LPWAN-Based Tracking System Demonstration ? AdHoc-Now 2019 Conference ? Luxembourg

Update:

There is a video that illustrates this story at the end of this page.

When real life stories start? It is hard to decide. Events are a consequence of previous actions, which were consequences of previous events, which had been consequences of even previous actions. And so on... Think on fairytales. They start with Once upon a time... and begin to mention some interesting event and the consequences that event produce.

The beginning

This Article does not pretend to be a fairytale. Most of fairytales success thanks to magic power, miracles, or a super power person. This Storie success because of commitment, effort, and collaborative team work. But as many stories, is a consequence of events. One of the first events related with this story was my first visit to Luxembourg, last June, attending to LIST Tech Day 2019. You are invited to read an about that day. During my visit, I met Dr Ramona Pelich, who promised to introduce me to a Researcher who was more related with my IoT topics. Dr. Pelich accomplished her promise. After my return to Washington DC, I received an invitation from Dr Maria Rita Palatella (Senior R&T at LIST) to present a Demonstration of Tracking using LPWAN, in the conference she was organizing: AdHoc-Now! 2019. The Demonstration would be based on my experiments made in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST, U.S.A.)

It should be easy. Most of the work is already done, I thought. I had presented similar demonstration about LPWAN-Based tracking system using NIST Shuttle during the SIM Week 2018. I would bring same system to Luxembourg. However, I didn't want to arrive with a Circus in a box, presenting an imported foreign project, without involvement with the host city. I set out to make a demonstration of Environmental Monitoring and Smart Agriculture tailored to the organizers of the conference, taking into account the peculiarity of the city where it was taking place. This project started to grow up beyond my capabilities. Fortunately, I found amazing people during this journey that collaborated with me, making possible this project.

Conforming the Demonstration (and its Team)

IoT applied to Environmental Monitoring and Smart Agriculture

If you search for IoT applied to Environmental Monitoring, or Smart Agriculture, you will find lots of advertisement saying IoT will produce the Agricultural Revolution, It arrived to solve all Farmer's problems, and so on. But it is hard to find details of how IoT can even be involved with Environmental Monitoring and Smart Agriculture (EMSA). On the other hand, it is quite easy to find examples about how to connect a temperature, soil moisture, humidity or any other kind of ambient sensor to a dashboard published on some website, with the promise This, is IoT applied to EMSA. But, again, there is no explanation on how is possible to help Farmers using a temperature sensor. On the other 3rd hand (if such thing would be possible) Scientists study advanced techniques to improve crop efficiency. However, these innovative techniques are rarely applied in real scenarios because biological scientists don't master IoT technology. It is possible to read more about what happens when they try with the right support. My recognition for the courage to try, though.

I can deploy Wireless Sensors Network, but designing an interesting demonstration of EMSA is out of my reach. I joined efforts with my brother Julian Barillaro, Ms degree in Biological Sciences. He curated the demonstration selecting carefully use cases where LPWAN can be applied to EMSA improving crop efficiency, pests control, Irrigation Management, or protect Wild Life. His inputs were key to transform silly temperature and humidity readings into a Forecaster of Downy Mildew for Vinery plantations. All their findings were used to illustrate the benefits of using LPWAN in EMSA, shown during the conference.

Choosing a moving target to track

To demonstrate a Tracking System is required, at least, an object that changes its location. It helps if that change of location occurs periodically. And it is even more interesting if the change of location is significative enough to test a wide area communication technology.

At NIST, the selection was almost trivial: The NIST Shuttle bus. It travels 8 Km between Shady Grove Metro Station and NIST Campus periodically every 15 minutes each way. Jorge Carrasco, its friendly driver, made the deployment very straightforward.

In Luxembourg, however, to select a mobile object that accomplish similar requirements was one of the first problems to solve. I found that Luxembourg City is running LuxTram, a brand new Tramway company in Kirchberg, since July 2018. LuxTram's Tramways run almost 5 Km nearby the Conference Venue in 20 minutes each way. These features make of LuxTram the perfect mobile target to demonstrate the capabilities of an LPWAN-based tracking system. In this figure, it is possible to appreciate in the simulated aerial view the location of the rails and Melia Melia.

With that in mind, I started to knock doors virtually using brute-force strategy (I sent e-mails and LinkedIn messages almost everyone in LuxTram) to finally find Mr Erwan Rohou. He believed in this project and join the team immediately. After some calls and e-mails, Mr. Rohou carried out this project, requesting permission at the Board of Directors.

Preparing the equipment for one-time deployment

Still at home, I planned to arrive Luxembourg on Monday September 30th. This was just a day before of the beginning of the Conference, and less of 48 in advance of my presentation. There was very little time for deployment, testing, corrections (if possible), and demonstration. Everything should be done at home in advance. Ready to deploy, plug, and play!

The AdHoc-Now 2019 Conference was organized and hosted by LIST, but it had place in Hotel Melia, Luxembourg. The first contact with Hotel Melia was through Marina Davrout. She provided me details about Hotel network configuration, including WiFi SSID.

The equipment (hardware and software) used for the Demonstration was conformed by

• 8 Pycom modules LoRa/LoRaWAN adapter (half LoPy4, half FiPy) programmed in microPython.
• 4 PyTrack expansion boards (for GNSS reception) as Location Sensors for Location devices
• 4 PySense expansion boards (with temperature, humidity, illuminance, and barometric pressure sensors) as Weather Stations.
• Li-PO batteries
• 8x 4 dBi antennas
• RAK-831 Gateway
• RisingHF RHF0M301 Gateway
• LoRaServer as Network Manager
• Thingsboard CE as Application System

Betania Antico, my wife and member of the most important team for me: Family, made an excellent work upgrading the firmware of the boards and assembling all the components inside of plastic boxes.

I did tests of the equipment at home. I made use of every opportunity where she went out for shopping or biking to track her, testing the location sensors. Final tests (offsite) were done in K?ln, Germany, using a rented car before arriving to Luxembourg. I discovered that one of the two gateways started to malfunctioning.

On-site Deployment

My wife and I arrived to lovely Luxembourg City on Monday September 30th, as planned. I installed the gateway in my room (7th floor) that faces to North. Javier Segura, Food & Beverage Manager en Meliá Hotels International, received me and constantly prone to help me with anything I would require to

Then, I went to LuxTram warehouse where Mr. Erwan Rohou was waiting for me. He introduced me to Mr. Roberto García Llorente, and some other folks that collaborated with me deploying Location sensors in a designated tram. The Team started to grew up. We deploy 3 sensors in same tram: one in a in-side compartment, another one in the cockpit, and the last one on the tram roof. We left the tram to run during the rest of the night, transmitting its location with 3 Location Devices.

1... 2... 3... Check, Check, Testing, Testing...

On Tuesday October 1st, the day after, I checked the performance of the deployed system. I realized 2 things:

• Both Location Devices installed on Cockpit and Tramway roof had transmitted well. The device installed in the in-side compartment was unable to obtain GNSS location nor transmit any signal.
• It had been possible to track the Tramway only when it had been running on the west-half of the tram-path. That meant the Gateway coverage was limited and unable to cover all the path. Possibly, the European Convention Center building shadowed the East-half of the Tram-path.

The Demo's Team keeps growing. I worked with Bj?rn, Maintenance Technician; and Mario Komann, Rooms Division & Guest Experience Manager, both at Hotel Melia, to find a better place where to install the Gateway and its antenna. They gave me a Room on 8th floor, facing East. I was worry that new location of the Gateway would gain coverage on the East-half, but would loose previously covered West-half. Fortunately, the coverage was total.

When the first day of conference finished, I went to LuxTram warehouse again. Mr. Erwan Rohou and I decided to leave as-is the Location Device installed in the cockpit the day before, and to relocate remaining two Location Devices in the cockpit of other two Trams.

Presentation of the Demonstration

Early in the morning of Wednesday October 2nd, my presentation began. There was a huge expectation from Conference attendance, organizers, chairs, and LuxTram. Mr. Erwan Rohou came to see the experiment in person.

The presentation included an explanation about the importance of LPWAN for IoT communications. It was followed by a brief introduction on how LoRa/LoRaWAN works, aimed to the few in the audience that hadn't heard anything about it yet. After that introduction, I presented an interesting selection of Environmental Monitoring and Smart Agriculture Use Cases where IoT technologies (based on LPWAN communications) marked a significantly improvement. This selection was curated by Julian Barillaro, Ms degree in biological sciences. His selection included details about Irrigation Management, Pests Management, and Monitoring and Tracking of Rhinoceroses in Tanzania.

To step away from pure slideshow content, I illustrated a couple of these use cases with Live Demonstrations. The first demonstration was a dashboard with readings from 4 Weather Stations placed surrounding Hotel Melia transmitting measurements of Ambient Temperature, Relative Humidity, Illuminance, and Barometric Pressure, in real-time. The same measurements used to detect favorable weather conditions needed by Downy Mildew to reproduce and spread, infecting a vinery plantation. In this manner, I shown a prototype of an IoT Smart Agriculture System that can detect and alarm when the conditions prone to an infection are given, anticipating fungus Downy Mildew disease infection spread. It would allow to Farmers to take preventive actions only when they are needed.

The second live demonstration was useful to illustrate an IoT Environmental Monitoring System, such as the one used to track Rhinoceroses in Tanzania. However, if finding rhinos willing to be tracked in Luxembourg is not difficult enough, convincing them to follow a regular route would be impossible. Fortunately, the Location Devices deployed on Tramways were working well, transmitting their location. A slide invited to switch screen to see the Live Demonstration. A dashboard with a map of Luxembourg City showed the last known location of the tram. We all (including myself) held our breath until we saw the trams icons moving on the screen a couple of seconds (an eternity to me) later. The audience cheered cheerfully and I breathed in relief.

The video of the Demonstration has been speed up to appreciate tramways movement quickly.

There was time for questions. Some of them were quite technical questions. Others, about the implementation and deployment of this project. They could not believe that everything was successfully implemented and tested in just a couple of days.

The Conference and Program Chair, Maria Rita Palattella, thanked me and Mr Erwan Rohou for the quality of the presentation and the collaboration provided. She talked about the enormous expectations that the organizing team had and how surprising it had been for them to be receiving collaboration from a local company like LuxTram, coordinated and gathered from afar.

Mr Erwan Rohou also spoke to the audience. He said that for LuxTram it had been an honor to participate in a science project involved with the community, beyond the field of passenger rail transport. They were very happy that the demonstration had worked correctly and the project had been a success.

Grand Finale

The second day of the conference was closed with a Social Activity. We were brought to the Bernard Massard cellars (the biggest Sparkling Wine producer in Luxembourg) for a Gala Dinner. This included a tour of the facilities and tasting of their products. After an exquisite dinner, Maria Rita Palattella conducted the awards ceremony. My surprise was enormous when I learned that the Demonstration of Low Power Wide Area Networking for city-scale monitoring applications had been chosen to be awarded the Best Demonstration award. I could not help but share the giant joy with all the members of the team (at least all those who were present at the time) that made the success of the project possible. Mr Erwan Rohou, and my Wife, we were very happy to receive the award. As if until then there were few surprises, LIST gave Mr. Erwan Rohou and me a pen with our engraved names. A beautiful gift that I will keep with unforgettable memories of this wonderful experience.

Conclusion

This project certainly demonstrated how IoT can enable environmental sustainability. Technology applied wisely can significantly help in improving the efficiency of Environmental Monitoring and Smart Agriculture.

However, the adventure of carrying out this project also demonstrates that, although technology is necessary, it is not enough to realize the projects.

Ambitious projects require the collaboration of many people. And the willingness to successfully carry out a project is key. During the course of this project, I was fortunate to meet many wonderful people who collaborated committedly with no more retribution than the gratification of helping. Almost all of them were named in a timely manner when narrating this chronicle. That is why I want to thank you infinitely for all the commitment and good will with which you helped me carry out this project. Undoubtedly, essential to be successful. A special mention for Maria Rita Palattella and Mr. Erwan Rohou.

I also want to extend this thanks to Avi Gopstein and Dhananjay DJ Anand, with whom I wrote the Paper needed to present the Demo at the conference. Several members of the NIST Smart Grid Program team who officiated as reviewers of this paper before it could be published. All LuxTram staff, from the board of directors to technicians and drivers. All the staff at Hotel Melia, who were available from the first day I called them on the phone.

And special thanks to Luxembourg City. A real fairytale place. Thank you so much for welcoming us. I hope to see you again soon!