Measuring air quality in smart cities, 1st March, 2016

1. Measuring air quality in
smart cities
Amanda Randle
Director, Environmental Instruments, UK

2. What is AQMesh?
• ‘Bird box’ sized unit which takes key air quality
measurements:
• Gases: NO2, NO, O3, CO and SO2 (+….)
• Particulates: PM10, PM2.5, PM1
• Environmental: (pod) temperature, RH%, pressure
• Independent power: battery, solar, etc.
• Independent communications: GSM - 2G / 3G
• GPS
• Easy to install
• Online data processing and access
• (Channel 4 Dispatches last Monday night)

3. Who wants this?
• Compliance: local authorities, government,
academic institutions, consultancies
• To ‘tick boxes’
• Research – focus on health
• Traffic management
• Private organisations, eg: industrial, HVAC
• Funded projects
• Citi-Sense
• ‘Smart cities’

4. What does AQMesh offer?
• ‘Small / cheap’ sensors
• A practical platform
• Easy to install
• Weatherproof – hot, cold, wet…
• Tough
• ‘Smart’ functionality
• Communications from equipment
• Access to data online
• The stuff that happens between
• Changing settings online
• Alerts and self-diagnosis
• Processing sensor output using cutting edge techniques
• Our IP and competitive advantage safe on the cloud

5. Issues
• Data can be generated near real-time and high frequency 
• Data is available easily online and can be pushed / shared / published
directly 
• Stakeholders are not straightforward 
• Does the public actually care about air quality? 
• The public / citizens cannot afford equipment that really works  Toys…
• What is anybody going to do with the data? 
• Air quality experts are slow to move away from reference methods 
• Opportunity to broaden comms options, eg: wi-fi and reduce charges 
• Sensors are cheap and presented seductively for users to ‘have a go’ 
• AQMesh is a new product in a new market and pushing the limits of sensor
technology  

6. Performance is key

7. AQMesh in action
• Citi-Sense
• 8 cities, ~25 pods in each, mapping the city, citizen engagement
• London ‘Clean Air Squares’: http://www.teamlondonbridge.co.uk/news-
fresh-air-squares-open-
competitionzzznzzz.aspx?m=31&mi=261&pmi=&ms=
• Cambridge ‘smart cities’ project
• Many small projects: 1-4 nodes, with ambitions for up to 20
• Traffic monitoring
• Industrial fence line
• Potentially compliance (certification)
• Quoting for BIG projects:
• World Bank
• Change London

8. Questions?