LAB3 builds IoT platform for University of Adelaide

LAB3 has delivered an Internet of Things (IoT) data platform to the University of Adelaide to help the university commercialise analytics developed in association with an Australian water utlity to monitor leaks in water pipe networks.

LAB3's SensorMine platform, “leverages Microsoft and Azure technology and is a ready-made and easily customised IoT data platform which can process, visualise, and present large amounts of data near on instantaneously ready for practical use," LAB3 director of data, IoT & AI, Alain Blanchette, told IoT Hub's sister title CRN. 

“Clients benefit from dashboards that are easy to read on any screen by operational managers,” Blanchette said. 

“For the University of Adelaide, the solution provides a map view over the water pipe network and shows the location and status of every acoustics logger. 

“There are leak alerts, maintenance alerts and communications alerts along with a number of analytic presentations to aid in leak characterisation and prioritisation,” Blanchette added. 

The university engaged the Melbourne-based managed services provider through its Commercial Accelerator Scheme. 

University of Adelaide hydraulics expert Dr Mark Stephens said that water utilities commonly use acoustic loggers to monitor water loss, which is becoming an increasing problem with aging pipeline infrastructure.

“One challenge for water utilities has been to make sense of the large volumes of data collected by these acoustic loggers.”

The monitoring is aimed at either detecting leaks before they become breaks, and enabling proactive management of pipe assets for longer, or the reduction of non-revenue water loss.

“The data provided has not always been specific with regard to the type of leak detected or the priority which should be assigned to repair, and utility operations crews can become frustrated with false alarms,” Stephens said. 

The University of Adelaide engaged LAB3 to implement the analytics, developed for a water utility, into an IoT data platform, so it could offer it to other water utilities. 

Stephens said LAB3 was required to help the university get to market faster because the university needed to focus its time and resources on acoustics, hydraulic engineering and statistical and machine learning methods. 

“Our strengths are in understanding the acoustic and hydraulic data, including its connection to operational events and outcomes, and in creating the algorithms and scripts associated with improved analytics. We are not specialised in building IoT platforms,”  Stephens said.  

In October 2021, LAB3 built an electronics lab to design, prototype, test and manufacture IoT sensors. 

“With the platform provided by LAB3 and their product SensorMine, we have been able to move at least six months faster than the alternative options also explored,” Stephens said.