Landslide Monitoring without Changing the Batteries — for Decades

Warning systems are great to have, but you do have to maintain them. One of the challenges is always the issue of battery life, especially for more remote systems. Many have started using solar panels to recharge batteries to maintain the effectiveness of the systems they support. 

See below for another "new" solution that will reduce the labor involved in maintaining a warning system.

 

SoPoWake Provides Landslide and Mudslide Surveillance for Decades
"Autonomous landslide surveillance (ALS) systems use soil moisture sensors to monitor the water content in soils and generate alert messages over a wireless network to provide early warnings of possible imminent occurrence of landslides or mudslides. Unfortunately, existing combinations of regenerative energy and battery cannot sustain an ALS system throughout an entire year because the regenerative energy subsystem simply cannot produce enough energy during certain periods, for example, during rainy seasons, in shade or at night for solar-powered systems.

ITRI’s Soil-Powered Wake-up (SoPoWake) is an improvement over traditional surveillance systems that rely on battery or solar power, and sense and transmit data at specific periods of time instead of continuously monitoring to save power. Rather than utilizing a “periodic data sensing and transmission” method, SoPoWake applies a self-triggered technology based on soil water content that can greatly improve power efficiency. Compared with other environmental monitoring and warning systems, SoPoWake has a much longer endurance and can last for decades.

“SoPoWake is important because ALS systems can save lives by providing various early alarms for landslides accompanied by earthquakes or mudslides after heavy rainfalls, to evacuate or take other appropriate action,” said Dr. Li-Ren Huang, division director of Information and Communications Research Laboratories, ITRI. “SoPoWake simultaneously captures signals and harvests power using the moisture of the land in which it has been installed.”

The application of ITRI’s SoPoWake technology is wide-ranging. It can be used for environment monitoring and positioning because it provides electric energy for autonomous landslide surveillance. It can also act as a backup energy source, because SoPoWake can be equipped to charge a battery in an emergency. SoPoWake’s unique self-powering mechanism and maintenance-free operation enables it to be deployed widely in remote areas and in greater numbers than traditional ALS systems."