On the 16th of February, Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS went to IT Aveiro to integrate 2 sensor kits into the infrastructure of the Aveiro Tech City Living Lab (ATCLL) – one UA bicycle and one Smart Lamppost. These prototypes integrate noise, light, air quality, humidity, temperature, and GPS sensors.
This cooperation is part of the CityCatalyst PPS1 project, where IT and Fraunhofer are jointly involved in the development of a sensing infrastructure. The sensors are developed by Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS, and the ATCLL infrastructure - created and managed by IT - collects, persists, and exposes the sensor data. The goal is to validate that the prototypes work and that they can collect data, send data, and cope with the conditions in which they operate. Data will now be collected continuously until the end of the project, scheduled for June 2023.
"For cities to be sustainable, it is necessary to have efficient monitoring of their space and environment. Testing low-cost, weather-resilient, and energy-efficient sensing solutions will provide for massive sensing in the future, both through fixed and mobile sensors, as is the case with sensing on bicycles. This is an important step in catalysing cities as living and sustainable organisms", states Susana Sargento.
The IT researchers participating in this enterprise are Pedro Rito, Susana Sargento, Miguel Luís, Carlos Senna, Hugo Leal, Ana Almeida, Gonçalo Perna, and João Gameiro.
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The CityCatalyst project aims to provide Portuguese cities with new technological solutions and innovative services, becoming a reference stage for cities worldwide.
The project is structured in 5 main lines of R&D, pioneers within the Smart and Sustainable Cities, which will be developed in the consortium, over 36 months:
1) Infrastructures for sensing, communication, and computational processing;
2) Information security and privacy;
3) Data models and interfaces;
4) Open innovation and co-creation processes for the competitiveness of smart cities;
5) Development of systems that promote sustainability in cities.
Find out more about the consortium: