Internet of Things

164 Internet of Things

The Ohio River is the habitat of di erent various species of Mussels that are an important part

of our ecosystem. These Mussels are not just a crucial source of food resource for the waterfowl,

muskrats, and fi sh but are also very necessary to indicate the quality of the water.

Located in West Virginia, Aridea Solutions is an engineering company that is responsible

for the development of the WIZARD (Water Intrinsic Zoological Ambient Research Device) plat-

form. The American company has already worked with the US Army Corps on a project in 2016

at Robert C. Byrd Locks and Dam to regulate the mussel’s environmental and ambient conditions.

The main objective of the project was to preserve them when working in local streams and rivers.

The Robert C. Byrd Locks and Dam is situated on the border of Ohio and West Virginia. There

are four di erent locks; one is for the commercial charge tra c, an auxiliary lock, and two smaller

but parallel locks.

Automatic Monitoring of Dredging Activities

The channel maintenance requirements at RC Byrd Locks and Dam far surpass the average Ohio

river projects mainly because of 90,000 cubic yards of dredging material annually. The dredging

and disposal processes at RC Byrd need a continuous inspection in order to meet the objects. Plus,

there’s huge sedimentation below the project and the presence of endangered mussels.

The intense monitoring process of environmental factors of the dredge disposal includes sed-

imentation, turbidity, and dissolved oxygen. This facilitates real-time information transmissions

to the District, which could regulate the water conditions that could disturb the mussels.

The WIZARD platform is responsible for connecting the sensors together to the Terralytix

Edge Buoy. It is a solar-powered communication buoy that consists of a smart platform used to

collect and send data. It could e ectively measure the water depth, quality with a pressure trans-

ducer, conductivity, monitor temperature, depth, PH levels, dissolved oxygen levels, and dissolved

oxygen saturation. A smart Transducer is also installed to residue build-up and depth with the

help of an ultrasonic ranging system.

The smart Transducer Array has to send the obtained data by using RS232 through SDI12.

The data is straight sent from the smart sensor platform to the Aridea’s Terralytix Portal by

using 4 Communications. This facilitates a superb fl exible solution that allows the gathering and

aggregation of various environmental parameters by a single interface using o -the-shelf sensor

technologies.

The platform they have chosen provides compatibility with a wide range of industrial

protocols. It also gives a huge library of code examples that allow greater fl exibility in engineering

solutions with clients.

Reducing the Risk of Divers while Protecting Mussels

The main aim of the project is to monitor and decrease the e ect of dredging operations on the

mussel population. To address this, Aridea has developed an intuitive and robust deployable sedi-

ment deposition and scour system. It is capable of collecting and sending data in every 5 minutes.

CASE STUDY 1

PROTECTING ENDANGERED

FRESHWATER MUSSELS IN THE

OHIORIVER

Internet_of_Things_CH06_pp141-170.indd 164 9/3/2019 10:14:20 AM