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Telit, Husqvarna roboticize for park sustainability

October 27, 2017  - By

Mower-maker Husqvarna has installed a wireless sensor device co-developed by Telit and Wireless System Integration (WSI) in its city robotic mower pilot program. Cities are using the Husqvarna mowers to collect data about the environment, the quality of air, water, and levels of light and sound, while maintaining the cities’ green spaces, saving time and money, reducing emission and noise pollution.

A Husqvarna robotic mower patrols a lawn along Prince’s Street in Edinburgh, Scotland. Equipped with a GPS-enabled Telit module, it gathers real-time sensor data on the city’s green space environmental conditions.

In parks in seven cities — Edinburgh and London in the United Kingdom, Gothenburg and Stockholm in Sweden, Almere and Leeuwarden in the Netherlands and San Francisco in the United States — mowers autonomously cut the grass daily and collect real-time data on UV radiation, air quality, ambient noise, luminosity and vibration.

The sensor box, designed by Telit, is mounted on top of the mower, uses the robot’s main battery for power supply, and recharges whenever the robot returns to its base. The sensor box transmits the data using Telit’s HE910-G cellular module which includes a GPS L1 receiver with reported 3-meter accuracy to acquire mower position.

Telit HE910 cellular module has GPS option.

Geofencing is enabled for the mower as well as location-based alarms to disable it should it be moved without authorization. To ensure public safety, sensors detect any nearby objects, including people and animals, causing machines to turn away.

Telit’s global Internet-of-Things (IoT) connectivity data plans and platform seamlessly connect, manage and deliver the environmental data in a ready-to-use format.

Environmental Gains. One of the biggest roadblocks to reach the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals is the lack of data. Cities need better environmental data to improve health and create cities people want to live in. The project measures the environmental gains and potential time savings of mowing public lawns with robotic mowers. The test will measure the reduction of noise pollution as well as direct emissions when replacing petrol-powered products with battery driven robotics.

In cooperation with Husqvarna, Quantified Planet, an organization that links innovation to science, receives the data and publishes it for citizens to review. The cities can then analyze the environmental data sent by the robots and implement programs to improve the health of its citizens, based on these insights.

“This new data can provide insights and innovation on how to develop and improve sustainable open green spaces which impact the citizens living nearby,” said Maja Brisvall, CEO, Quantified Planet.

“The need for green spaces is growing more and more in urban areas. The pilot program affords the possibility to increase sustainability and productivity in professional landscaping for urban areas,” said Pavel Hajman, president of the Husqvarna division.

“Cities are using IoT to become more sustainable and efficient,” added Yosi Fait, Interim CEO, Telit. “Through this collaboration we have been demonstrating again our sensor-to-cloud capabilities, cutting our customers’ time to market through our integrated lines of products and services as well through our professional services team’s significant IoT knowhow.”