CO2 Monitoring System – Smart Cities

Environment: Urban

Client Sector: City Council

Services provided: 

• Full Product Design
• SigFox network setup
• Google IoT core setup
• Electronic Printed Circuit Board
• Firmware design & programming
• Mechanical design of outdoor enclosure and mounting

Our Case Study:

Challenge - In order to monitor air quality in cities and comply with environmental legislation, one of the challenges city councils face is finding a low-cost urban monitoring system. These systems must be able to provide them with an easy-to-read measurement of CO2 (and possibly other indicators) at different locations in the city.

Solution - CEEQ Design innovative solution was developed to provide an autonomous CO2 sensors network transmitting data in real-time.

The sensors are installed outside, near the targeted locations: streets, schools, hospitals, universities, etc. The measurements allow the municipality to read and record the CO2 levels in the targeted areas and take action if the levels are too high. These results can for example lead to a public decision to implement a limited traffic area.

The sensors are designed to withstand outdoor conditions and are powered with a supercapacitor. The instrument has been designed to transmit the data in real-time to an existing network that can be accessed from a mobile anywhere and anytime, using existing open IoT Sigfox network. The program is set to transmit only essential data to avoid saturating the network. A small solar panel is used to charge the super capacitor allowing the system to run with a low carbon footprint and for years.

Future - Our choice of an open network was motivated by the lower operating cost (using an existing network means that no infrastructure needs to be created) and the fact that no sensitive data is manipulated. However, all of our systems are custom designed for our customers and we could offer a secure network if sensitive data was being studied. Extra sensors can also be added to monitor other indicators like humidity, temperature, etc.

Our Solution strengths:

• Low power IoT Sigfox network
• Outdoor sensors
• Remote control
• Compact, reliable and always connected
• Precision and accuracy
• Low cost