Donut
Distributed Online monitoring of the Urban water cycle
DONUT is a three-year project that utilizes the current advances in smart energy-efficient sensors, IoT, big-data and ICT combined with the project partners’ comprehensive knowledge and experience to develop a unified cost-efficient grand solution spanning from measurement to information creation.
The water sectors’ challenges are the lack of information and knowledge about the water cycle. This information does not exist today and is increasingly requested for monitoring of both man-made and natural water systems.This project will develop and commercialize a unified solution, which will enable cost-efficient distributed monitoring of the hydrological and hydraulic states of the urban water cycle and provide data and knowledge about the system correlations. Also, this project will help the water sector to move into the big data era as it will develop and mature the basis of the forthcoming IoT and ICT infrastructures for blue, green and climate-adapted cities.
The illustration above shows a distributed monitoring of the urban water cycle with 60 measurement units; however, the aim is distributed monitoring networks consisting of hundreds or thousands of measurement units to provide a holistic real time overview of the urban water cycle.
Project partners and funding
The partners of the DONUT project will participate in the different work packages during the project period. The partners are Aarhus Vand, VandCenter Syd, Aalborg University - Department of Civil Engineering, Aalborg University - Department of Computer Science, MONTEM, InforMetics, and Aarhus Municipality.The project is funded by the Innovation Fund Denmark for a period of 3 years from 2018-2021.
Organization and steering committee
Project members and members of the steering committee, who are responsible for coordinating of the different work packages and partner contributions:
PROJECT ORGANIZATION
STEERING COMMITTEE
- Project Leader
Malte S. AHM, Aarhus Vand - WP 1 leader
MICHAEL R. RASMUSSEN, AALBORG UNIVERSITY - wp 2 leader
ANDERS HØEDHOLT, MONTEM - Wp 3 leader
PETER S. RASCH, INFORMETICS - WP 4 Leader
MALTE S. AHM, AARHUS VAND - WP 5 Leader
Malte S. AHM, Aarhus Vand
- clAUS MØLLER PEDERSEN, AARHUS VAND
- GERDA HALD, VANDCENTER SYD
- JES VOLLERTSEN, AALBORG UNIVERSITET – VM
(CHAIRMAN OF THE STEERING GROUP) - KIM GULDSTRAND LARSEN, AALBORG UNIVERSITET - CISS
- CHRISTIAN ØSTERGAARD LAURSEN, MONTEM
- PETER S. RASCH, INFORMETICS
- GITTE NORMAND ANDERSEN, AARHUS KOMMUNE – CME
(OBSERVER)
Work packages
The DONUT project is divided into 5 work packages:
WP 1:
Scientific research and application of software sensor, edge processing and quality system for advanced hydraulic features in the water cycle.
WP 2:
Development of modular cost-efficient smart plug ‘n’ play measurement units.
WP 3:
Development of online big-data-processing platform and knowledge creation.
WP 4:
Application of knowledge from smart distributed measurement network using developed analytical tools.
WP 5:
Project administration, communication and dissemination.
The project is organised in six main cycles, five development cycles and a finalising cycle. Each of the six main cycles is designed to support an iterative solution-oriented development process as illustrated below, where project partners collaborate closely to create a holistic solution according to the overall aim and vision of the project. The iterative process is illustrated below along with a list of the cycle themes.
CYCLE
THEME
1
Basis measurements unit and operational data flow
2
Stable communication and data quality
3
Self-configurating and self-diagnosis measure-ment unit
4
Self-compensating measurement unit with edge processing. Advanced cloud analytics for a holistic overview.
5
Adaptive energy and measurement strategy man-aged automatically from cloud application. Focus on holistic end-to-end solution.
6
Validation, documentation and authority regula-tion. Focus on holistic end-to-end solution.
WP1:
Scientific research and application of software sensor, edge processing and quality system for advanced hydraulic features in the water cycle
Work package leader:
Michael R. Rasmussen (Aalborg University)
Aim:
To ensure the knowledge base for the hydraulic software sensors and advanced quality and fault correction system.
The main activities are focused on
CFD modelling of advanced hydraulic structures to build mathematical models for different advanced hydraulic structures describing the relation between the water level and the flow.
Development of edge processing software parallel with the CFD modelling. Prototypes of the software sensors are tested in the laboratory to ensure, that the software sensors are ready for IoT integration.
Quality and fault correction system on measurement unit and hub level.
Hydraulic benchmarking in laboratory using scaled models of advanced hydraulics structures under different hydraulic loadings. Results from CFD models, software sensors and quality system are tested and verified under controlled conditions in laboratory. These results are collected in a database showing the experimental results and performance documentation.
WP2:
Development of modular cost-efficient smart plug ‘n’ play measurement units
Work package leader:
Anders Høedholt (MONTEM)
Aim:
To develop the cost-effective IoT-based hardware platform for the unified solution. Development isbased on an iterative design process in collaboration with stakeholders, thus ensuring a low TCO.
The main activities are focused on
Sensor benchmark and comparison. Defining criteria for the hardware and data gathering system, including sensor precision, energy consumption and communication protocols. Development of prototype circuitry, preliminary tests and data availability (2-3 test units), and initial testing (10-20 units).
Next iteration hardware development with implementation of additional sensors and edge processing. Development of communication between multiple sensor units and relay units. Recurring hardware tests and extended testing of a distributed network (80-100 units).
Finalizing ready prototype for scaled production and product certifications. Hardware improvements based on tests and feedback from operating staff. Pre-production optimization of hardware modularity and assembly. Final blueprints, schematics and documentation ready for production.
WP3:
Development of online big-data-processing platform and knowledge creation
Work package leader:
Peter S. Rasch (InforMetics)
Aim:
To develop the online big-data-processing platform and ensure the information and knowledge creation from the distributed monitoring network and other relevant data sources.
The main activities are focused on
Development of data management and machine-to-machine automated exchanges through APIs. Cloud data management system and sensor self-registration app.
Development of self-registering software.
Multi-source data analysis, quality control and notifications using Machine Learning. A web overview of the status for quality control, correlation, dropout, multi-source mixed products and optimization.
Cross-platform processed data distribution and end-user applications. Web and mobile ready base components and end-user applications. A general application using real-time and historical data is developed
Diagnostic software on measurement unit level based on system correlations.
WP4:
Application of knowledge from smart distributed measurement network using developed analytical tools
Work package leader:
Malte S. Ahm (Aarhus Vand)
Aim:
To ensure the relevance of the developed products and solutions for the Danish water utilities, while working towards a global target market (developed and developing countries).
The main activities are focused on
Identification of central needs for distributed monitoring and data-driven decision-making concerning renewal, expansion, maintenance and operation of the urban water system. Central stakeholders are included in the process.
Test and validation of the cost-efficient modular sensors units in practical conditions. This includes the full scale of the infrastructure from measurement to information and knowledge creation to ensure an iterative design.
Scaled implementation of the unified solution at the locations of the water utility partners in order to create the necessary data basis for TCO-documentation.
Development of user-cases, business concepts, business models, market analyses and documentation of value-creation and added value.
WP5:
Project administration, communication and dissemination
Work package leader:
Michael R. Rasmussen (Aalborg University)
Aim:
To ensure the knowledge base for the hydraulic software sensors and advanced quality and fault correction system.
The main activities are focused on
Project management with a special focus of ensuring an iterative solution-oriented development process, where each project partner collaborates close together to create a holistic solution according to the overall aim and vision of the project.
Project administration.
Dissemination of results and knowledge to the water sector, and collaboration.
