FR2787193A1 - Dense network of pollution sensors for use in urban environment where sensors are integrated into existing street furniture such as street lamps and linked to central controller and checking unit - Google Patents

Abstract

Dense pollution measurement network has a large number of sensors (6) and a control and management center (7). The sensors are distributed within existing street furniture such as street lamps (2), where for example the sensors are linked to the control center by data carried on carrier currents on the power supply network for the street lamps.

Description

DENSITY URBAN POLLUTION MEASUREMENT NETWORKS

  The present invention relates to a dense measurement network

of urban pollution.

  The recent awareness of the health problems linked to urban pollution, and the growing awareness of these voters among these voters, have recently led politicians to integrate into their priorities (program, budget)

address these concerns.

  These means necessarily include or will include * devices for measuring pollution 15. devices for informing of the level of pollution or

pollution control.

  The implementation of one or other of these means faces the following three major obstacles

  The integration of these devices in the heart of cities.

  Indeed, to be effective, these devices must constitute a dense measurement (or depollution, or display of instructions) network. The integration of this network into the architecture of a city center is difficult for the following reasons: - legal (properties of the sites, large number of owners) - aesthetic (the equipment must be integrated in an already very busy environment, so as not to harm the aesthetics of the city) - safe (the devices must not risk putting

  endangered city or road users).

  Electrical supply As regards electrical equipment, they must necessarily be supplied. It is always very expensive to pull cables or dig trenches, and this at higher

reason in the heart of a city.

  Transmission of acquired data

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  Acquired measurements, or alarms, must be able to be

  transmitted remotely, reliably and economically.

  The monitoring networks that currently exist are those set up in certain large cities to determine the pollution rates that require urgent action (prohibited or alternate traffic for example). These networks consist of limited number of measurement stations (ten), located on high points (towers, buildings) and distant from each other by several km (AIRPARIF network by

example in Paris).

  These networks provide a global view of pollution.

  However, a more detailed description of the phenomenon should be made.

  for the user at ground level, where he is subjected to it directly. Such networks do not yet exist, for the following reasons: - political, they would reveal real pollution, which is significant. This point should soon fall under the push of user demand, technical difficulty installing dense networks in the heart

  of a city for the reasons mentioned above.

  The present invention relates to a network for measuring urban pollution which is dense, which poses the minimum possible of legal problems for its installation, which can be aesthetic or at least which does not modify the aesthetic aspect of the places in which it is installed in, which presents no danger to users, which is easy to supply with electrical energy, whose sensor data can be easily and economically transmitted to a control and management center, and whose sensors can perform

fine measurements at ground level.

  The network according to the invention comprises several sensors arranged in existing urban furniture, at least a part of these sensors arranged in urban furniture, in particular street lamps, which include devices already supplied with electrical energy from the urban electrical network, being supplied by this electrical network, the data coming from these sensors being transmitted to a control and management center by radio or by carrier currents via

said urban electrical network.

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  The term "sensors" denotes in this description not

  only the measuring heads, but all the circuits which can be associated with them: acquisition, local processing,

transmission to the network, ....

  The present invention will be better understood on reading the

  detailed description of an embodiment, taken by way of example not

  limitation is illustrated by the accompanying drawing, the single figure of which is a block diagram of a pollution measurement network in accordance with the invention.

  In the present description, the term "street furniture" is used

  all kinds of urban devices or constructions capable of receiving sensors (which are generally relatively compact, with a volume of a few cubic centimeters or cubic decimeters) without requiring significant modifications and without their aesthetic appearance being significantly modified. Preferably, this street furniture includes elements already supplied with electrical energy, and this can be: street lighting street lamps, bollards or road signs or traffic lights, advertising panels, shelters or

  bus or tram stops ....

  The sensors used by the invention are chosen according to the types of gas to be monitored. In the most frequent case, it is atmospheric pollution by gases from road vehicles, individual and / or collective and / or industrial heating by fuels, various industrial fumes. Of course, for other types of

  pollution, we adopt appropriate sensors.

  The network 1 represented in the single figure of the drawing comprises a large number of sensors (several tens to several hundreds, for example) arranged in elements of urban furniture, and invisible

  from the outside, so as not to change the aesthetics of these elements.

  These elements are, for the example shown in the drawing, street lamps 2, road signs 3 and terminals 4 of bus stops. Among these elements, some are supplied with electrical energy by the urban electrical distribution network 5 (lampposts, lighted traffic signs, etc.), while others (bus stop terminals, etc.) with no electrical devices, i: [Y - Uit are not connected to network 5, and the same can be true for elements which, although comprising electrical devices, are not connected to network 5, in which case either they must be connected to a network, or they include an autonomous power source (batteries, accumulators, photoelectric panels, etc.). Appropriate sensors 6 (CO sensors, etc.), for example sensors such as described in French patent application 98 12 626, are arranged in the elements 2, 3 and 4 in easily accessible places (for example near a trap door) and / or at a low height (for example about 1m) in order to capture the same air as that breathed by city dwellers. As a variant, these sensors can be placed at any height in the street furniture elements (for example at ground level or at their upper part), for example for reasons of ease of access or location of the free volume which can welcome them, as shown for road signs 3 (the free volume of which is located high up). If the location of the elements of street furniture in which the sensors 6 are placed does not open to the outside, an OA orifice for air intake at low height is practiced in these elements, and there is, if necessary, an internal conduit connecting the orifice to the corresponding sensor (the feet of these elements, if they are hollow, can serve as conduits). If necessary, a suction device can be provided along the path of the interior duct to concentrate the gases sucked in. Of course, if we want to measure the concentrations of several different gases, we provide as many specific sensors in

  every element of street furniture.

  In the case where the measurements call upon an assembly comprising a transmitter and a receiver, for example spectrometric measurements, the transmitter is placed in an element of street furniture, and the receiver (sensor) in another element. Indeed, such sensors measure the attenuation of radiation emitted in different wavelengths. Significant attenuation at a particular wavelength is characteristic of gas molecules of a specific type present on the path of this radiation. Given the low concentrations to be measured, this type of device requires a fairly long optical path (10 to 100m for example). It is relatively easy to find

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  elements of street furniture, for example street lamps, capable of receiving such a transmitter and such a receiver respectively and being sufficiently distant from each other and in direct view with respect to one another. Because the street furniture elements, such as elements 2 and 3, are supplied by the network 5, the sensors which are installed there can easily be supplied by this same network 5. In addition, the data collected by these sensors can advantageously be transmitted by this network 5 to a control and management center 7, by the well-known technique of carrier currents, if the center 7 is, as shown in the drawing, also supplied by the network 5. It is understood that the data from the sensors can be transmitted in any other appropriate way, by radio, by GSM, by optical fibers, by field networks, by wire, etc. In the case of furniture elements, such as the element 4, are not connected to the network 5, there is a BA battery and / or a photo-solar cell there to supply the sensors. If the data from these sensors must be transmitted immediately to the center 7, they must be connected to transmitters 8 and appropriate antennas 9, cooperating with a receiver 10 and its antenna 11 arranged in the center 7. Of course, if the center 7 should send messages to the sensors of these elements of

  furniture 4, the receiver 1 O is replaced by a transceiver.

  The center 7 comprises a computer 12 connected to appropriate peripherals, designated as a whole by the reference 13. These peripherals are for example a data recorder, a screen, a keyboard for entering data, a storage device, alarms , .... The computer 12 is also connected to the receiver 10, as well as to the network 5 via an appropriate interface 14 (if the data from the sensors supplied by the network 5 are transmitted by carrier current on this network). The computer 12 comprises the programs necessary to manage the sensors of the network 1 (reception and processing of the data which they send to it, possibly sending of data and / or orders to the sensors, etc.) and to exploit their data ( calculations on the data received, storage, triggering

alarm, ...).

  Of course, the center 7 can be distant from the agglomeration in which the network of sensors 6 is located, appropriate transmission means ensuring their connection. It is also understood that the sensor network of the invention can be supplemented by sensors of additional physical parameters other than those relating to the gas concentration, for example

  temperature, humidity and light sensors.

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Claims (7)

  1 - Dense network for measuring urban pollution, comprising several sensors (6) and a control and management center (7), characterized in that the sensors are arranged and hidden in elements of street furniture.   2 - Network according to claim 1, characterized in that the elements of urban furniture comprise at least one of the following elements 0: street lighting street lamps, bollards or road traffic lights or signs, advertising panels, shelters or bollards 'stop buses or trams.   3 - Network according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that when the street furniture elements include devices   supplied with electrical energy, this also supplies the sensors.   4 - Network according to claim 3, characterized in that the electrical energy is that supplied by an urban distribution network electric.   - Network according to claim 4, characterized in that the sensor data are transmitted by carrier currents on the network urban electrical distribution.   6 - Network according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in   that the sensor data is transmitted by at least one of the following means: by radio, by GSM, by optical fibers, by land, by wire.   7 - Network according to one of claims 3 to 6, characterized in   that the sensors placed in furniture elements not supplied with electrical energy have their own supply   autonomous and transmitters to transmit their data.   8 - Network according to one of the preceding claims,   characterized in that it includes sensors for additional physical parameters other than those relating to the gas concentration T-i - - - -