Improvements in radar & communications technology make fully remote, critical water level & flow measurements possible.
Critical water level and flow measurements are increasingly important for many applications, including monitoring rivers, sewage overflows, and tank levels, as well as providing flood warnings for key infrastructure. Whether it’s making statutory declarations of overflow events, or triggering warnings to help protect millions of pounds worth of assets from flood damage, reliability and accuracy cannot be compromised.
Moving that critical monitoring of water levels and flow to a fully remote system has always made sense in principle, as it allows operators to install and move sensors quickly and cheaply, without having to install and maintain the necessary infrastructure for a wired system. In practice though, remote monitoring has often been let down by poor connectivity, battery life, and measurement reliability. That is now changing.
UDlive has developed a new range of radar-based water level & flow monitors, specially to address these industry issues:
- Its radar system solves the reliability issues that affect ultrasound and other forms of measurement. It is far less affected by high humidity, condensation, or interference from detritus such as spiders’ webs.
- It is capable of mm accuracy over 10m, meaning it can easily be deployed in deep sewers without having to enter them, or on the bottom of most bridges for river measurement
- It has a multi-network communications system that also works across NBIoT, Cat 1, and Cat M1, with 2G fall back. Combined with a high-gain antenna, this guarantees connectivity in 95%+ of locations
- The battery life has been extended out to 9 years with 15 minute readings and twice daily dial-ins
The UDlive ‘CatsEye’ range also has an innovative way of preventing false alarms – the bane of the industry. Instead of sending back just a basic measurement, ‘CatsEye’ devices send back detailed data including diagnostics, echo curves, and device status. This means that every reading can be verified, and our system will automatically alert the user if any device is low on battery or providing unreliable data. This allows operators to schedule a routine maintenance visit, rather than only finding out a device isn’t working properly when it’s too late.
Finally, the CatsEye range also responds to the fact that the technology costs in water monitoring are often outweighed by the installation and maintenance costs. CatsEye devices have been designed specifically for use in sewers and watercourses. Typical installation is c. 5 mins, with no in-situ calibration required. They can be quickly removed and returned when sewers need to be accessed. And they have been designed explicitly for use in sewers and water courses, and thus have an excellent service life.
Taken together, the innovations that have been brought to the market through the CatsEye range are significant, and mean that fully remote water level and flow monitoring is now something that can be used everywhere, from general network monitoring to highly critical applications.
