In the exciting world of the Internet of Things (IoT), sensors are the foundation where IoT solutions come into play. Sensors will be spread across various fields, collecting various information anytime and anywhere, monitoring the state of changes in all things. IoT solutions based on sensors will make the environment better, life more convenient, species more diverse, and industrial production more efficient. This article organizes 61 application areas of IoT sensors and specifically discusses their applications through case studies.
►Smart Cities
1. Smart Parking: Monitor vacant parking spaces in the city to assist parking lots in completing charging.
2. Structural Monitoring: Monitor the vibration and material conditions of buildings, bridges, and historical monuments.
3. Urban Noise: Real-time monitoring of sound in bar areas and central areas.
4. Smartphone Detection: Can detect iPhone and Android devices using any device with WiFi or Bluetooth interfaces.
5. Electromagnetic Field Strength Monitoring: Monitor the energy radiation from communication base stations and WiFi routers.
6. Traffic Congestion Monitoring: Monitor the conditions of vehicles and pedestrians to optimize driving routes.
7. Smart Lighting: Street lights adjusted for weather and smart bulbs that automatically change colors.
8. Waste Management: Monitor the contents of trash cans to optimize garbage collection routes.
9. Smart Roads: Smart roads provide warning information and detours based on weather conditions and emergencies (such as accidents or traffic congestion) and even provide power to vehicles. Case: Smart City Project Monitoring Parking Sensors
Parking sensors installed in Santander City
The SMART SANTANDER project was developed and implemented by several companies to design and integrate an IoT platform composed of sensors, actuators, cameras, and screens to provide useful information to citizens in Santander and its surroundings. Currently, 375 Waspmote devices have been deployed to monitor parking spaces. The 375 Waspmote devices are installed at different locations in Santander City to detect whether parking spaces are vacant by measuring the magnetic field.
►Smart Environment
10. Forest Fire Monitoring: Monitor combustion gases and automatically warn fire situations to define alert areas.
11. Air Pollution: Control factory CO2 emissions, vehicle emission pollutants, and toxic gases produced by farms.
12. Snow Condition Monitoring: Real-time monitoring of the quality of ski trails to prevent avalanches in advance.
13. Landslide Prevention: Monitor soil moisture, vibration, and soil density to monitor dangerous geological conditions.
14. Earthquake Early Warning: Distributed monitoring of vibrations in specific locations.
Case: Sensor network for monitoring urban air pollution
Using Waspmote and gas sensors to monitor the quality of the air we breathe, such as the levels of CO2, CO, NO, and other harmful gases. Monitoring air pollution using Waspmote is simple and cost-effective because its wireless communication function is based on the 802.15.4 / Zigbee protocol and is powered by batteries, making the deployment of sensor networks very easy and quick. Solar panels can recharge the batteries to ensure continuous operation. Additionally, the GPRS module can ensure data communication at any time and can issue SMS alerts based on defined thresholds.
►Smart Hydrology
15. Drinking Water Monitoring: Monitor the quality of municipal tap water.
16. Chemical Leakage Detection in Rivers: Detect waste discharge and chemical leaks from factories into rivers.
17. Remote Monitoring of Swimming Pools: Monitor the water quality conditions of swimming pools.
18. Sea Pollution Levels: Monitor real-time leaks and waste discharge at sea.
19. Leak Detection: Monitor the presence of liquid outside tanks and pressure changes around pipes.
20. Flood Monitoring: Monitor water level changes in rivers, dams, and reservoirs.
Case: Water quality monitoring in the largest aquarium in Europe
Monitoring the water quality of piranhas in the freshwater aquarium
The Fluvial Aquarium is the largest water cluster aquarium in Europe, with over 70 tanks and more than 2.5 million liters of water. Most animals living in the aquarium are very sensitive to changes in environmental conditions, requiring regular monitoring of various physical and chemical parameters in the water. Appropriate ranges are set for these critical parameters in each micro-ecosystem, and through filtration systems and regular water changes, biomass control and system maintenance are kept at appropriate levels.
►Smart Measurement21、Smart Grid: Energy consumption monitoring and management.
22. Tank Capacity: Monitor the contents of water, oil, and gas in tanks and reservoirs.
23. Photovoltaic Devices: Monitor and optimize the performance of solar power plants.
24. Water Flow Monitoring: Measure water pressure in water transport systems.
25. Warehouse Inventory Calculation: Measure the vacancy and weight of goods.
►Safety and Emergency Situations
26. Surrounding Access Control: Control access to restricted areas and detect unauthorized personnel.
27. Liquid Detection: Monitor liquid levels in data centers, warehouses, and sensitive buildings to prevent damage and corrosion.
28. Radiation Levels: Distributed measurement of radiation levels around nuclear power plants, issuing leakage alarms.
29. Explosive and Hazardous Gases: Detect gas levels and leaks around industrial environments, chemical plants, and mines.
►Smart Retail and Smart Logistics
30. Supply Chain Control: Monitor storage conditions and product tracking in the supply chain to achieve traceability.
31. NFC Payments: Real-time payments based on specific locations or activity durations, such as public transportation, gyms, theme parks, etc.
32. Smart Shopping Applications: Sales suggestions based on customer habits, preferences, allergens, or expiration dates.
33. Smart Product Management: Control automation of products on shelves and in warehouses, implementing automated replenishment processes.
34. Shipping Quality Situation: Monitor vibrations, impacts, container opening and closing status, or cold chain maintenance.
35. Project Positioning: Find individual items in large areas such as warehouses or ports.
36. Monitoring of Prohibited Items Storage: Alarm when containers storing flammable items are nearby;
37. Vehicle Tracking: Monitor the transportation of fragile goods, such as medical drugs, jewelry, or hazardous items.
Case: Cold Chain Monitoring and Smart Tracking
Bread and Pastries
Vehicle Tracking
The central dispatch office is responsible for listing the routes of each delivery truck, transporting cakes to bakeries, and delivering pastries and fresh bread to retail stores, restaurants, or dining rooms. Through a wireless sensor network (WSN) system, the temperature and location of each transport vehicle can be monitored remotely using connected PCs/smartphones/tablets.►Smart Industry
38. M2M Applications: Machine automatic diagnosis and asset control.
39. Indoor Air Quality: Monitor toxic gases and oxygen levels in chemical factories to ensure the safety of workers and goods.
40. Temperature Monitoring: Management of temperature-sensitive goods in industrial and medical refrigerators.
41. Ozone Levels: Monitor ozone levels during the drying process of meat in food factories.
42. Indoor Positioning: Use ZigBee and RFID/NFC for indoor asset positioning.
43. Vehicle Automatic Diagnosis: Collect information from the CAN bus, sending real-time alarms or providing suggestions to drivers in case of emergencies.
Case: Smart Factory: Reducing Maintenance Costs and Ensuring Product Quality in the Manufacturing Process
Polibol Factory Workshop
Temperature monitoring of pipes
Libelium used Waspmote Plug & Sense to design specific applications for Polibol, and to monitor key processes, environmental variables of the entire factory, and parameters affecting product quality and working conditions through the Meshlium portal. Utilizing Libelium sensor network technology, Polibol can monitor the air temperature around printers and pipes, the brightness of the final products, and the CO2 concentration in the workers’ area using connected PCs, tablets, or smartphones. The integration of Libelium sensor technology with the Microsoft Azure Cloud platform allows the data collected by Libelium’s sensor nodes to be directly transmitted to the cloud for analysis and use in various applications.
►Smart Agriculture
44. Wine Quality Improvement: Monitor soil moisture and trunk diameter in vineyards to control the sugar content of grapes and the health of the vines.
45. Greenhouse: Control microclimate conditions to maximize the yield and quality of fruits and vegetables.
46. Golf Courses: Selectively irrigate dry areas to save water resources needed for vegetation.
47. Weather Stations: Predict weather conditions, forecast ice formation, rainfall, drought, snow, or wind changes.
48. Composting: Control humidity and temperature levels of alfalfa, hay, straw, etc., to prevent contamination by fungi and other microorganisms.
49. Hydroponics: Control the precise conditions for plants in water to achieve maximum production efficiency.
50. Breeding Care: Monitor the growth status of offspring in animal farms to ensure their survival and health.
51. Animal Tracking: Track the location of animals in open pastures or stables for grazing and identity verification.
52. Toxic Gas Levels: Monitor ventilation and air quality on farms, detecting harmful gases in manure.
Case: Italy is the second-largest kiwi producer after China, with a sales volume of about 448,000 tons last year.
Kiwi Orchard
Sensor deployment diagram
FAMOSA is an Italian company that has developed wireless sensor networks for crop monitoring and management, creating accurate irrigation solutions for farmers in kiwi orchards equipped with GPRS and Sigfox. The agriculture sector is deploying high-end technology in orchards to improve process workflows, maintain high-quality standards, and reduce the daily workload of farmers.
FAMOSA installed two different wireless sensors to monitor soil moisture conditions for planning irrigation in kiwi orchards.。
►Home Automation
53. Energy and Water Use: Monitor energy and water consumption to provide suggestions on how to save costs and resources.
54. Remote Appliance Control: Remotely turn devices on and off to avoid accidents and save energy.
55. Intrusion Detection Systems: Detect door and window openings and intrusion situations to prevent intruders.
56. Art and Goods Preservation: Monitor environmental conditions in museums and art warehouses.
►Smart Health57. Fall Detection: Provide assistance for the elderly or disabled individuals in their daily lives.
58. Medical Refrigerators: Control conditions inside refrigerators for storing vaccines, medications, and organic elements.
59. Athlete Care: Monitor vital signs at sports events.
60. Patient Monitoring: Monitor the conditions of patients in hospitals and nursing homes.
61. Ultraviolet Radiation: Measure the intensity of solar ultraviolet radiation to warn people against prolonged exposure at specific times.
Case: Low-cost sensors for early detection of childhood diseases
INSPIRE device measures respiratory rate to diagnose infant pneumonia: Early prototype
INSPIRE device measures respiratory rate to diagnose infant pneumonia
To reduce childhood mortality due to acute respiratory infections (ARI), Guardit invented and licensed by Inspire Living Inc. developed a smart object sensing array in partnership with the global NGO HOPE project to create a device that helps effectively detect respiratory distress, which then provides early alerts for childhood pneumonia based on an electronic health sensor platform.
Inspire Living is an innovative company that has developed a new sensor system for monitoring respiratory rates in developing countries after years of development and hundreds of iterations. They obtained a sensor patent and selected a special material that can adhere to children’s skin to ensure the device is placed correctly. They also created easy-to-read icons for displaying respiratory counts; in places with low battery and sunlight, they designed a manual way to automatically charge the device.
INSPIRE device identifies breathing patterns using algorithms, and the displayed data can be understood even by non-professionals. The device tests the respiratory rate every 15 seconds and can perform multiple tests within a minute, allowing healthcare personnel to closely monitor changes in patient conditions.
Healthcare personnel place the INSPIRE device on the child’s sternum and press the start button; at the end of the test, it beeps and displays the count. Repeat tests can be performed for more accurate information. Once the respiratory rate is displayed, the device gives diagnostic suggestions based on age and respiratory rate. To avoid errors, the built-in storage chip in the device can transfer data to external devices.