IoT News, Updates and Insights

Innovating Things

IoTBRIDGE at Resultatkonferens 2024

Organised by the strategic innovation programme, Infra Sweden, the conference showcases the results from funded projects on promoting a sustainable Swedish transport infrastructure.

Results from IoTBridge, a spin-off of the project iBridge, is presented by Jacob Nyman in the afternoon, in the session: AI based surveillance system for condition monitoring of railway bridges (in Swedish: AI-baserat övervakningssystem för tillståndsbedömning av broar).

The conference takes place in Stockholm on 23 October 2024. See the full agenda.

Peter RosengrenIoTBRIDGE at Resultatkonferens 2024

IoTBridge starts monitoring wind turbines

Many wind turbine towers are approaching the end of their design life, which is typically 20-30 years. However, by using the latest techniques and knowledge from structural health monitoring, it is possible to optimise the operation of the turbines and safely extend their lifetime, and thereby also the revenues.

IoTBridge, SM Teknik and researchers from KTH Royal Institute of Technology have joined forces to develop an integrated system for monitoring wind turbine towers, providing condition assessment, remaining life estimation, optimised operation and decision support.

The first wind turbine tower to be equipped with the monitoring and assessment system was the Långlöt Borgholm Wind Turbine on the Swedish island Öland. In May 2024, the team mounted accelerometers, inclinometers and strain gauges in strategic positions of the tower, in collaboration with owners Lundahl & Hall. Data from these sensors are now continuously streamed back to the IoTBridge cloud where the analytical engines are processing the data and correlating them with the energy production data (kWh, windspeed, active power, pitch angle, rotor speed, etc.) from the built-in SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system.

From now on, the machine learning system will find the optimal energy production level considering the structural health of the tower, thus ensuring a maximal utilisation of the wind turbine in terms of revenue and sustainability.

Setting up sensors and the monitoring system in the Långlöt Borgholm Wind Turbine – a Vestas V52, repowered 2018 with a tower from early 2000s.
Peter RosengrenIoTBridge starts monitoring wind turbines

IoTBridge at Bro- och Anläggningsdag 2024

We will be presenting the innovation programme InfraSweden, and how participation led to the commercialisation of IoTBridge.

IoTBridge participated in the InfraSweden project iBRIDGE in 2020-2021 to develop and test new digital solutions that could reduce the escalating costs of bridge inspection, maintenance and repairs, with 35.000 Swedish bridges being older than 50 years. Through a collaborate effort between KTH, Trafikverket, City of Stockholm and IoTBridge, the project developed new methods and technologies for digitalising structural health assessment, and in 2022 IoTBridge was commercialised.

The event takes place in Stockholm on 30 May and is organised by the national association Brosamverkan and Eurokodutbildningar – provider of Eurocode training courses.

Read more and sign up at Eurokodutbildningar.

Peter RosengrenIoTBridge at Bro- och Anläggningsdag 2024

Huawei has partnered with CheckWatt

To enable grid ancillary services, CheckWatt and Huawei have been working closely together to integrate the Huawei residential batteries with CheckWatt’s virtual power plant (VPP) Currently.

Read the announcement from Huawei on LinkedIn

Huawei has a large share of the household market for energy storage in Sweden, and this announcement means a huge increase in the number of batteries compatible with Currently.

This further strengthens CheckWatt’s position as the market leader in providing and aggregating VPP services for the residential market in the Nordic countries, now connecting both large megawatt batteries as well as smaller residential batteries in the range of 5-15 kW.

Peter RosengrenHuawei has partnered with CheckWatt

Clinical studies are starting in PRAESIIDIUM

The PRAESIIDIUM consortium, in which CheckHealth is a partner, is developing solutions aimed at providing real-time prediction of the risk of prediabetes in individuals. The project is now launching its clinical studies to collect more data for the prediction modelling.

To predict the risk of prediabetes, the project uses physics-informed machine learning based on a rich dataset of real-life data, combining registry-based research with behaviour tracking through wearables and nutritional data collection using AI.

To acquire additional bio-clinical data for the modelling and testing of wearable sensors, the project is launching clinical studies in Austria, Lativa and Italy with the following focus points:

  • Patients with low risk of prediabetes
  • Patients with metabolic risk factors and
  • Plasma bio-banking and clinical data collection

CheckHealth is supplying LinkWatch as the backend platform for organising and preparing all collected patient data for analysis together with VoiceRPM for individual nutritional data collection, and solutions for wearable device connectivity.

The PRAESIIDIUM approach to risk prediction goes beyond traditional black-box based approaches by combining mathematical models and explainable AI techniques while improving the prediction performances and reducing the computational time of the risk calculation based on the simulations of the mathematical models.

Peter RosengrenClinical studies are starting in PRAESIIDIUM

CheckWatt helped stabilise the power grid

When the Finnish nuclear power plant Olkiluoto 3 had to make a sudden shutdown on 19 November, CheckWatt‘s virtual power plant Currently was one of the balance resources activated, instantly providing the grid with 22 MW as frequency support.

Currently is a virtual power plant that aggregates and coordinates thousands of distributed batteries to act as one flexibility resource. Currently supports grid balance services like FCR-D up/down and FFR but also energy arbitrage and increased self-consumption.

Read more in the news article on ENERGInyheter.se

Peter RosengrenCheckWatt helped stabilise the power grid

Publication out on Vänersborg bridge

The monitoring work performed by IoTBridge in relation to the railway bascule bridge in Vänersborg, Sweden has now been published in a scientific paper. The paper describes the safety assessment processes and the underlying ideas behind them, the challenges encountered, and the developed monitoring dashboard for visualisation of results.

It also explains how the system assesses the structural health of the bridge and how machine learning algorithms were used to automatically detect damages.

Graphic illustration of bridge and person monitoring it using a mobile phone
Peter RosengrenPublication out on Vänersborg bridge

Access the dataset from Vänersborg bridge

IoTBridge is now sharing a dataset related to the damage to the bridge in Vänersborg that was recently detected by the structural health monitoring system. The bridge is a single-leaf bascule bridge carrying railway traffic over a canal. It has been monitored by the system since 2021, continuously collecting data from strain sensors, accelerometers, an inclinometer and a weather station. The cloud-based service developed by IoTBridge was used to survey the bridge, and our routines for damage detection discovered a damage event in March 2023 that led to the bridge’s closure.

The dataset contains sensor data from the steel bridge and is unique in terms of the development and testing of routines for damage detection. It contains readings before, during and after the verified damage.

Image of bridge
The bascule bridge carries railway traffic over a canal
Peter RosengrenAccess the dataset from Vänersborg bridge

Long-life power platforms for IoT applications

CNet is participating in the LoLiPoP-IoT project which is aiming to improve the battery lifetime and energy harvesting of wireless sensors that are retrofitted in IoT applications for monitoring purposes.

Consisting of 40 European partners, the project is creating an ecosystem of developers, integrators and users to develop power platforms which consider power/battery life, ease of installation and maintenance. Focus is on three main application areas: Industry, smart mobility and energy efficient buildings with use cases for asset monitoring & tracking, condition monitoring for predictive maintenance as well as environmental monitoring. The development of platforms enables reuse across multiple applications and projects.

CNet leads the specification and requirement work for the 10+ use cases, contributing to the development of use cases for district heating and smart buildings.

Apart from reducing the power consumption of sensors, the project will also demonstrate cost reductions, optimised asset management and improved comfort levels for building occupants.

Peter RosengrenLong-life power platforms for IoT applications

Stöd energiforskare att samla in data

Vårt dotterbolag Checkwatt deltar i ett Europeiskt forskningsprojekt, EVIDENT, tillsammans med Trinity College i Dublin. Projektet arbetar med att förstå hur individer resonerar och fattar beslut i energirelaterade frågor. Denna studie syftar till att förstå hur faktorer som finansiell kunskap och kunnighet i miljöfrågor kan påverka energibeslut. Genom detta hoppas EVIDENT-projektet förstå hur man kan stödja individer att fatta bättre energibeslut och bidra till åtgärder som främjar energieffektivitet.

Om du vill hjälpa forskarna skulle vi uppskatta om du fyllde denna enkät. Det tar cirka 10 minuter. Projektet kommer lotta ut 6 stycken 350 EUR presentkort på Amazon, till de som deltar i undersökningen.

Klicka här för att fylla i enkäten

Läs mer om Evident.

Peter RosengrenStöd energiforskare att samla in data