Internet of Things Testbed
The Internet of Things Testbed provides a range of facilities that allow the testing and prototyping of a wide range of Internet of Things (IoT) applications’ and investigations into the enabling technologies and software platforms.
Facilities in detail
We host several platforms available for research into sensing and situation awareness in indoor environments:
Internet of Things (IoT) Egg
The IoT Egg, developed in 2015, is a sensor suite which has at its core an embedded platform (ARM Cortex 3 processor) and hosts a range of environment sensors plus feedback features.
Intended for indoor deployments initially, the IoT Egg’s objective is to capture indoor environment information which can then be used to infer context and situation knowledge. Around 100 IoT Egg units are deployed in the 5G Innovation Centre building, while more units (currently up to 350) can be made available for research projects and trials.
Mobile Air Quality Sensing Suite
The Mobile Air Quality Sensing Suite uses LoRa connectivity and GPS location information to collect information about air quality on cycle routes around Guildford, using sensors attached to hire bikes.
Three bikes from the University’s nextbike network are equipped with a sensor suite that collects CO, SO2 and NO2 readings, combines these with a timestamp and location information, and transmits the data via our LoRa network (supported by Semtech and the LoRaWAN academy and using The Things Network as data backend).
LoRaWAN based network
A LoRaWAN based network to support local IoT projects, from student projects to local technology enthusiasts, coverage is provided around the Hazel Farm area as well as around Surrey’s Manor Park campus and on the University’s Stag Hill campus.
This includes at current three outdoor gateways (using Kerlink Wirnet iBTS) and four indoor gateways (Kerlink Wirnet iFemtoCell) using LoRa to provide sensors connectivity in the 5G Innovation Centre building.
Our robot platform for advanced and autonomous indoor simultaneous localisation and mapping (slam) is used to collect magnetic and spectrum fingerprints in an indoor environment and at the same time generate an accurate map of the environment.
We have also developed an extension of the robot platform to test algorithms for cooperation between independent autonomous entities to pursue and fulfil tasks jointly.
The IoT facilities and databases used to collect the measured sensor data are hosted in our 5G testbed, and data access can be facilitated for our project partners. Access to the various platforms can be facilitated either through direct projects with industry or in collaborative research projects.
If you have any questions or are interested in using our facilities, please get in touch.