Remote long-term monitoring of critical infrastructure with key safety movement band tolerance in landslide vulnerable areas

Project Information

ALARTE

Grant agreement ID: 958701

DOI

10.3030/958701

Project closed

EC signature date 3 November 2020

Start date 1 November 2020

End date 31 May 2024

Funded under

• Horizon 2020 Framework Programme

Total cost

€ 2 512 228,75

EU contribution

€ 2 039 735,13

Coordinated by

FUNDACION TECNALIA RESEARCH & INNOVATION
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ALARTE (Remote long-term monitoring of critical infrastructure with key safety movement band tolerance in landslide vulnerable areas)

Reporting period: 2022-02-01 to 2024-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

ALARTE aims at solving the problem of asset and people’s safety in the vicinity of ground movements.
Ground movements occur in four main fields: Landslides, underground construction, mining, dams and other water retaining structures
Landslides are among the most harmful natural threats. In Europe, between 1995 and 2014, 476 fatal landslides were recorded which caused 1,370 casualties and 784 injuries. Due to the global warming that is causing excessive amounts of rains and more extreme storms, soil and bedrock weathering is speeding up, turning previously stable regions as landslide prone landscape putting several infrastrcutures at risk, such as: roads, railways, subways, pipelines, mining walls, dams, ...
To prevent these damages, public administrations, infrastructure owners and private companies are allocating part of their budget . However, deep ground monitoring is still expensive and difficult to maintain, especially in remote areas, as it is undertaken on-site at periodical intervals.
There is therefore still a gap when long-term deep ground monitoring is needed to assess ground movement risks to people, assets and operators, guaranteeing the lifespan operation of critical infrastructure, avoiding casualties and economic losses.

The ALARTE project aims to address the above mentioned issues, developing a low-cost robotic inclinometer, able to provide high reliability measurements, with the desired frequency, easily installed and autonomously powered.

The ALARTE system is at the final stage of its full validation, still under the optimisation process of its final design.
Market research has shown that the product would be very well received by users.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

OVERVIEW OF RESULTS
The project has aimed at developing a commercial prototype of the ALARTE system and producing it at industrial scale. The product is a portable and remote system that uses a single battery-powered sensor in a probe to measure the slope movements in landslide prone areas. It has bidirectional communication, wireless data transfer, and automatic data calculation.
The testing goals were to evaluate the performance, accuracy, reliability, and usability of the ALARTE system under field conditions.
The ALARTE system has detected actual displacements consistent with the manual measurement made with a commercial system. However, the system long term performance still has to be optimised. Some of these problems have already been solved with improvements in the design and programming, but others still have to be resolved.
The ALARTE system has the potential to measure the inclination of boreholes and walls remotely and automatically, but needs to improve the above mentioned shortcomings. The mechanical, electronic and programming system need to be reviewed and optimised to implement a certification process.

EXPLOITATION
ALARTE key selling proposition is to offer an easy and cost-effective robotized vertical inclinometer monitoring solution.
A business model analysis has been established, and the assumptions that have been made regarding market and customers, production cost and system performance have been validated for the implementation and commercialization of ALARTE system.
The preliminary customers’ enthusiasm and their feedback is confirming the viability of ALARTE project and the commercial concept: “ALARTE, the easy and cost-effective robotized vertical inclinometer monitoring solution”. The adequation of the product characteristics (technical, financial) with client needs reinforce the quality of the business model.
However, the lack of a final product ready for commercialization has prevented its immediate exploitation.

DISSEMINATION
Several scientific and commercial communications activities have been undertaken, participating in a large number of events (conferences, workshops, ...) such as:
• Connecting Europe Days, 2022, Lyon, 2024, Brussels
• 4th IRF Asia Pacific Regional Congress and 11th Malaysian Road Conference & Exhibition 2022, 2022, Kuala Lumpur.
• TRA2022 and TRA 2024 (Transport Research Arena), ,Lisbon and Dublin
• WIN Fair Eurasia, 2023, Istanbul
• Solscope - International exhibition for the geotechnical, drilling and foundations sectors, 2023, Lyon
• IRF Global R2T Conference & Exhibition, 2023, Phoenix
• FEHRL-FHWA 2024 Workshop, Bridging Innovation Across the Atlantic!, 2024, Washington
...

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The ALARTE system is a remote and automatical inclinometer, with reduced dimensions, and a competitive price.
The project is still in the process of fully validating the system performance, as it still has mechanical, electronic and programming issues which have to be optimised.

Regarding Carbon footprint, ALARTE system is one of the lowest carbon footprint systems according these results. It is also by far the lowest carbon footprint automatic system compared to an IPI or SAA with a carbon emission reduction of up to 87%.
Moreover, considering the energy requirements of the system, ALARTE has been designed to operate autonomously and therefore be highly energy efficient. Its 14.6V LIPO battery allows it to hold a dozen measurements without an external energy source. It is also possible to install a solar panel so that the system is completely autonomous.
In the case of functionality, the ALARTE system, due to its low cost, will make it possible to monitor automatically and remotely:
1. a larger number of potential landslides.
2. as frequently as required on an hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly basis, depending on the expected movement speed and risk level
3. for as long as required

Regarding the economic impacts, the introduction of the ALARTE system is expected to bring a significant cost advantage. Construction companies will be able to have a system that can be reused for several sites, not just one (as is the case with traditional systems). It will also increase the quality of measurements and reduce personnel risks on site, which is a clear economic advantage. Also, the competitive cost of ALARTE facilitates the monitoring of more potential unstable slopes, more frequently, and for larger periods if required. These facts largely facilitate the early detection of instabilities, which in turn, help reduce the cost of putting mitigation measures in place.
Furthermore, in the case of working conditions for inclinometer operators on site, the implementation of ALARTE will greatly improve their safety and comfort, removing them from hazardous unstable slopes and excavations.
As social impacts have been estimated that the project will generate €31.35 million turnover (€11.57 profit) in its first 5 years on the market, thanks to the sale of 440 units of ALARTE and its installation in around 600 monitoring projects (using 2,638 ALARTE units) by 2027. This business volume gives a ROI of 4.6 and payback time of ~3 years. ALARTE will generate 18 new employment openings in the field of manufacturing and commercialization, 5 of them already during the development of the FTI project.
Finally, although the factors determining fatalities due to landslides are more related to geographical factors and socioeconomic indicators, the availability of ALARTE at a competitive price at the market could contribute to obtain more data that could support the research on landslides, specially at developing countries.

ALARTE SYSTEM ON SITE

INCLINOMETERS ON SITE

ALARTE SYSTEM ON SITE