ikannA

Environmentally friendly, safe, and hygienic urban drainage is essential for modern civilization. A comprehensive inspection and maintenance of the interconnected systems are therefore crucial. Especially after heavy rain events, foreign substances flow into the sewage system, which requires regular inspections of up to 30 times per year. Several thousand kilometers of sewer network are not uncommon in metropolitan regions. Maintenance work is usually carried out manually, e.g., with an inspection by perpetration or remote-controlled vehicles with a limited range.

To make this process more efficient, preparatory work for developing an innovative inspection system for sewers is being carried out in the iKannA project.

For this purpose, our project partner is developing a floating and submersible sensor data acquisition unit, which can be injected into the sewage system with the help of an automated dispenser unit. The sensor units can pass through pumping stations and can be filtered out, also automatically, for reuse in front of or in sewage treatment plants. Then, with the help of smart device controllers placed in duct shafts, which act as a gateway, the sensor data is sent to a downstream platform using modern transmission technology. For this purpose, IDiAL is developing a software component for secure transmission from the gateways to a data platform, which IDiAL is also working on.

The purpose of the data platform is to receive measurement data from a variable number of sensors in an efficient manner. The received data is then persisted and prepared individually for the corresponding use case. The data is provided dynamically so that the diverse requirements of the different data consumers are met. Since critical infrastructure is to be digitally adapted, the project is also intensively involved in bringing state-of-the-art cloud technologies into line with the strict requirements of infrastructure projects.

As part of the preparatory analysis phase, requirements for the software to be developed are defined in close cooperation with the Emschergenossenschaft to ensure compatibility with existing processes and maximum future security. Based on the information obtained, appropriate interfaces and procedures are developed with the project partner of IDiAL to transfer the measurement data between the hardware and the platform efficiently and securely.

13FH0I81IA

• Westphalian University of Applied Sciences
• Emschergenossenschaft

• Patric Watzke