IoT: Creating a Pandemic Ready Smart Cities with Corona Virus Learnings
The day by day outlook of cities around the world is modifying rapidly due to COVID-19. As the world in its ready adoption of the smart city concept and its correlated technological tools, these tools require to be customized to assure that live capability dimensions are suitably served for, involving the issue based on urban health. The IoT model in smart city concept varies from one geographical area to another, depending on different factors such as political, social as well as economic. The Internet of Things in smart cities market is predicted to grow from USD 79.5 billion in 2018 to USD 219.6 billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 22.5% from 2018 to 2023.
Whether the current smart city model is vigorous enough to manage and control a pandemic situation like COVID-19 the question that has now arised. Among the various Smart City initiatives, it turns out that the capability to have a broad data platform and make use of that during such an epidemic is one of the most significant tools a city can have. Also, the government’s online initiative telemedicine that assists in the distribution of health-related services and data via technology has evolved as an essential tool to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
The best example is the Korea that perhaps best controlled the epidemic, where they used their ‘’ Smart City Data Hub” to enable epidemiological investigators to request, acquire and confirm data about the overall coronavirus cases and people they had come into contact with.
The IoT-enabled smart city must consider the following ways to deal with such a pandemic situation:
Non-Contact Delivery of Essential and Food Items
It is an efficient way to deliver food as well as goods orders without direct human contact. Drones and robots, for example, can be leveraged to initiate contact-less order pickup and drops. Since robots are resistant to infection, various tech companies have moved up to the challenge to acquire more robots out in force to deliver e.g. medical supplies within healthcare environments, foods, etc.
A delivery app stepped up their “contactless delivery” options via autonomous vehicles and robots. Drone delivery of consumer items can assure that people have access to food and other goods – and make it simpler for citizens to maintain limiting human contact.
Touch-free Inspection of Patients
The pandemic situation has necessitated the requirement for medical interference without close proximity. Developing non-contact facilities, in addition to the existing online consultation apps, can support to achieve the objective. The data captured by these systems on critical health conditions, can enable predictive suggestions, such as home quarantine, isolation, or need to admit to the nearby hospital.
Most of the devices within the hospital are IoT enabled. The primary screening of the patients is done by a 5G-enabled Contact-less smart thermometer that sends immediate updates to certain authorities. Also, there are certain wearable devices that are connected to the AI platform so that it can analyze all changes in the body. Smartphone apps are also being utilized to keep track of people’s movements and discover whether or not they have been in contact with an infected person.
Drones are being utilized by authorities to identify the body temperature of the huge crowds on the street and sending their information which was stored on the cloud to health officials so that further treatments could be started efficiently.
Wireless Inspection of Civic Violations
With the increasing need for social distancing, monitoring methods for law and order maintenance also require to evolve. Operating a traffic signal, for example, is a challenge in the current times and also places authorities at risk. Assigning ‘pandemic drones’ across high-risk areas to analyze violations of civic norms, such as social-distancing, not wearing a face mask can prove to be effective. Drones enabled with facial recognition were also being utilized to broadcast warnings to the citizens.
In Maharashtra, Nagpur Municipal Corporation has started a Coronavirus Application for the advantage of the symptomatic citizens having cough, fever and trouble in breathing. Citizens just have to fill the information on this application and submit it and the mobile application will detect whether they have related symptoms or not. In case of symptoms recognized, the mobile application will inform to the certain medical authority for further monitoring and action.
Touch-Free Sanitation and Waste Management
Make services to invest in touch-free sanitary hygiene bins and disposal technology to minimize infection and to keep high levels of cleanliness during lockdown situations. The virus can last for days on surfaces and so there is an intense requirement for rebuilding waste collection and disposal. Air Bins are the Internet of Things (IoT)-powered bins, where devices interact with each other digitally. This enables remote monitoring of waste accumulation levels in the bins with the help of a smartphone.
This smart bin system can be reconstructed on to existing conventional garbage bins and on the new bins by accommodating the system on the bin lids or nearby poles or walls. Drones originally planned to spray pesticides for agricultural applications were acquired to spray disinfecting chemicals in some public spaces and on pandemic prevention vehicles traveling between affected areas.
An IoT-Enabled Citizen Tracking System
Till now, People movement has been affected by COVID-19. Getting complete visibility on the testing infrastructure has been a huge challenge. A decentralized Blockchain network help to track people’s movement, health records, etc., can give useful insights in such situations.
Connected thermometers are being utilized by hospitals to screen patients and staff. This utilizes IoT Access Controller to gain real-time patient data from the sensors and wirelessly transfer this data to a nurse’s station for constant monitoring. So that it will easy to diagnose and track patient’s movements.
Using Remote Operations to Minimize Exposure
Centralized control room environments, whether they present in a water treatment plant, electric power distribution center, or traffic control center, these are the few places where several people have to work in a common environment. To minimize transmission of Coronavirus, many end-user and owner-operators are already looking for productive ways to isolate operators from one another, whether it’s through physical barriers in the centralized control room or move towards remote operations.
IIoT can enable companies to continue operations when public-health interventions prohibit or limit on-site work by analyzing and controlling equipment remotely. To execute these services, companies must connect crucial assets to cloud-based control software.
There are various remote operations management solutions available from automation suppliers that can give effective and secure solutions for remote operations of different facilities from water and wastewater treatment plants to power distribution centers and many other applications. With the help of IoT based technologies such as cloud and edge computing, remote access to plant and production data has become more universal.
While developing a pandemic ready IoT in smart city model, based on the Coronavirus learnings, it will definitely assist the plethora of changes we are observing today. However, the most essential aspect to keep in mind is agility and compliance.