Artificially Intelligent Rainwater Management Technology

Challenge

In our busy urban settings, frequently, there is either too much or too little water. With changes in our climate, growing urban populations and increased hard surfaces in our cities, we have seen a significant increase in the risk of flooding and sewer spills. Furthermore, ever increasing pressure on water resources and challenges of potable water availability require rapid implementation of water efficiency measures in cities on every continent. Innovative cyber physical technologies are required in order to resolve two of the World’s most costly challenges of our time.

Solution

Rainwater management systems are dual-purpose solutions; providing water efficiency benefits as well as stormwater management services with associated monetary, energy and carbon cost savings for both consumers and utilities. OTA utilised state of the art IoT technologies, which incorporate Predictive Analytics & Artificial Intelligence (AI) with the latest water management and engineering practices. Our vision was to deliver systems that are low-cost, reliable and scalable across global markets. Such systems bring multiple benefits and target a nexus of the challenges facing the water management sector. They provide an ability to capture, store, reuse and release rainwater incident on individual properties and by doing so improve the potable water supply-demand balance and reduce the likelihood of stormwater related flooding and pollution.

FED4SAE Support

In this experiment, we developed a robust, scalable hardware/software system incorporating STM32 platform with Murata’s LoraWAN module into OTA’s middleware, deployed it for testing and validation in the SmartCity Santander testbed as well as case studies in South West England, and used the subsequent data to develop and refine our innovative AI-based control algorithms, in a real-world setting. This was indeed a great success both on the hardware side where prototype systems have been running for over a year successfully, and also the system operation, with optimum operation of tank storage management.

With the business development support from Blumorpho and the Digital Catapult, this experiment has helped us accelerating our solution to market in the EU, building relationship with other suppliers and potential clients, where we can enter as a first mover and realise a significant market share.

Impact

When implemented at scale, our system can help mitigate flooding and sewer spills at some of the most challenging catchments and areas, resulting in significant saving (economic, energy and carbon) alongside climate change adaptation and mitigation. Meanwhile, each system can help reduce demand on dwindling potable water supplies. The market size for both flood mitigation as well as water use efficiency is significant, and the solution can be adapted for application across arid, and wet climates.

Achievements

Beta tested complete solution successfully on Isles of Scilly.
New deployment scheduled for Anglian Water.
Company was acquired by SDS Holdings in early 2020.

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