The SMART TUNNEL project
Smart tunnel is an innovative approach in order to improve the maintenance strategies in motorways. The aim was to install a complete and independent solution to an existing electromechanical infrastructure capable to provide predictive maintenance.
OLYMPIA ODOS is designing an Asset Management system using the latest technologies of IoT, Big Data and AI in order to provide live monitoring data and predictive maintenance thanks to the Smart Tunnel project.
Technology
The Smart tunnel is consisting of the following items:
- Sensors, installed on specific devices to provide detailed measurements. The sensor type varies: temperature, vibration, power measurement, air quality, etc.
- Smart controllers (sensor nodes) based on IoT (Internet of Things), to connect with the sensors and then transmit the data wirelessly on the Cloud.
- A Big Data database where all the historical data will be stored for further analysis.
- AI and Machine learning algorithms will use the data from the database in order to provide reports for the equipment state and most importantly provide predictive maintenance analytics.
- Using the predictive maintenance analysis, there will be a major improvement on the equipment’s maintenance, because not only we will know more about the equipment’s state, but we will have a time-frame about when a maintenance is required.
- The above, will provide savings on the equipment’s heavy maintenance, since the equipment will have a better maintenance and the life cycle will be increased significantly.
Challenges
The Smart Tunnel project is currently under constant development. The major difficulty was always to find ways to acquire the necessary data, on a tight budget and always have in mind that the new equipment should be practically maintenance free. The working environment is very demanding and the conditions not ideal for any equipment; a lot of noise, dust, dirt, corrosion, etc.
Time Schedule
The first pilot phase has already been installed in a case by case approach into various electromechanical systems in the Patras-by-Pass section and in particular:
- Jet Fans
- Diesel Generators
- Pumps
- UPS Batteries
- Environmental (Temperature, Humidity, Corrosion)
Currently the Olympia Odos is designing the next phase of the project, following the successful pilot implementation, where it will cover:
- 4 tunnels
- 4 Substation buildings
- 2 remote pumping stations
In total, when finished, it will monitor:
- 56 Jet Fans
- 4 Diesel Generators (up to 1600KVA in one case)
- 5 Pumping Stations with 3 monitored pumps each
- 4 UPS batteries with 32 batteries. Each battery will be monitored independently.
- 4 Transformers using Thermography with a special sensor node using thermal camera
- 4 Environmental sensors to monitor constantly the tunnels’ environment
- 3 Meteo stations
- Several IoT Gateways, Access points
