Althen's first SmartBricks were installed at the Overamstel Trial Tax site on Tuesday 12 October. SmartBrick originated from an innovation competition run by the City of Amsterdam, where it won the highest score out of 46 entries in two earlier phases of this programme.
The first smart brick has been laid
Smartbrick: a concept to make quay monitoring scalable and affordable
The new IoT sensor system - Smartbrick - is designed for affordable and accurate monitoring of civil infrastructure (quays, foundations, buildings, etc.). Smartbrick detects and monitors slope and other physical parameters with high accuracy and wirelessly transmits this data directly to an online control centre. It is unique in its combination of accurate daily measurements and integrated AI and ultra-low power consumption. Creating a completely wireless, easy-to-install, battery-powered and low-cost measurement system.
"Smartbrick is a low-cost, high-tech, stick-and-play monitoring device that can monitor large-scale structures. This can prevent future collapse of quay walls and infrastructure," says Bernd Rietberg, Business Development Manager Althen Industrial IoT. "With the rise of new electronics and industrial IoT, these kinds of concepts are becoming accessible and scalable."
Pilot load Overamstel
The test site where SmartBrick is placed is a challenging project in which a quay is loaded in a controlled manner until it actually moves forward. "The project provides an awful lot of valuable data for researchers to understand how quay failure comes about. Prediction is then possible and very important." Says Erik Hutcheson, project leader of Trial Load Overamstel. "By controlled loading of this quay, you can validate calculation models. With this model, we will soon be able to predict very precisely how quays move and when risk occurs and intervention is needed." The actual test loading of the quay will follow in November.
SBIR Monitoring of bridges and quay walls
In mid-2020, the City of Amsterdam and RVO invited enterprising Netherlands to participate in an Innovation Competition for Monitoring Bridges and Quay Walls for the City of Amsterdam (SBIR call). Task: Submit an innovative proposal that makes it possible to measure the area of quays and bridges more often, faster and cheaper. With a total of more than 200 kilometres of sand-founded quay structures, it is essential for the municipality to know which kilometres to prioritise.
Casper van der Peet, technical manager monitoring bridges and quay walls of the municipality of Amsterdam and project leader of the SBIR: "Surveillance and monitoring of bridges and quay walls is currently done in a traditional way. This is done on only about 10% of the city while the rest is not without risk. The SBIR was created to develop innovative techniques and methodologies. With Smartbric, we are able to monitor all our bridges and quay walls. In a cheaper and more efficient way. Smartbrick is one of the four winning and promising techniques from the SBIR that can hopefully help us further with this task."
Forty-six parties entered the 2020 SBIR competition. Eight parties advanced to the first phase. In July 2021, it was announced that Althen won the competition with three other parties. Althen achieved the highest score. The solutions from the competition were further developed and tested in practice. The final phase of the SBIR process will last until July 2022. After that, the municipality of Amsterdam can further roll out Smartbrick.
