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Project

(i-bollards) Intelligent early-warning system of interconnected bollards to monitor port infrastructure.

This project originates from the known interest of the Port of Antwerp in finding an innovative and cost-effective way to detect and prevent overloading of the bollards since the quay walls need to be able to cope with the ever-increasing loads and operational times. Overloaded bollards can become a danger to port operations, resulting in e.g. ship ropes that come loose and vessels hitting the docks or bollards that are pulled from the quay towards the vessels. The port initially searched for existing solutions on the market but rapidly realized that there was not such a "market-ready" solution available to tackle this challenge and therefore launched a call for proposals. ID lab proposed an intelligent early-warning system of interconnected bollards to monitor port infrastructure solution, which went beyond expectations in terms of operational value, by combining two of our expertise domains (i) sensors and energy efficient wireless communication protocol and (ii) intelligent data processing with machine learning techniques. While the solution holds great potential some research activities are still needed to test the set-up of such a system in an operational environment. We have state of the art sensing technology that can be applied everywhere but the anomaly detection methods demand fine-tuning on real data from the operational environment. Within this POC we will start a trajectory to gain insights into the breadth of the use and market potential for the technology and get an accurate picture of the technological and contextual requirements that can enhance its adoption by a technology provider that scales it up to the port. Market niches opportunities in the short and long term will be identified by working in close collaboration with the port and its chainport network (e.g. Ports of Rotterdam, Hamburg and LA).
Date:1 Jan 2021 →  31 Dec 2021
Keywords:EARLY WARNING SYSTEM, ANOMALY DETECTION, ACCELEROMETERS
Disciplines:Data mining, Wireless communications