Lufft involved in pioneering smart city project

First published in Intertraffic Innovation News - July 1, 2020

German company Lufft, a manufacturer of meteorological instruments, is providing sensors for a pioneering pilot project in the municipality of Herrenberg, Germany.

Road sensors and weather stations provide real-time data. Two Lufft IRS31Pros are currently installed in the streets of Herrenberg, a third will follow soon. Lufft WS10, WS600 and WS800 weather stations provide information on temperature, humidity and pressure, wind speed and direction, solar radiation, and precipitation.

Sensors and computers communicate via Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN), that is the communication platform for all Herrenberg’s smart city applications. The measuring instruments highlight what is now and what was before. However, for the systems to be of maximum use, there is a need to know what will be.

This is where artificial intelligence comes into play. Historical weather data, together with the clearing logs of the winter road clearance service, provide a valuable treasure trove of data from which an algorithm recognises recurring patterns. This could be a correlation between humidity and temperature, for example, because dangerous slipperiness can form even without precipitation.

Feeding the algorithm with information has started, but the larger the database, the more precise and universal its predictions. Consequently, the goal in Herrenberg is to include neighbouring communes in the project. Thus, everyone can benefit from each other, relieve the winter road clearance services and make traffic safer.