The city company OICT is getting ready to test a tool for measuring the level of waste containers’ fullness a new sensor type in separate waste containers. The tools provide data which are used by colleagues from Department for Environment Protection of The Council of The Capital City of Prague for better adjusting waste collection frequency by respective containers as to better correspond with their utilization. The tool thus helps to give accuracy to the expenditure allocation decision making in the area of investments in the collections’ number. Currently used sensors, in the streets of Prague being 424 pieces, run on ultrasound principle, these new sensors on an infrared laser. This makes it possible to decrease energy intensity and to increase measuring frequency when prolonging battery life-span. What is more, in the case of laser beam it is possible to change the direction and wideness of the measurement scope. The new devices use Narrowband loT (NB-loT) technology for communication, which in The Czech Republic is operated by Vodafone Czech Republic a.s. instead of existing Sigfox and LoRaWAN. Therefore it is possible to measure fullness in those areas where current networks have not been able to offer sufficient coverage.
„At the moment we are preparing in cooperation with the company Sensority, s.r.o. to test this new sensor type. The testing will be in motion for approximately 4 months at five stations in altogether four city districts. The chief aim is the comparison of functional and operational qualities of two different technologies. This should lead to accuracy improvement of the tool in the future,“ expounded OICT General Manager Michal Fišer.
