Developing Smart City with 4 Smart Applications by Using Milesight Ultrasonic Distance/Level Sensor

In general, a smart city is a city that uses technology to provide services and solve city problems. The main goals of a smart city are to help improve people’s lives, reduce waste and improve operational efficiency. To help make smart city visions real, Milesight offers ultrasonic distance/level sensor to contribute to 4 smart city applications.

In the city, convenience and safety are two main factors that affect the living experience of residents. For example, being full of waste bins and having trouble finding vacant parking spots are always annoying. Also,  manholes and sewers have great potential damage to residents. Therefore, residents need solutions to solve these problems.

By leveraging LoRaWAN® Technology, Uses can set up a large network in an urban area with one Milesight UG67 gateway. Milesight ultrasonic distance/level sensor collects data from waste bins, parking spots, manholes and sewers. Insights gained from the data are used to manage assets and services efficiently. In return, the solution is used to improve the operations across the city.

EM310-ULD Ultrasonic Distance/Level Sensor

Milesight EM310-UDL is a LoRaWAN® ultrasonic distance sensor. With a compact size and wide measuring range, EM310-UDL can be installed to any type of container to monitor solid, liquid level or distance. Besides, EM310-UDL equips with a 3-axis accelerometer to detect the status of the container cover. Compliant with the Milesight LoRaWAN ® gateway and Milesight IoT Cloud solution, the device enables users to know the container status and fill-in level in real-time via browser or mobile App remotely.

In the smart city, the efficient management of waste is a crucial challenge to improve residents' living experience while reduces human effort, time and cost. The traditional way of manually monitoring bins and regularly collecting waste can easily be avoided with IoT technology. Milesight ultrasonic distance/level sensor can be attached to the cover of the waste bin which detects bin status and notices garbage trucks to collect waste when full. Real-time monitoring and historic recording of all bins give user insight to better figure out waste collection schedules and collection route planning. The result is lower labor costs, fewer trucks needed, and lower fleet maintenance expenses.

The number of cars is ever-increasing in the world, especially in the cities where parking usually causes serious problems. Drivers spend an amount of time, effort, and fuel in finding available parking spaces. One of the main objectives of the smart city is to assist the driver to find a vacant location of parking in a shorter time. Milesight ultrasonic distance/level sensor can be installed on the ceiling above the parking spot to detect if it’s occupied or vacant. Unlike magnetic parking sensors which measure magnetic field intensity resulted in low accuracy, ultrasonic sensors have high accuracy to avoid wrong vacancy reporting. By leveraging a smart parking system, divers can save searching time, fuel consumption and reduce car exhaust emission.

Manhole monitoring for underground supply systems, such as telecommunication, water supply, gas supply and electricity, sanitary sewer and so on, is essential for the city’s operations and maintenance. manhole cover failure such as theft, unauthorized opening and damage, may lead to deadly fall-in accidents or tremendous damage to public property. Hence, it’s necessary to deploy real-time manhole monitoring against theft, damage, and unauthorized access. Milesight ultrasonic distance/level sensor can be attached to the cover’s underside. Integrated with a three-axis accelerometer and ultrasonic sensor, it can detect statuses of the manhole cover - opened or closed and send alerts of unexpected movement of the manhole cover to avoid potential damage and loss.

In many cities, heavy rains and continuous rainy seasons often cause flooding of streets and roads, which seriously affects the safety of residents. Due to the blockage and overflow of the underground sewer, the safety problems affect urban road traffic and bring a lot of troubles. In the past few years, the inspection of the sewer was mainly carried out manually. But labor costs continue to increase, and maintenance costs remain high. To reduce costs and the occurrence of problems, the Milesight ultrasonic distance/level sensor is an ideal choice in smart sewer applications to monitor water depth. The real-time measurements provide users with early warning and advanced notice to prevent blockage and overflow. Finally, the objective of high efficiency, good environment, and low cost are achieved.

• Remote Monitoring 7*24

Remotely monitor the waste bin, parking spot, manhole and sewer at any time and anywhere. Send alert when the threshold is reached.

• Advanced technology

LoRaWAN supports up to 2 kilometers in the urban area with low power consumption. Users can set up a large network with low cost and low maintenance.

• Data-drive analysis and insight

Collect data to analyze and further optimize the applications.