IoT001 Argyle House IoT Pilot

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Background

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a cluster of technologies spanning hardware devices, networking, data collection and data applications. It allows any ‘thing’ to be connected to the Internet. In an initiative spearheaded by Information Services and supported by Corporate Services and the School of Informatics, the University is setting up an IoT programme. Initially, a pilot IoT network will be established. This will allow us to capture real-time data from a large number of sensors (both mobile and static) across the campus and the city as a whole. The resulting data will yield an unrivalled picture of the built and natural environment, and of how people interact with each other and their environment.

Our goal for the IoT programme is to develop a shared IoT infrastructure that will support research, development and teaching with a range of partners both inside and outside the University, including SMEs and industry.  This initial, small scale proof of concept pilot project will deploy wireless sensors and wireless devices to enable environmental and space occupancy monitoring.

This will involve deployment of non-personal data capturing sensors only:

Meeting room occupancy: We will attach a small sensor to each chair and the entrance door in the Argyle House (AH) meeting rooms (initially on floor E) to measure temperature, light level and movement. This will give us a view of occupancy levels for each meeting room. These sensors will communicate via Bluetooth to a small sensor hub in the room, which will then communicate via LoRa radio with the back-end via a dedicated LoRa gateway receiver. There will be a notice posted in each meeting room where the sensors are deployed.

Environmental monitoring: We will place two wireless LoRa devices on each wing of H floor with sensors for heat, atmospheric pressure, and humidity. One of the devices will also include  a particulate sensor.

This is a proof of concept project that will be used to test and prove the technology.  The technology may possibly be left in place when the project is complete. This option will be evaluated and agreed with ITI and building management teams.

It is intended that the project will run for circa one year to allow a sufficient body of data to build up after the devices have been deployed.

The work on this project was kicked off prior to the brief and other project controls being established, at the request of the Director of ITI.

The IoT programme has many activities kicking off at this early stage and at this time a full plan of all activities , priorities and timelines are not defined, and indeed these will need to be somewhat fluid.  We also have a single lead technical resource and data science consultant  who needs to be involved in most activities, especially at this early stage. As a result, the detailed time line for the deliverables will develop over time. Also, the initially defined objectives and deliverables may change, but this will be managed via the established scope change process.

Scope

Changes to Scope will be logged on the Issue Log and also recorded on the Project Scope Change page.

In scope

• Creation of a TTN (The Things Network) server (this will use a TTN build, but will not be connected to the wider TTN network).
• Deployment of non-personal data capturing IoT sensors in Argyle House with the aim of monitoring meeting room occupancy levels and environmental factors in open office areas.
• Manual analysis of data and provision of reports showing room occupancy levels as well as heat, atmospheric pressure , humidity , and particulates in the office environment.
• Identify the way forward for the AH sensor network after the end of the project.

Out of scope

• Collection of personal data.
• Provision of IoT sensor network service in Argyle House.   
• Provision of data analysis and presentation tool.
• Connection to The Things Network (TTN).

Objectives

The objectives of this project are:

To deploy and IoT TTN server, IoT gateways, sensors and devices and sensors to capture occupancy level data from the target meeting rooms. To develop and test potential monitoring devices, sensors and approaches to occupancy monitoring - this is a pilot proof of concept project, and some initial approaches may not work and will require rework. To identify ways in which IoT technology can assist the operation of University functions. To ensure data privacy issues are understood and addressed by carrying out a Privacy Impact assessment.

Benefits

The pilot will allow us to build and demonstrate our capability with IoT infrastructure, as well as giving us an understanding of the occupancy levels in the monitored rooms,.  It will also allow us to monitor environmental factors in the open office.   This may help underpin future choices in provisioning meeting room facilities and provide an understanding of the open office environment.  To enable UoE teams to become familiar with IoT technologies.   .

Priority and Funding

This project is an initial proof of concept  project within the IoT programme and it is core funded.