A development that fits drones with radiation sensors enabling them to detect and geolocate radiation sources, and a scheme to provide harmonised air quality data at low cost to all NSW councils are among the finalists in the Environmental Monitoring category of the 2024 Australian IoT Awards.

The awards are the official awards program of IoT Alliance Australia, Australia’s peak industry body for Internet of Things (IoT), and IoT Hub.

The entries provide a snapshot of how IoT is being used to advance productivity, security and sustainability across Australian industry and government, from water and energy to manufacturing and government services.

Winners of IoT Awards categories will be announced over networking drinks and canapes at the culmination of the 2024 IoT Impact conference on June 13 at UTS in Sydney.

In its fifth year, the IoT Impact conference and exhibition will explore, debate and uncover how Australia organisations can achieve sustainability goals, achieve trust and implement IoT technologies to create a data smart Australia. Purchase tickets and see the IoT Impact Conference agenda here.

The Environmental Monitoring Award finalists 

SiteHive’s Hexanode Vibration monitoring device

MEMS accelerometers and other consumer technology enabled development of a cost-effective single device to measure structural impacts and human comfort, previously not possible with geophone-based devices.

The device allows users to quickly see the impact of vibration on the environment and take action to minimise the impact.

SiteHive worked with the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and the Federal Government’s National Measurements Institute (NMI) on sensor selection, circuit board design/layout and mechanical and industrial design.

Synctegral’s drone-based real time radiation monitoring and geolocation system

Inspired by the loss of a radioactive capsule in Western Australia in early 2023, this proof of concept system comprised a drone with geolocation and a radiation measurement device and has integrated the data stream into an SAP S4HANA incidents management system.

The solution also enabled Synctegral to expose the data to ESRI GEO maps in SAP Analytics Cloud.

Synctegral presented the system to the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) and submitted it to the global SAP Tech Ed Demo Jam competition in which it was ranked third and awarded a Bronze Medal.

NSW Government’s OPENAIR project to help communities respond to air quality concerns

OPENAIR is part of the NSW Government’s Smart Places Acceleration Program and a joint project between Transport for NSW, the NSW Department of Planning and Environment and the NSW Smart Sensing Network.

It enables air quality data collected by council-operated sensors to be shared in a common format, via the OPENAIR API.

It aims to give all communities equal access to local air quality data and helps them quickly and cheaply understand and respond to air quality concerns and protect people’s health.

UTS’s IoT Enabled Real-time Seawater and Arsenic Removal Monitoring Systems

University of Technology Sydney developed and deployed real-time seawater monitoring stations in Vietnam to safeguard aquaculture, particularly lobster farming, against diseases and adverse water quality conditions.

The system measures critical parameters—temperature, acidity, ammonia, dissolved oxygen, salinity and turbidity.

It then uses artificial intelligence to analyse the data and automatically alert farmers via a mobile app or SMS, enabling them take action and protect their stocks.

Victoria’s Schools Water Efficiency Program (SWEP) to save schools water and money with data loggers.

This program is a Victorian Government initiative developed by the Department of Energy,
Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) and the Department of Education (DET).

It provides schools with data loggers installed on existing water meters to capture water consumption data in 15-minute intervals and present this to students and staff via a website.

The program uses Captis IoT monitoring devices by Kallipr, Software AG’s Cumulocity IoT platform, and enables data to be transmitted via Telstra NB-IoT.

It enables them to monitor consumption and receive immediate notification of any significant changes that could indicate leaks.

NSW National Parks & Wildlife’s use of the Meshed Fire Fuel Load & Environmental Monitoring Solution

Meshed has deployed a wide range of environment sensors, connected over LORAWAN and cellular networks, to monitor conditions in bushfire prone areas and enable better planning of hazard reduction burns.

Hazard reduction burns are planned several years in advance but are subject to extremely variable conditions and require conditions to be in a sweet spot for safe and efficient burns. Many “burn block” locations are remote.

This solution overcomes the limitations of manually measuring conditions in these locations by sending environmental data every 15 minutes to a cloud dashboard, which are used as a baseline to inform when to take the additional manual measurements that are required before a burn may commence.

Thank you to all entrants

If your entry isn’t a finalist, that does not mean the judges thought it was without merit. Separating the nominations was not always straightforward. Thank you for giving the judges the opportunity to learn more about your achievements.

A special thank you to the award judges who brought valuable knowledge in key domains to the judging process.

We also thank IoT Skills Australia for making the 2024 IoT Awards possible though their sponsorship.

The IoT Impact conference will be held in Sydney on 13 June, 2024, at the Great Hall, UTS. Purchase tickets and see the IoT Impact Conference agenda here