IT in Manufacturing


Adroit chooses Sigfox for smart water project

May 2019 IT in Manufacturing

Adroit Technologies has chosen the Sigfox IoT network for a large municipal Smart Water IoT project. Managing director, Dave Wibberley, states that the company is excited about being involved in this proof of concept pilot project. “We chose the Sigfox network, run in South Africa by Sqwidnet, for its reliability, cost-effectiveness and ease of use,” he adds, “believing that this network and partner ecosystem would allow us to fully test the viability of large scale IoT projects.

“We have done a number of proof concepts, but believe that having a real world project where we are integrating sensors onto our Adroit Enterprise IoT platform will allow us to test the concept of large scale IoT solutions within a municipal water environment. The Sigfox technology is well proven; it is the value against cost that needs to be tested. This progressive water utility that delivers potable water to over 5 million people in South Africa really wants to understand the IoT, and separate the talk from the value. This is a good project in that we have identified real-world problems and used IoT technology to solve them.”

The project focuses on the following aspects of a smart utility, and, whilst it is by no means a comprehensive list of where the IoT can deliver value, it is varied enough as a starting point:

• Metering (energy and water).

• Security: partnered with Moduteq for security of sensors.

• Pressure monitoring: built a local sensor suitable for municipal use, partnered with UK-based Wavetrend for an additional sensor.

• Asset management: monitoring movable assets.

• Manhole monitoring: security and risk management.

• Vibration sensors: monitor fences.

• Temperature sensors (from Nerospec): server room temperature monitoring.

An example of where the IoT is set to assist this municipality is ensuring that physical samples are taken from water towers on a regular basis. For operational reliability purposes, a ‘tip’ sensor, which measures angular displacement, is installed under the access lids to ensure that a physical opening takes place within the prescribed timeframe.

The solution is being integrated into the Adroit Scada platform, incorporating a GIS interface. The complete system, which will test run for a calendar year, went live during March.

The Adroit Technologies Sigfox certified IoT Platform is extremely well suited to enterprise IoT solutions.

For more information contact Dave Wibberley, Adroit Technologies, +27 11 658 8100, [email protected], www.adroit.co.za



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