Final Report Summary - POLLINS (Automated Pollution Inspection Scanning System for Soil using a robotic vehicle)
Executive Summary:
This project failed to meet all its objectives. It was an aggressive research project with high level targets and the consortium realized that the technology is not ready yet to fully complete this with the resources involved. A number of objectives were fulfilled, partially or fully, and the knowledge spread among the consortium has been increased. However, the fact that the target set was high was not the only reason for this outcome and there were a few other reasons that costed a lot of time that could have been invested into progress. For example, the high number of partners appeared not to be good practice: some of them left the consortium, some of them never really participated and that created a lag in the development of work.
It was though the unanimous belief of the consortium that if we had more time, many more objectives and milestones could have been achieved and deliverables submitted.
Project Context and Objectives:
There are currently more than 3 million potential contaminated soil sites in Europe waiting in queue to be surveyed and chemically analyzed. While the whole process can last minimum one month to provide results for one site, the soil contamination continues to expand in the ground travelling from O to B Horizon. Currently, the detection of soil pollution is done by manual surveys which are inefficient, unreliable, time consuming and very expensive. The need of a better and low-cost technical approach, that would be able to assess contaminated areas before programing the required remediation actions, has become more intense due to public awareness for the environment. This project aims to develop a semi-autonomous, remotely controlled robotic system that will deploy three novel sensors for the assessment of soil quality and site characterization. The large contaminated sites will be covered by 100%, presented by fine scale maps of contaminant levels and giving quality and quantity data for the pollutants such as heavy metals and organic solvents. Four different types of sensors (HPU, GPR, optical fibre chemical sensors and SAW) will be integrated to detect efficiently the contaminants in the surface and underground. Data collected from the sensors will be fused, correlated and optimized to provide GPS linked ground 3D images of contaminant distribution. Thus ground property images from different sensors can be combined to produce composite images that can be used also later to during the treatment of soil contamination. Advanced signal processing techniques will be used to obtain the correct interpretation of the data acquired by the sensors and image processing will ameliorate the fused images. The automated inspection soil contamination system will benefit the SMEs involved in NDT, robotics and contamination detection. The applications of POLLINS system will entail:
• monitoring of agricultural areas where the contamination could affect significantly the growth of plants
• monitoring of urban public areas such as parks, play grounds etc. where potential pollution could affect significantly the citizens' health
• monitoring of industrial areas in order to identify concentrations or leakages of pollutants which could have major health impact to the employees, environmental impact to the around premises and negative economic consequences for the related industries.
Project Results:
Work progress and achievements
Milestones
MS # Milestone WP number Achieved Comments
MS1 Proof of principle of the novel HPU unit designed for soil mapping WP2 Partially
MA2 Completely developed software for soil inspection WP3 Yes Not validated with real data
MS3 Proof of principle of the suite of chemical sensors WP4 Yes
MS4 Prototype of robotic ground vehicle with NDT already integrated WP5 Partially Only the conceptual design was completed
MS5 Lab tests and field trials successfully completed WP6 No
MS6 Training completed WP7 Partially Only the training plan
MS7 Final Exploitation plan completed WP8 Partially Website, some publications and patent search were completed
MS8 Successful development of chemical sensors and SAW WP2, WP4 SAW sensor not completed. Chemical sensors for lab experiments
Deliverables
# Title Nature Status Comments
D1.1 Report with system specifications R SUBMITTED COMPLETED
D2.1 Rolling type HPU sensor P SUBMITTED COMPLETED
D2.2 Image analysis of HPU results O SUBMITTED COMPLETED
D3.1 Imaging software including soil modelling O SUBMITTED COMPLETED – data not received to validate
D3.2 Human machine Interface D SUBMITTED COMPLETED
D4.1 Functional humidity sensor suitable for field use P SUBMITTED COMPLETED – not ready for robot
D4.2 Functional wide range pH sensor suitable for field use P SUBMITTED COMPLETED – not ready for robot
D4.3 A series of heavy metal sensors suitable for field use P SUBMITTED COMPLETED – not ready for robot
D4.4 A suite of four channel SAW sensors P SUBMITTED NOT DEVELOPED
D5.1 Design of the robotic ground vehicle P SUBMITTED COMPLETED
D5.2 Control system D
D5.3 Prototype of robotic ground vehicle with NDT already integrated P
D6.1 Report with conclusions of laboratory trials including needed modifications R
D6.2 Report on POLLINS system field trials R
D6.3 Video showing all the project’s stages D
D7.1 Training plan R SUBMITTED COMPLETED
D7.2 POLLINS tutorial for SME-AGs O
D7.3 Report on SME-AG training and SME-AG members training R
D8.1 Project website launched O SUBMITTED COMPLETED
D8.2 PUDF final version M56 R
D8.3 Report on dissemination activities R SUBMITTED COMPLETED
D8.4 Patent search R SUBMITTED COMPLETED
D8.5 Filling of patents DR
D8.6 Pudf-Draft version (Interim) R
D9.1 Consortium Agreement R SUBMITTED COMPLETED
D9.2 Project milestone reports R SUBMITTED COMPLETED
Short description of each deliverable
D1.1
The purpose of WP1 is met, as D1.1 is delivered and successfully outlines the requirements and specifications of POLLINS system and subsystems. The requirements and specifications are resulting from the nature of the duty of POLLINS, soil characteristics etc, which are also described on the report.
D2.1
This was not completed, as the customization of a rolling, reliable NDE ultrasound transducer for soil measurement applications, proved to be a great challenge. The large diversity of soil acoustic properties affects signal analysis. Also, the little sound propagation in soil, causes the reflective attenuation of sound waves almost impossible, so new approach of a non rolling - two probe system was proposed (a source probe and a receiver probe).
D3.1
This is a software that includes modelling that was achieved and delivered, but was not fully completed since a set of field measurements were not given to fully test its functionality.
D3.2
This is a human machine interface that was delivered but not completed in full extend of the required capabilities, as other prerequisite deliverables were not complete or not achieved the necessary level of maturity in order to be used for the development of this WP.
D4.1
This relates to the customization of a reliable humidity sensor and was delivered successfully.
D4.2
This relates to the customization of a reliable wide range PH sensor and was delivered successfully.
D4.3
This relates to the customization of a series of reliable heavy metal sensors and were delivered successfully.
D4.4.
The SAW sensor was not developed
D5.1
An extensive search of existing robotic solution was made. The most cost effective platform was chosen and a design was presented.
D7.1
A training plan was made. Training sessions are most likely to take place in various geographical places, lasting one day in each topic 1-4, so the attendees will get a total of 4 full working days of motivation and hands-on training for polluted soil measurements and see finally the full scale demonstration measurements on polluted areas.
D8.1
The website of the consortium (www.pollins.eu) was developed at the beginning of the project and maintained.
D8.3
A list of relevant publications of the consortium was presented
D8.4
An extensive patent search in patent databases recorded a total of 19 relevant patents among hundreds of patents. None of them presented any potential overlapping regarding the results of POLLINS project.
D9.1
The CA was submitted
D9.2
The project milestone reports present an abstract of the work done in this project
Potential Impact:
The main results of this project are:
1. Development of chemical sensors
2. Development of imaging software
3. Development of GUI
4. Design of the robotic vehicle
These components can be used by members of the consortium with/without third parties to create a robotic vehicle that will be used in the sector of soil pollution monitoring, by introducing a new and effective technique of preventive inspection. This technology will advance current methodologies on inspecting soil contamination, it will make the inspection faster and at the same time it will minimize manual work required by workers in this industry. As a result, this will also have an effect on the health and safety because it will minimize the expose of humans in contaminated environments.
With the development of this industrial sector EU will be able to create more accurate maps of soil properties and will be able to give advice to farmers and land users about measures that they need to take for proper use of their land.
List of Websites:
http://www.pollins.eu/
This project failed to meet all its objectives. It was an aggressive research project with high level targets and the consortium realized that the technology is not ready yet to fully complete this with the resources involved. A number of objectives were fulfilled, partially or fully, and the knowledge spread among the consortium has been increased. However, the fact that the target set was high was not the only reason for this outcome and there were a few other reasons that costed a lot of time that could have been invested into progress. For example, the high number of partners appeared not to be good practice: some of them left the consortium, some of them never really participated and that created a lag in the development of work.
It was though the unanimous belief of the consortium that if we had more time, many more objectives and milestones could have been achieved and deliverables submitted.
Project Context and Objectives:
There are currently more than 3 million potential contaminated soil sites in Europe waiting in queue to be surveyed and chemically analyzed. While the whole process can last minimum one month to provide results for one site, the soil contamination continues to expand in the ground travelling from O to B Horizon. Currently, the detection of soil pollution is done by manual surveys which are inefficient, unreliable, time consuming and very expensive. The need of a better and low-cost technical approach, that would be able to assess contaminated areas before programing the required remediation actions, has become more intense due to public awareness for the environment. This project aims to develop a semi-autonomous, remotely controlled robotic system that will deploy three novel sensors for the assessment of soil quality and site characterization. The large contaminated sites will be covered by 100%, presented by fine scale maps of contaminant levels and giving quality and quantity data for the pollutants such as heavy metals and organic solvents. Four different types of sensors (HPU, GPR, optical fibre chemical sensors and SAW) will be integrated to detect efficiently the contaminants in the surface and underground. Data collected from the sensors will be fused, correlated and optimized to provide GPS linked ground 3D images of contaminant distribution. Thus ground property images from different sensors can be combined to produce composite images that can be used also later to during the treatment of soil contamination. Advanced signal processing techniques will be used to obtain the correct interpretation of the data acquired by the sensors and image processing will ameliorate the fused images. The automated inspection soil contamination system will benefit the SMEs involved in NDT, robotics and contamination detection. The applications of POLLINS system will entail:
• monitoring of agricultural areas where the contamination could affect significantly the growth of plants
• monitoring of urban public areas such as parks, play grounds etc. where potential pollution could affect significantly the citizens' health
• monitoring of industrial areas in order to identify concentrations or leakages of pollutants which could have major health impact to the employees, environmental impact to the around premises and negative economic consequences for the related industries.
Project Results:
Work progress and achievements
Milestones
MS # Milestone WP number Achieved Comments
MS1 Proof of principle of the novel HPU unit designed for soil mapping WP2 Partially
MA2 Completely developed software for soil inspection WP3 Yes Not validated with real data
MS3 Proof of principle of the suite of chemical sensors WP4 Yes
MS4 Prototype of robotic ground vehicle with NDT already integrated WP5 Partially Only the conceptual design was completed
MS5 Lab tests and field trials successfully completed WP6 No
MS6 Training completed WP7 Partially Only the training plan
MS7 Final Exploitation plan completed WP8 Partially Website, some publications and patent search were completed
MS8 Successful development of chemical sensors and SAW WP2, WP4 SAW sensor not completed. Chemical sensors for lab experiments
Deliverables
# Title Nature Status Comments
D1.1 Report with system specifications R SUBMITTED COMPLETED
D2.1 Rolling type HPU sensor P SUBMITTED COMPLETED
D2.2 Image analysis of HPU results O SUBMITTED COMPLETED
D3.1 Imaging software including soil modelling O SUBMITTED COMPLETED – data not received to validate
D3.2 Human machine Interface D SUBMITTED COMPLETED
D4.1 Functional humidity sensor suitable for field use P SUBMITTED COMPLETED – not ready for robot
D4.2 Functional wide range pH sensor suitable for field use P SUBMITTED COMPLETED – not ready for robot
D4.3 A series of heavy metal sensors suitable for field use P SUBMITTED COMPLETED – not ready for robot
D4.4 A suite of four channel SAW sensors P SUBMITTED NOT DEVELOPED
D5.1 Design of the robotic ground vehicle P SUBMITTED COMPLETED
D5.2 Control system D
D5.3 Prototype of robotic ground vehicle with NDT already integrated P
D6.1 Report with conclusions of laboratory trials including needed modifications R
D6.2 Report on POLLINS system field trials R
D6.3 Video showing all the project’s stages D
D7.1 Training plan R SUBMITTED COMPLETED
D7.2 POLLINS tutorial for SME-AGs O
D7.3 Report on SME-AG training and SME-AG members training R
D8.1 Project website launched O SUBMITTED COMPLETED
D8.2 PUDF final version M56 R
D8.3 Report on dissemination activities R SUBMITTED COMPLETED
D8.4 Patent search R SUBMITTED COMPLETED
D8.5 Filling of patents DR
D8.6 Pudf-Draft version (Interim) R
D9.1 Consortium Agreement R SUBMITTED COMPLETED
D9.2 Project milestone reports R SUBMITTED COMPLETED
Short description of each deliverable
D1.1
The purpose of WP1 is met, as D1.1 is delivered and successfully outlines the requirements and specifications of POLLINS system and subsystems. The requirements and specifications are resulting from the nature of the duty of POLLINS, soil characteristics etc, which are also described on the report.
D2.1
This was not completed, as the customization of a rolling, reliable NDE ultrasound transducer for soil measurement applications, proved to be a great challenge. The large diversity of soil acoustic properties affects signal analysis. Also, the little sound propagation in soil, causes the reflective attenuation of sound waves almost impossible, so new approach of a non rolling - two probe system was proposed (a source probe and a receiver probe).
D3.1
This is a software that includes modelling that was achieved and delivered, but was not fully completed since a set of field measurements were not given to fully test its functionality.
D3.2
This is a human machine interface that was delivered but not completed in full extend of the required capabilities, as other prerequisite deliverables were not complete or not achieved the necessary level of maturity in order to be used for the development of this WP.
D4.1
This relates to the customization of a reliable humidity sensor and was delivered successfully.
D4.2
This relates to the customization of a reliable wide range PH sensor and was delivered successfully.
D4.3
This relates to the customization of a series of reliable heavy metal sensors and were delivered successfully.
D4.4.
The SAW sensor was not developed
D5.1
An extensive search of existing robotic solution was made. The most cost effective platform was chosen and a design was presented.
D7.1
A training plan was made. Training sessions are most likely to take place in various geographical places, lasting one day in each topic 1-4, so the attendees will get a total of 4 full working days of motivation and hands-on training for polluted soil measurements and see finally the full scale demonstration measurements on polluted areas.
D8.1
The website of the consortium (www.pollins.eu) was developed at the beginning of the project and maintained.
D8.3
A list of relevant publications of the consortium was presented
D8.4
An extensive patent search in patent databases recorded a total of 19 relevant patents among hundreds of patents. None of them presented any potential overlapping regarding the results of POLLINS project.
D9.1
The CA was submitted
D9.2
The project milestone reports present an abstract of the work done in this project
Potential Impact:
The main results of this project are:
1. Development of chemical sensors
2. Development of imaging software
3. Development of GUI
4. Design of the robotic vehicle
These components can be used by members of the consortium with/without third parties to create a robotic vehicle that will be used in the sector of soil pollution monitoring, by introducing a new and effective technique of preventive inspection. This technology will advance current methodologies on inspecting soil contamination, it will make the inspection faster and at the same time it will minimize manual work required by workers in this industry. As a result, this will also have an effect on the health and safety because it will minimize the expose of humans in contaminated environments.
With the development of this industrial sector EU will be able to create more accurate maps of soil properties and will be able to give advice to farmers and land users about measures that they need to take for proper use of their land.
List of Websites:
http://www.pollins.eu/
