An IoT-based GNSS platform for infrastructure monitoring

Abstract

In recent years, mining operators have adopted Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for monitoring and inspection operations but archaic/manual processes to collect and analyse data are still in use, thus making the protection of mining critical assets a costly and highly complex problem, reducing the capabilities of the monitoring system to trigger automatic alarms. Within the SEC4TD project, a low-cost IoT-based GNSS positioning device is developed, with the aim to provide accurate absolute positions of infrastructures. The solution includes the use of a two bands (L1, L2) GNSS receiver, long power autonomy and RTK correction on edge nodes. The paper describes the first prototype and the initial testing to evaluate its positional precision. A long term evaluation over 15 days is performed including a comparison with a high-end receiver. Lastly, field conditions are mimicked by reducing to 60 the number of epochs used in estimating the position each hour allowing for continuous monitoring of the infrastructure of interest.