The successful tests of the updated environmental monitoring system developed by Novosibirsk students were completed in Kuzbass on November 16th. The improved VectorAIr hardware and software system now not only remotely collects and transmits data about air pollution to the server in real time via wireless connection, but it can also predict the distribution zones of pollution and analyze the contribution of each individual source to the overall level of pollution. The results of the tests proved the motorway to be the main source of pollution.
In early October, NSTU NETI students completed upgrading environmental monitoring system: they changed the devices' hardware and upgraded the complex's software part. Field trials of the updated system were conducted at coal mines in the Kemerovo Oblast. Their results confirmed that the hardware and software complex has improved the quality of measurements, since there is a new function for calculating pollution zones based on the air quality index and the number of recorded parameters is expanded. Currently, the VectorAIr system can detect dust particles of nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, ozone, carbon monoxide less than 2.5 micrometers in size, and such parameters as temperature, pressure and humidity.
Due to the use of AI, the program can predict the distribution zones of atmospheric pollution. According to the developers, this enables a correct allocation of the state and companies resources, so that they could get the maximum improvement in air quality with minimal investment in protective and treatment facilities. During piloting the system, the students found out that the motorway is the main pollutant in the surveyed area.
"Previously, the information about air pollution was collected several times a month, so the data was not so relevant, and the methods of transmitting this data did not allow processing it with our software. In order to solve this problem, we needed a monitoring system that would gather information about real time pollution," says Ivan Kharlampenkov, PhD (Technical Sciences), a researcher at the KB FRC ICT.
Unlike the existing devices, VectorAIr collects data to the server automatically and works without connecting to the power grid. It also contains only industrial sensors. The hardware and software system developed by students consists of a base station and data acquisition devices. The devices receive data from sensors and transmit it to the base station over the LoRa wireless communication. The base station generates an information package and sends it via GPRS to the customer's server every 1-2 hours.
The solution reduces the dependence on cellular communication by gathering data using the LoRa Protocol, thereby increasing the coverage of the territory of the examined object to 10 km and reducing the constant financial expenditure for mobile operators to a minimum, according to the authors of the development.
Taking into account the experience and results obtained, the participants of the NSTU NETI business incubator plan to use the VectorAIr complex in Krasnoyarsk. "Our task will be to determine the impact of each plant on the overall level of pollution and test the hypothesis about the main polluter, UC Rusal, that was put forward by the head of Rospotrebnadzor." We have already encountered a similar situation when using VectorAIr in Kemerovo Oblast. Everyone believed that the main polluter is the CHPP, but a detailed analysis revealed that the motorway is the main pollution factor," said Vladimir Radchenko, a graduate student of Radio Engineering and Electronics Faculty, NSTU NETI, a resident of the Garage Business Incubator and a Chief Technology Officer of the VectorAIr project. The issue will be highlighted during the event "The Day of Business and Economic Partnership between Novosibirsk and Krasnoyarsk", which is scheduled for November18 — 20, 2020.
"We think that the close collaboration between NSTU NETI, Kuznetsk Center of Technical and Environmental Expertise and KB FRC ICT can find the optimal solution which will not only stop the pollution of the city, but also will facilitate investing in the infrastructure objects that are not actually contaminants", said Vladimir Radchenko.
The advantage of the VectorAIr development the will be economical benefits of its implementation. The use of wireless technologies and the system's autonomy will reduce human and financial costs as well as time. The monitoring costs will reduce to about a fifth of the existing technologies.
According to the report of the analytical service of the international audit and consulting FinExpertiza, Russian enterprises and transport released 22.7 million tons of pollutants into the atmosphere in 2019. On average, a Russian citizen receives about 155 kg of harmful emissions per year. This figure ranges from 23 kg to 1.6 tons depending on the region, experts say.
According to 2019's regulation of the Russian Government, the objects listed in it should ensure the transfer of information to Roskomnadzor about emissions of environmental pollutants by 2022.
Scientists have found out that there is no minimum threshold for pollution that does not affect health. The consequences of the polluted air exposure can include allergic reactions, complicated asthma, irritation of the mucous membranes, cancer and other diseases.