Conductivity, Temperature, and Depth (CTD) Sensors: These are widely used in oceanography. CTD sensors measure conductivity (to infer salinity), temperature, and depth simultaneously, providing comprehensive data essential for climate change studies.
Digital Temperature Sensors: Placed in various parts of a rainforest, these sensors can provide detailed temperature data, helping to detect and analyze sudden temperature variations.
Infrared Thermal Imaging: Used to map urban heat islands from a distance, often from airborne platforms or satellites. Networks of Digital Temperature Sensors: Deployed across different urban areas, these sensors can provide granular temperature data, highlighting variations within a city. Weather Stations: Often used in urban settings, weather stations can provide comprehensive environmental data, including temperature, which is crucial for studying urban heat island effects.
Satellites: Geostationary and polar-orbiting weather satellites are equipped with advanced sensors to monitor wind patterns at high altitudes globally. They are particularly useful for tracking large-scale weather systems and providing data for flight path planning over remote areas like oceans. Satellite sensors that track high-altitude wind speeds can range from those capturing basic wind vector data to more complex imaging systems.
Wind Sensors (Anemometers): measure wind speed and direction, key factors in sandstorm formation. By understanding wind patterns, it becomes easier to predict the movement and intensity of sandstorms.
Some of the key types of sensors used in urban air quality monitoring include: Particulate Matter (PM) Sensors: These sensors measure concentrations of particulate matter Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) Sensors: NO2 is a common urban pollutant, often produced by vehicle exhaust and industrial processes. Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) Sensors: Commonly produced by industrial processes, SO2 levels are often monitored using ultraviolet fluorescence or electrochemical sensors. Ozone (O3) Sensors: Ozone at ground level is a harmful pollutant, and its concentration is typically monitored using ultraviolet (UV) photometry or electrochemical cells. Carbon Monoxide (CO) Sensors: CO is a colorless, odorless gas resulting from incomplete combustion. It’s usually monitored in urban environments using electrochemical sensors. Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) Sensors: VOCs are emitted from a variety of sources, including vehicle exhaust, industrial processes, and consumer products. Meteorological Sensors: These sensors measure environmental conditions like temperature, humidity, wind speed, and wind direction, which are important for understanding and interpreting air quality data.
Monitoring emissions from factories in real-time involves a variety of sensors and instruments designed to measure different types of pollutants. These sensors are often networked together and connected to a central monitoring system that collects, analyzes, and reports data in real time. This enables factory operators and regulatory agencies to track emissions continuously and ensure compliance with environmental regulations, as well as to make informed decisions about emission control and reduction strategies. Gas Analyzers: These sensors are used to detect and quantify specific gases in the air, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Particulate Matter (PM) Sensors: These sensors measure the concentration of particulate matter in the air. Opacity Monitors: These are used to measure the opacity of emissions from smokestacks, which is an indicator of particulate matter concentrations. Flame Ionization Detectors (FID): FIDs are used to measure total hydrocarbon levels in emissions. FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy) Analyzers: These analyzers can detect a wide range of gases and are particularly useful for identifying complex mixtures of pollutants. UV Spectrometers: Ultraviolet spectrometry can be used to measure specific gases like ozone (O3) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) based on their absorption characteristics in the UV range. Chemical Sensors and Biosensors: These are used to detect and measure specific chemical compounds in emissions. Temperature, Pressure, and Flow Sensors: These sensors provide additional data on the emission conditions, such as the temperature and pressure of the emitted gases and the flow rate of emissions.
Seismic sensors
Rain Gauges: Modern rain gauges often come equipped with wireless communication capabilities, allowing them to transmit data on rainfall amounts to monitoring centers in real time. Stream Gauges: Many stream gauges are designed to wirelessly transmit data on water levels and flow rates, providing crucial information for flood forecasting.Soil Moisture Sensors: These sensors can be equipped with wireless communication to send soil moisture data to a central system, which helps in assessing the risk of flooding, especially in areas prone to flash floods. Pressure Transducers: Used in various water bodies, these sensors can wirelessly transmit water pressure data, which is then used to calculate water levels. Ultrasonic Sensors: These can be set up to measure water levels and then transmit the data wirelessly to a central monitoring system. Anemometers: Modern anemometers can send wind data wirelessly to meteorological centers, contributing to broader weather pattern analysis for flood prediction. Tide Gauges: In coastal areas, tide gauges equipped with wireless communication capabilities transmit sea level data, which is crucial for predicting storm surges and coastal floods.
E-traps equipped with optoelectronic sensors and camera
Animals are fitted with sensor-equipped collars that collect information regarding their location, direction, and average speed (geolocation, acceleration, gyro sensors)
Networked thermal cameras and fiber-optic acoustic sensors detect boundary breaches of preserves
For habitat environment observation, monitoring sensors such as temperature, humidity, height, wind, light, and cameras are used
– Global positioning system tag – communicates with GPS satellites to establish position with high accuracy, but only when the tag or animal is on land or at the water surface – Fastloc Global positioning system tag – GPS tag for aquatic animals that surface or haul out, when the tag locks onto the GPS satellite network to establish position with high accuracy – Pop-up satellite archival tag – after some period of time recording sensor data, the tag detaches itself from the animal and floats to the surface where it uses satellite connectivity to uplink the data stored on the tag – Acoustic tag – attached to the animals being tracked emit acoustic signals (typically ultrasound) which travel through water much better than RF signals. These signals are then received by buoys, which can then use satellite communications to backhaul the data to where it’s needed.
The rodent sensors are placed in the high rodent-activity areas for inspection. When rodents pass through the location, infrared sensors trigger notification to all the relevant parties such as owner and pest management service about the rodent activity so that they can decide a plan of action of elimination.
Pest control sensors on traps that provide accurate information on trap status, whether armed, unarmed, or armed without a catch.
To sense the environment, AVs use a combination of sensors:<br>・External sensors (GNSS, cameras, lidars etc)<br>・Internal automotive sensors and actuators (brakes, steering wheel, accelerator, etc)
Car-embedded sensors (lidar and radar), GNSS, and potentially data from brakes, accelerator, steering wheel, etc.
Vision-based sensor (e.g. stereo camera)
Sensors based on radar, visual or infrared technology integrated into the road infrastructure. The sensors detect approaching road users and signal this to the road users by visual and audio warnings.
Sensor information (e.g., LIDAR, RADARs), vehicle Status (e.g., speed) and video streaming images (e.g., two cameras (front, end))
Smart Traffic signal, Road side sensors, Smart signs
Wireless sensor nodes Video cameras with ANPR
Electronic License plates
Mobile Monitoring and tracking devices equipped with GNSS and other sensors (temperature, humidity, motion, shock, vibration, pressure, light/darkness) to monitor condition of the asset
Bluetooth low-energy (BLE) beacons Typical uses: Warehouses: Automatic inventory of assets Indoor positioning: Tracking assets’ location automatically
RFID Readers: E.g., Handheld Typical uses: Warehouses: Tracking assets that are packaged or inside a container Hospitals: Tracking asset locations automatically within a limited distance range
Sensors and tracking device placed on the livestock’s collar, ear, leg, tail
soil moisture sensors – used to assess the water level in the soil temperature and humidity sensors – used to monitor the environment, which had a direct influence on the water level of the soil
Sensors to measure soil moisture, temperature, conductivity, NO2, CO2, density of the crop
Wireless Z-Traps are devices used to catch pests around the plants using pheromone lure. Pest count information is wirelessly passed along from up to 1 km away using a base station to the online cloud service. This information is used to study and determine where and how much pesticides will be required. Imagery sensors capture imagery data to identify the diseases in plants – RGB sensors – have three colour channels, i.e., red, green and blue, which can be used to perceive the biometric effect in the plants – fluorescence Imagery sensors – used to distinguish the photosynthetic activities in the plants – spectral sensors – capture images containing the spatial information of objects in multiple wavebands, used to analyse crops’ health and pest attack – thermal sensors – used to measure the water status in the plant by measuring the temperature Weather condition monitoring sensors, i.e., temperature, dew, humidity and wind speed, are used to monitor weather parameters to find a correlation between pest growth with weather
Camera types used on agrobots: – RGB cameras – extensively used in agricultural machine vision applications for fruit/plant detection, yield prediction, segmentation tasks, disease detection, ripeness detection, weed detection and insects detection – Hyperspectral, thermal, or ultrasonic cameras – typically provide better results than conventional RGB color images – Stereoscopic cameras – provides 3D plant structure information (dimension of crops (depth information, crop height, leaf shape, leaf area etc.)) Critical factor is the camera’s resolution, which should be high enough to capture the details of the scene especially in the cases of insect and disease detection.
GPS for autonomous navigation in open-field cultivation environments Robotic data collection platform equipped with RADAR, liDAR, ultrasonic radar sensors, spectrometers, fluorometers
Machine vision camera and spectral imaging – helps growers track the growing process of their entire operation, give details on plant height, 3D leaf area, projected leaf area, digital biomass, leaf inclination, leaf area index, light penetration depth, and leaf coverage
Light sensors – allows for the greenhouse lighting to be adjusted depending on the sun’s intensity, benefits of increasing electrical efficiency and cost savings of the entire system. Sensors for Volumetric water content (VWC), Bulk electrical conductivity (ECb), Temperature – Used to monitor soil moisture content
Virtual reality headsets/glasses
Wearable motion controllers (gloves, vests), Sensor gaming suits
Portable Devices (Smartphones, tablets, laptops)
Passive virtual reality headsets/glasses
High definition Video Camera, pop-up / remote production facilities with virtualized edge production software,with wireless bridge to deliver multiple camera signals back for broadcast content delivery.
High Definition TV, Portable Devices (Smartphones, tablets, laptops)
Augmented Reality Devices, Virtual Reality Devices
Gaming console control
UAV equipped with a video camera
Drones equipped with mobile communication link for C&C between the vehicle and a ground control station
Depending on the application, different types of cameras are used for surveillance. Visual cameras are used for capturing images during daylight, while a thermal camera may be used for night vision, seeing through smoke or fog, vegetation monitoring, fire and heat detection using infrared patterns, etc. Data may be streamed directly from the UAV via a secure communications channel to a remote central location.
UAV generally carries a video camera and other sensors such as laser scanner, GNSS, gyroscope,accelerometer, and barometer. Streaming the video and other sensor data to a remote location for instant storage, verification and analysis allows the survey team to gauge whether additional data needs to be collected.
UAV
If a speaker has been installed in the UAV, voice messages from the disaster coordination base can be delivered to disaster victims via the cellular network, while the voice of victims can be picked up using the microphone mounted on the UA, and relayed back to the disaster coordination base.
Smart phones
Body-worn sensors to track the health (heart rate, respirations, EKG, body temperature) and location of responders Additional Body Worn Sensors to detect a bullet impacting an officer’s vest; detect the absence of movement that might indicate a crisis condition. Sensors that will track the amount of air in a firefighters SCBA tank
Meters/Detectors: – Air quality sensors – Gun shot sensors – Radiation detectors
Emergency response vehicles equipped with GNSS, V2I
High res video cameras
Bomb disposal robot equipped with video cameras and chemical, biological, and nuclear sensors for detection of explosive materials.
Environment sensors for fire, smoke, water levels, snow fall levels
Seismic monitoring sensors
IP Camera
Contact switch (gate, door, window, fence)
Thermal cameras
Stress sensors, various mechanical sensors, roadway sensors
Parking sensors (Infrared, Passive Infrared(PIR)) and Ultrasonic Vehicle Detection Sensors – Individual parking space sensors that gather and transmits information for management, payment and compliance monitoring
Cameras for Monitoring of parking lot’s occupancy in real time. Image data from the cameras connected to a Gateway directly sent to the management system of a parking lot
Smart Waste Bin with wireless ultrasonic fill-level sensors and other indicators such as temperature and tilt within waste container
Portable waste bin or portable toilets enabled with GNSS. Once data related to fill rates and temperatures of smart bins /toilets are collected, the sensors relay the exact location and other waste related information of the bins in question so waste management can send out SMSes to nearby garbage collectors to do the needed collection/emptying before harmful carbon emissions are released.
“Smart” street lights equipped with light and object detection sensors
Smart meters that collect granular real-time data across the water grid, LED light sensors to monitor water levels in tanks, pH sensors, temperature sensors and turbidity sensors in pipelines and storage and distribution tanks, volume sensor
* Temperature & humidity sensors * Volumetric airflow & fluid sensors * Mold sensors * Occupancy detecting sensors * CO2 demand-controlled ventilation (DCV) sensors – work with sensors that detect a building’s occupancy and adjust ventilation accordingly * Light Sensors tied to motorized window treatments can pick up on sunlight and adjust window shading during the course of a day
LED sensors equipped to capture data around ambient light levels, temperature, occupancy, security, performance & energy consumption
Access card reader Biometrics
Cameras
Sensors in elevator to measure the usage in real time
Sensors that monitor a building’s air quality (i.e. carbon monoxide and other volatile carbon emission detection)
Sanitation devices connected with sensors provide ability to control water flow, paper consumption, air flow for hand drying, and aroma or cleaning chemical sprays on a timer that can be controlled by a single source
Smoke detectors
Roadway sensors, intersection monitoring sensors, speed sensors
traffic cameras
Ticket readers, pass cards readers
GNSS sensors, vehicle sensors
Mobile-enabled IoT sensors, Bluetooth beacons, infrared counters or sensors embedded in the pavement, turnstiles
Video cameras that aggregate changes to an image to estimate crowd density
Smart Meters
Smart Transmission Grid
Smart Control & Monitoring
Vibration sensors such as low-frequency accelerometers are mounted on the casing of the turbine and generator near the bearings and shaft. Water quality sensors (Dissolved Oxygen (DO) Sensor)
Fiber-optic Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) systems and pressure gauges enable critical monitoring during exploration and energy production for Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS). These sensors can be used to: – Estimate production potential in or between new wells by measuring the distributed temperature and the point pressure, or pressure measured at the bottom of the well. These measurements allow the calculation of reservoir size, flow resistance between wells (if multiple wells are instrumented), well bore damage caused by drilling, effectiveness of the fracturing operations, and well completion. – Monitor surface and subsurface scale buildup and chemical clean-up. Scale, a mineral residue precipitated from geothermal fluid in response to changes in water pressure and temperature, builds up on pipe walls and will, over time, form a thick, insulating layer that limits flow and may block a pipe. Chemicals are injected into the pipe to remove the accumulated scale. By understanding severity of the scaling, operators can better consider what mitigation options are most suitable as well as minimize the use of expensive chemicals. – Provide permanent monitoring of injector and producer wells to allow identification of the specific zones and fractures that produce fluids. – Perform integrity monitoring for casing and tubing leaks to avoid contaminating ground water and subsurface aquifers.
Seismic sensors used for monitoring of seismic activity in geothermal plants can enhance the safety aspect of power generation. Geothermal power plants are generally located near earthquake-prone zones and the ability to manage such power plants remotely is useful for employee safety. Vibration and temperature sensors are used in turbines and generators to monitor temperatures and detect vibrations.
Wind Turbine sensors are used to continually assess acceleration, temperature and vibration. Turbine impact sensors – for monitoring avian and bat collisions Turbine vibration sensors – Vibration sensors provide data that enables predictive maintenance, allowing operators to manage assets at a distance – Turbine – Because of variable wind speeds and frequent braking, the load is never consistent on the turbine, causing a lot of wear on the moving parts. Bearings are the biggest culprit in gearbox failure. When bearings fail, it usually leads to other components, such as gearwheels, breaking down, causing a domino effect of failure across the entire apparatus. One of the biggest issues with regard to bearing failure is lubrication starvation. Vibration sensors can help an operator stay ahead of lubrication issues by detecting subtle friction changes -Blade – Wear and tear on rotor blades come from high winds, lightning, ice, and extreme weather conditions that result in blade imbalance. Over time, these factors lead to cracking and fractures along the edges and pitch system failure. Wireless vibration sensors make it feasible to remotely monitor such conditions, alerting operators to impending failure and maintenance needs without physically accessing the site. These sensors are combined together into one communication channel. Associated KPI’s are considered in the aggregate.
Irradiance, temperature, humidity sensors and voltage sensors used to measure photovoltaic (PV) output current and voltage on solar panels. By placing sensors along the distribution channels and substations operators are able to gather real-time power consummation data which will helps make decisions about the load, voltage, and power being supplied
Types of sensors: Remote metering, Cathodic protection, Gas density, Pipeline pressure, Custody transfer flow meters, Fire / Gas / H2S alarms, Tank levels, Tank batteries, Temperature sensors, Control valves, Flow monitoring, Electricity consumption, Structural health & deformation, Air pollution
Cameras for mines and tunnels are an essential element of security and safety monitoring. The mining sector presents a number of challenges, from low lighting to connectivity issues in remote areas. These surveillance cameras observe the many processes within the mine and are mostly installed in a permanent, overt manner, with portable covert cameras being used on a temporary basis. IR thermal imaging cameras are often used as they offer the ability to see in dark, foggy or dust filled environments where there are large trucks, cranes, robotics and other moving apparatus that present danger to humans.
Driverless vehicles and Autonomous Drilling Systems that can operate without human intervention allow operations around the clock, enabling minerals to be extracted and processed in shorter time-frames. Real-Time Kinematic GPS (RTK-GPS) is used In underground mines due to a limited range of signal transmission below the surface and lack of satellite coverage in depth. RTK-GPS is used to ensure autonomous vehicles and drilling systems have clear path-tracking and collision avoidance capabilities. GPS-guided drilling operations. GPS provides accurate information to the drill head to control its direction deep within the earth.
Underground mining has significant safety hazards due to high-stress concentrations, weak rock masses, and limited access and air quality. Different sensors are used in mine-related activities, such as geophones in exploration and blast control, piezometers in dewatering and toxic gas detectors in working frontlines.
Tag sensors and readers for tracking people, collecting environmental data, equipment tracking, and real-time alerts. RFID transmitter devices are mounted on headlamps belts or badge cards of miners to enable tracking of workers in real-time.
Asset Tracking devices on containers
Temperature, pressure, vibration and ultrasound sensors
Sensors embedded in manufacturing equipment (real-time)
Sensors embedded in manufacturing equipment (non-real-time)
Sensors in products and/or packaging
Medical grade wearables: Wearable device worn or placed on a body part to record a particular physiological change (e.g., respiratory rate sensors or blood pressure monitors). Any biosensor device for recording data from biological or chemical reactions (e.g., pulse oximeters or spirometers).
Wearable devices with bio-sensors automated to capture and transmit health data to healthcare providers in a different location for assessment and recommendations.
Wearable equipped with motion sensors – Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Magnetometer GNSS – helps to map the route and terrain on which the activity was performed Heart rate sensors help to measure heart rates during exercise
Wearables equipped with a variety of sensors including 3 axis accelerometer, Gyroscope, Altimeter, Temperature sensor, Bioimpedance sensor, optical sensor, GNSS
On the patient side, this application may require several cameras (some of which could be wearable by the local staff).
Robotic assisted surgical device. On the remote expert/surgeon side, these applications may require a VR interface in order to provide an immersive sense of experience.
