. Most people associate it with the much-quoted "smart fridge" and perhaps a few other applications from the smart home sector.
But this covers only a small part of the Internet of Things (IoT). Technologies that integrate applications into life outside our own four walls are moving more and more into focus. This is exactly where the core of the SMARTinfeld project begins. The first use case was quickly found: the installation of smart LED street lights in Martinfeld. This part of the project was the first and, so far, the most extensive, since it required intensive planning, coordination and organisation together with the public authorities. Nevertheless, a three-month sampling phase started after only ten months, during which lights from three manufacturers were installed and tested. In addition to the visual effect, which was of particular interest to the residents, the illumination and the intelligent control were also tested. To involve the citizens in the project, each light was fitted with a feedback button through which everyone could share their opinion of that light.
This phase of the project already laid the foundation for the later implementation of further applications, because a LoRaWAN network covering the whole of Martinfeld was established at that time. It forms the basis for transmitting the data of the feedback buttons and for controlling the lights. LoRaWAN is one of several technologies that make it possible to transmit data over very long distances, up to 15 km, with very little energy. Because of these characteristics, low energy consumption and long range, the amount of data that can be transmitted is limited, which makes the technology suitable only for measured values and control signals. Why this technology was chosen for this phase of the SMARTinfeld project and which parallel technologies exist alongside LoRaWAN will be described in a later article.
In the following phases of the project, environmental measuring stations were installed in the village and later also on the surrounding hills. The readings of these stations are shown in real time, usually every 15 minutes, on the SMARTinfeld.de website and in its app.
The scope and the method of data collection became more professional with the use of sensors from the company Libelium. The following values are now recorded every 15 minutes: temperature, humidity, air pressure, brightness, SO3, CO2, CO, particulate matter, wind speed, wind direction, precipitation and soil moisture.
In addition to these measurements, sensors for determining the water quality of the small river Rosoppe, which flows through the village, have been installed since mid-2017. Numerous values (such as pH and conductivity) are measured upstream and downstream of the village. From these values, conclusions can be drawn about the quality of the water and the impact of a village on a small watercourse.
Every additional sensor contributes to the project goal of establishing the highest density of IoT applications in a single village in Germany.
By expanding the partner network of Alpha-Omega Technology to include the IoT specialist ZENNER IoT Solutions and its parent group ZENNER, one of the largest meter manufacturers in Germany, the portfolio of the SMARTinfeld.de project could be extended towards industrial use. Since September 2017, one of the first prototypes of a LoRaWAN water meter has been installed in Martinfeld as a sub-meter, reading and transmitting the meter value every day. For water meters in particular this is a novelty, and it will strongly influence the processes and data of water utilities in the future, as the quality and frequency of readings will increase significantly. At the same time, a smart electricity meter was installed in a sub-distribution board, transmitting the electricity consumption every 15 minutes. Both meters also use the existing LoRaWAN network.
Each of these elements is a use case in its own right, one that many previous projects have treated as their central component. The sum of these applications already makes SMARTinfeld.de unique today, and further exciting additions are on the way, which we will gladly report on here. Following this introduction to the individual applications, we will also share more details in the articles to come.