Project coordinator @ CEST: Philipp Fruhmann

Project Partner: AIT (Dr. Johannes Bintinger)

Project abstract:

Within our LoRa-SENS project, we are developing of combined LoRaWAN-sensor based IoT setup, which is economic, reliable, durable and versatile.

The sensing concept itself is based on a recently developed chemiresistor, which is coated with different polymers and optimized, to serve as tool for a detailed humidity and ammonia concentration mapping within Lower Austrian. The LoRaWAN network is chosen, since it provides the perfect basis for future IoT applications – it is currently available in more than 50 countries, will be rolled out in Lower Austria within the next years and enables wide area monitoring with a minimum amount of infrastructure.

The huge benefits of our approach are the possibility to customize the implemented sensor for a wide range of different airborne analytes based on the used coating material, as well as the availability of a LoRaWAN network solution for these sensor types. The necessary sensors are currently in development in our laboratories and will be adapted to the needs of humidity and ammonia sensing and coupled with a LoRaWAN unit within the project in order to autonomously measure for one year in different areas in Lower Austria. This includes the recording and data transmission of one data point each 10 minutes per device. This approach should lead to a detailed time resolved humidity and ammonia concentration mapping in St. Pölten, Tulln, Wr. Neudorf, Wr. Neustadt, Krems and Wieselburg.

Beside the sensor development, two additional beneficial effects will come alongside with the results:

• The development of an all-in-one solution for the integration of an adaptable and simple chemical sensor in the future LoRaWAN-IoT network will serve as blueprint for other sensors in development and speed up the integration of similar devices.
• The humidity and ammonia data obtained by the different field trials in Lower Austria is a valuable information and will give deep localized insight in agricultural related aspects (manure distribution, farms and the related ammonia levels) and therefore represents a valuable use.