Slope Monitoring Systems with LoRaWAN for the Stability of Sloped Areas

Location: Taiwan

Background

As an island, Taiwan's geography is unique in that our road network often traverses a variety of terrain, including many sections with steep slopes. However, these slopes also present a number of potential risks and challenges. Under the influence of natural disasters, landslides or earthquakes, slopes may become unstable or slippery, which in turn may pose a threat to the safety of public transport and passengers. In order to protect the lives and properties of the public, it is important to establish a reliable slope monitoring system. Such a system will be able to detect potential hazards at an early stage and provide early warning and prediction so that the relevant authorities can take appropriate measures before an incident occurs.

System Requirements

• The case covers more than 10 regions, with 30~40 monitoring points initially set up in each region, and about 500 points are completed so far.
  
• For each area, the main monitoring equipment includes a high-resolution low-temperature effect tiltmeter and a soil moisture meter.
  
• By default, the system collects data every 15 minutes. However, the measurement frequency can be adjusted in case of adverse conditions (typhoons, earthquakes, rainstorms, etc.).
  
• Each set of monitoring device must be a stand-alone solution and therefore requires rechargeable batteries and solar panels.
  
• With the cloud-based IoT monitoring system platform, it serves as the management platform of the slope monitoring system.
  

The monitoring equipment for each area includes high resolution low temperature effect inclinometers and soil moisture meters, and the installation of about 500 measurement points has been completed.

Dozens of Advantech WISE-6610 industrial-grade LoRaWAN gateways receive measurement point data wirelessly.

Project Implementation

• WISE-4610P: Advanced Industrial LoRa/LoRaWAN Wireless I/O Module
• WISE-S617: 2AI/2DI/1DO Wireless Modular I/O with 1RS-485 & M12 Connectors
• WISE-6610-A100C: Industrial LoRaWAN Gateway
• GeoSupply IoT Cloud Monitoring System

System Description

Most of the railroad slopes in Taiwan have shallow slope sliding risk. Therefore, the installation of monitoring poles on the slopes can be used to monitor and evaluate the stability of the slopes in the long term. The outdoor monitoring system is extremely inconvenient to install pipelines, and some slopes are often subject to hoeing operations, which may damage the pipelines. Based on the above considerations, the wireless transmission monitoring solution is simpler, and the installation and maintenance costs will be greatly reduced.

Due to the convenience of setup, each monitoring device must be self-contained, featuring power-saving design and low power consumption, with strong water and dust resistance to provide high stability and reliability.

The solution provided by Advantech is to deploy about 500 sets of WISE-4610P advanced LoRaWAN wireless I/O modules connected wirelessly to dozens of WISE-6610 industrial LoRaWAN gateways. Each WISE-4610P will also be equipped with a high-resolution low-temperature effect tilt meter or soil moisture meter and solar panels.

The advantages of the solution are that the WISE-4610P has a built-in rechargeable battery that is continuously charged via a solar panel, as well as a wide range of industrial I/O combination solutions for connecting to a wide range of sensors. In addition, the WISE-4610P's IP65 rating for water and dust resistance and industrial-grade wide temperature means it remains highly reliable in outdoor environments. 

Another advantage of the WISE-4610P is its low power consumption, which means that the power requirements of the WISE-4610P and its attached sensors can be met entirely by its on-board batteries and solar panels, so there is no need to install separate batteries or power supplies for the sensors. The sensors are turned off when not in use; when a measurement is required, the WISE-4610P sends a signal to turn them on. 

In addition, the LoRaWAN network protocol used in the solution offers several key advantages, including long range, low power consumption, high scalability and flexibility. This makes it ideal for slope stability monitoring projects.

Through about 500 sets of sensors (nodes), GeoSupply imports them into cloud servers and online databases in real time, and then imports them into GIS to enhance the visualization of the operation interface and improve the management efficiency. GeoSupply also connects to the Central Weather Bureau's OpenData information, such as typhoon track maps and typhoon track maps of the cumulative rainfall in the radar echo, to assist in determining the distribution and development of the rainfall, and expects to use them in conjunction with AI as a means of evaluating the stability of the slopes.

System Diagram

Why Advantech

• The WISE-4610P is equipped with a rechargeable internal battery, has low power consumption, and can power on its connected sensors. It has strong protection against water and dust ingress, and can work in a wide range of operational temperatures, thus making it ideal for outdoor applications.
  
• The WISE-4610P and WISE-6610 use the LoRaWAN networking protocol, which features long range, low power use, and good scalability, which once again makes it ideal for an outdoor project where power sources are limited or unavailable. 
• The solution implemented by Advantech supports different I/O solutions in one product, and features power output channels that can power on the sensor directly, thus eliminating the need to prepare separate power sources for the sensors. It is a rigorous, cost-effective, and efficient solution for monitoring slopes and facilitating the early detection of potential disasters.
  

Why GeoSupply

• The professional team has more than 20 years of rich experience and expertise in domestic and overseas monitoring, and is committed to providing quality Internet of Things (IoT) monitoring engineering solutions.
• Adopting the reputable GCP cloud platform and choosing the highly stable MongoDB online database to support GeoSupply's monitoring system. The data will be stored in a secure and reliable cloud environment. In addition, the cloud servers and databases are scalable and can be flexibly expanded and upgraded according to customer needs to ensure system performance and efficiency.
  
• Excellent monitoring platform with GIS import, OpenData information from the Central Weather Bureau, and AI assistance to help customers complete the ideal cloud monitoring and management platform for slopes.