Sensors and the smart cities of the future
Sensors have long been used in industrial settings to monitor and improve processes and systems. Associate Professor Flora Salim from RMIT University speaks about how researchers are using sensor technology to enhance the liveability of our cities.
Manufacturing plants and refineries are usually highly-structured environments. They typically feature machinery, automated systems, and computerised technologies and software operating within a delimited space administered by a particular company or administration and all geared towards particular goals – profitable and efficient production, for instance. These days, industrial processes are becoming increasingly predictive. A recent study by McKinsey, for example, has outlined how the combined uptake of big data, advanced analytics and the Internet of Things(IoT) is boosting industrial productivity by reducing unpredictability. Life in our large modern cities, by comparison, can appear chaotic, unstructured and unpredictable. The activities carried out by individual citizens are by no means necessarily pursued with systematic goals or the activities of others in mind. Sometimes, in fact, the simultaneous pursuit of the same goal by many individuals can lead to mutual obstruction. An ordinary trip to a desirable beach location, for example, can lead to frustration when one finds that several hundred, if not thousands, of other people have exactly the same plan – roads are congested, the best picnic or bathing spots taken. All the while, another equally tempting location may lie empty and unused.
The rational and efficient use of the resources and infrastructure upon which peoples’ working and leisure time depends is something that frequently animates policy discussions around urban planning. The federal government, for example, has itself established a long-term “smart cities” plan that seeks to develop policies towards greater utilisation of real-time data and IoT technologies in urban settings. The use of digital data to measure human activity is something that has been around for a number of years now. Companies like Google and Facebook, for instance, have long captured user data to target consumers with products and services.
Capturing data on the everyday interactions of people within their urban environment and infrastructure, influencing those interactions in realtime to make cities more sustainable, efficient, accessible and liveable, is a goal of projects aimed at forging future smart cities. This means cities that employ sensor, data and internet technologies to provide better living and working environments for their populations.
In most people’s minds, sensors are associated with the monitoring, measuring and testing of industrial processes, helping maintain the smooth, safe and efficient functioning of systems ranging from manufacturing to gas, water and other utilities plants. But researchers are now also seeking to use sensor technology to not only measure human behaviours, but to also use the collected data to help individuals make better decisions about how they manage their day.
Preliminary steps in the direction of testing small-scale smart city technologies are being trialled in a collaboration between RMIT University and Mornington Peninsula Shire at the popular beachside town of Rye. It is hoped that the project, led by RMIT’s Associate Professor Flora Salim and Dr. Andy Song, will provide a glimpse at how utilising existing digital technologies can make cities more liveable in the future. Once the project is up and running, traffic sensors will feed into smart signs displaying real-time availability of parking, while also guiding traffic to the least congested route. Sensors will be placed on barbecues and in bins to let council workers know when they need attention, and air quality sensors set up at toilet blocks. The historic Rye Pier will have air and water quality sensors attached.
