A NEW WAY OF WORKING

Building a monitoring network during lockdown


This is a tale of how when the world turns upside down, engineers find a way to 'get the job done'!


BEFORE:

Oct 2019

In partnership with Glasgow University's School of Mathematics and Statistics and the Centre for Sensing and Imaging Systems (CENSIS) a successful bid for funding was made to the UK Research Institute body NERC, the Natural Environment Research Council.


The bid detailed the plans to develop and deploy a network of low cost Internet of Things (IoT) connected devices creating a Digital Environment' which would inform local agriculture operators and regulators in near real-time on the health of their environment.

Nov 2019:

The project team meet at Glasgow University for the first time, SEPA and CENSIS will both be building devices for deployment in the catchment along with 'Off the Shelf' sensors for comparison. I start the design process of what will become my 'ECHO' river level and water temperature device.

Dec 2019

The first virtual meeting of the project team is held on Zoom, little did we know then, that the whole world would be using that platform a whole lot more often, very soon...!

Jan 2020

My ECHO devices are now built and bench tested. To prove their resilience they are mounted to the compound fence at the Bedlay View Workshop facility and left to their own devices over an extended period

The relatively small but very dry Elliot Water catchment has been the focus of interest for several years as a potential test bed for IoT sensors to aid in the effort to reduce the impact of licenced abstractions during drought periods.

The decision is taken by the project team that the Elliot Water is the perfect candidate to become the first 'Digital Environment for Water Resources'

Feb 2020

We met with Glasgow University and CENSIS to discuss the best geographical dispersion on the Elliot water for device installations.

During our meeting the team, with the use of a white board and magnetic 'pins', manually placed markers on a map as a first stab at locations for devices. 

This was then sense checked by employing a Generalised Random Tesselation Stratified (GRTS) design tool run by Glasgow University which generated almost exactly the same geographical dispersion of devices. 


Normality as we know it changes..

After working it's way across the Globe from China where it was first reported by officials in Wuhan City, in December 2019, Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) brings the country and our economy to a grinding halt. 

Mid March 2020

SEPA send us all home to work for the foreseeable future, I grab as much equipment and tools as I can on my way out the door to enable me to continue developing the system from home

Coronavirus: PM Boris Johnson's lockdown statement @BBC News - BBC

23rd March 2020

The Prime Minister puts the country into lockdown

03rd April 2020

I get permission to collect our 3D printers from my workshop, the next day I start round the clock production of 3D printed face visors for the NHS and other care givers.


AFTER: (The NEW normal)

Working from home takes on a whole new meaning as I start the design process for my new rainfall, air temperature, humidity and pressure device.

..a skillet pan...

..becomes my surface mount station.

..and I build a workbench for the garden.

Apr 2020

I complete the design of my raingauge prototype device.

Thanks to working in my sons bedroom the device now has the moniker Droplet after his creative juices get flowing during a conversation about what I'm doing.

01st May 2020

After testing a psuedo circuit on the bench I send my design off to the Guangdong province of China to have the boards manufactured; turn around time from time of order to shipment arriving at my door 10 days. Unbelievable!


Thousands of lines of MicroPython and HTML code later and I have a working firmware complete with built in web server to allow mobile phone access to the devices when on site.

Now for the hard bit...I can hardly even see some of the components! 


I now move onto 3D modelling the bespoke parts I need to 'build' a completed system capable of surviving the Scottish climate.

04th June 2020

The completed prototype Droplet gets deployed in my garden for literal soak testing and I enter full-on production mode. 


With a slight easing in the number of requests from the NHS and carers for PPE, I am able to re-task the 3D printers for a brief spell to print off a batch load of the components I designed:

Next and final step is to design, make and fit labels for the boxes: 

The QR code links to a data portal I am designing in tandem with the construction of the devices!

02nd July 2020

The device construction is complete and not a

moment too soon, deployment starts tomorrow


Weather forecast for the driest place in Scotland? Heavy Rain!

25th & 28th Aug 2020

Even Storm Francis can't slow the progress of the rollout of the new network of stations! 

A quick stop off at the local B&Q enroute to site to collect this PVC Growhouse enabled us to continue working. With Covid travel restrictions and subsequent red tape needing to be completed before each site visit we can't afford to waste a day because of a little rain and some wind.

18th Sept 2020

Some of the locations couldn't get more breath taking!

It's a very challenging location for radio signals though, this 'Off the Shelf' sensor struggles to get it's signals back to the receiving station on the Signal Tower on the coast in Arbroath.

08th Oct 2020

Following this final visit to repair damage to some devices caused by extreme high flows there are now 27 devices installed in the catchment all returning data in real-time to our cloud based data platform. 


Now we need a data portal so that the end users can get at the data!

A comparison of the catchment showing the geographical disbursement of the devices.

Getting at the data..

The Informatics and GIS teams are actively developing Spotfire and ArcGIS based data portals to gain access to all the data from the devices but whilst the design of those tools continues I have designed an HTML based portal which not only allows access to the data from all the devices but also allow the farms to submit planned abstractions from the water course so that other local farmers can see when it is safe to abstract without causing undue pressure on the water body.

In discussions with the farmers on site it was evident that the Hutton Criteria was a critical informative element to their farming activities, I have incorporated a predicted Hutton Index as well as a five day weather forecast from the MET office to add as much value to the portal as possible.

We demo my data portal to the farming community in Arbroath on the 26th November.. 

The QR code links to a data portal I am designing in tandem with the construction of the devices!

A comparison of the catchment showing the geographical disbursement of the devices.