Sydney based WBS Technology is marketing an IoT system for commercial buildings based on networked, communications-enabled emergency lights.
The lights communicate with each other and with sensors using 6LoWPAN and RPL protocols over LoRaWAN. These communicate with a cloud based platform via cellular and locally can be monitored and controlled from a smartphone via bluetooth.
The technology was developed by WBS, initially, in collaboration with a team at the University of NSW under UNSW’s TechConnect incubator program, funded the NSW Government’s Boosting Business Innovation Program for SMEs. This led to an Australian Research Council Linkage project between the two, culminating in an Innovation Connections Grant to fund commercialisation of the technology, according to WBS.
WBS said it had approached UNSW initially to help it create a network of emergency lights using Zigbee. “However, emergency lights can often be in out-of-the-way places where communications are unreliable. So Hu, [Dr Wen Hu of UNSW’s School of Computer Science and Engineering] working with A/Prof Salil Kanhere and Prof Sanjay Jha and a clutch of PhD students at UNSW’s School of Computer Science and Engineering, including Jun Young Kim, worked on developing a meshed network of different communications technologies that could work seamlessly and provide a reliable network across a plethora of locations,” WBS said.
The company said it had installed the system in more than 10 apartment complexes, the latest being at Castle Hill in northwest Sydney. “At the retrofitted apartment building in Castle Hill, lights in the underground car park dim when there’s no movement and brighten when there is, as do lights in hallways and common areas,” WBS said.
“If a light fitting fails, building managers know which one and how long it has been inoperative. As the network expands, energy usage and the status of heating and cooling could be tracked, flow gauges report back on water usage and identify leaks, ventilation and pumping systems monitored remotely, and hot water systems checked for faults.”
WBS started life as emergency lighting manufacturer and said it would use the technology to transform itself, offering ‘sensors as a service’ based on its smart emergency lights
“For a fixed monthly fee, WBS provides a network of emergency and other lights that monitor themselves, react to their surroundings and to remote commands, and can have other devices added to the same network,” it said.
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