Abstract
There is considerable interest globally in “smart cities” due to the emergence of game changing technologies including IoT platforms, cloud computing, and powerful automation architectures. A host of smart city applications exist including connected and autonomous vehicles, controlled urban watersheds, pedestrian and vehicle tracking, among others. However, a general-purpose urban sensing architecture has not yet emerged that empowers all stakeholders in a city to partake in data collection and data-driven decision making. This paper describes the development of the Urbano sensing architecture designed for dense deployments in cities for a wide variety of smart city applications. The design of the architecture is based on the belief that urban sensing can play a major role in empowering communities to collect data on urban processes and transform how communities engage with city stakeholders to make decisions. Urbano does not require persistent power sources nor wired communication mediums, and is an ultra-low power wireless sensor node that is capable of collecting sensor measurements, supporting embedded computing, and communicating using cellular wireless communication.
The Urbano sensor node has been deployed in several smart city engagements in Michigan. The first uses GPS-enabled Urbano nodes to track food trucks in Grand Rapids as part of a larger effort in curbside management. The second monitors pedestrian traffic and air quality along the Detroit waterfront to better understand public utilization of spaces to guide future investments. The third packages Urbano nodes in a kit called “Sensors in a Shoebox” for youth and community deployment in southwest Detroit to measure air quality.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
AOT: Array of Things (2015). https://arrayofthings.github.io/. Accessed 01 Feb 2016
The Detroit News: Detroit Population Rank is Lowest Since 1850 (2016). www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2016/05/19/detroit-population-rank-lowest-since/84574198. Accessed 08 Jan 2018
Eco Counter (2017). https://www.eco-compteur.com/en/applications/parks-recreation. Accessed 08 Jan 2018
EPA: Environmental Issues in Southwest Detroit (2015). https://archieve.epa.gov/region5/swdetroit/web/html/index.html. Accessed 21 Feb 2016
Exosite (2017). https://exosite.com. Accessed 01 Jan 2018
Ganchev, I., Ji, Z., O’Droma, M.: A generic IoT architecture for smart cities. In: 25th IET Irish Signals & Systems Conference and China-Ireland International Conference on Information and Communications Technologies, Limerick, Ireland, pp. 196–199 (2013)
Jin, J., Gubbi, J., Marusic, S., et al.: An information framework for creating a smart city through internet of things. IEEE Internet Things J. 1(2), 112–121 (2014)
Luthar, S.S.: Vulnerability and resilience: a study of high-risk adolescents. Child Dev. 62(12), 600–616 (1991)
Lynch, J.P., Loh, K.J.: A summary review of wireless sensors and sensor networks for structural health monitoring. Shock Vib. Dig. 38(2), 91–128 (2006)
Mehmood, Y., Ahmad, F., Yaqoob, I., et al.: Internet-of-Things-based smart cities: recent advances and challenges. IEEE Commun. Mag. 55(9), 16–24 (2017)
Mitton, N., Papavassiliou, S., Puliafito, A., et al.: Combining cloud and sensors in a smart city environment. EURASIP J. Wirel. Commun. Netw. 2012(1), 1–10 (2012)
Nimbelink: Skywire LTE CAT 1 (2017). https://nimbelink.com/Documentation/Skywire/4G_LTE_Cat_1/30154_NL-SW-LTE-GELS3_ProductBrief.pdf. Accessed 13 Jan 2017
NPR: Shh! Detroit’s little-known success story: its parks are getting better (2015). http://michiganradio.org/post/shh-detroit-s-little-known-success-story-its-parks-are-getting-better#stream/0. Accessed 22 Feb 2016
Placemeter: The Placemeter Sensor (2015). https://www.placemeter.com/. Accessed 29 Feb 2016
Ryan, B.D.: Design after Decline: How America Rebuilds Shrinking Cities, 1st edn. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia (2012)
Straser, E., Kiremidjian, A., S.: Modular, wireless damage monitoring system for structures. Report #128, John A. Blume Earthquake Engineering Center, Stanford, CA (1998)
Swartz, A.R., Zimmerman, A., Lynch, J.P.: Structural health monitoring system with the latest information technologies. In: Proceedings of 5th Infrastructure & Environmental Management Symposium, Ube, Yamaguchi, Japan (2007)
Wang, F.Y.: The emergence of intelligent enterprises: From CPS to CPSS. IEEE Intell. Syst. 25(4), 85–88 (2010)
Zanella, A., Bui, N., Castellani, A., et al.: Internet of Things for smart cities. IEEE Internet Things J. 1(1), 22–32 (2014)
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to gratefully acknowledge support from NSF EAGER Grant #1637232 and the Knights Foundation, in addition to assistance from Elizabeth Moje and Jacqueline Handley from the University of Michigan School of Education.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this paper
Cite this paper
Flanigan, K.A., Lynch, J.P. (2018). Community Engagement Using Urban Sensing: Technology Development and Deployment Studies. In: Smith, I., Domer, B. (eds) Advanced Computing Strategies for Engineering. EG-ICE 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10864. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91638-5_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91638-5_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-91637-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-91638-5
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)