| Abstract: |
Air quality monitoring is extremely important as air pollution has a direct impact on human health and is responsible for environmental problems, such as acid rain and the depletion of the
ozone layer. Nowadays, air pollution is monitored by networks of static measurement stations operated by official authorities. These stations are highly reliable and able to accurately measure a
wide range of air pollutants using traditional analytical instruments. The drawbacks of these complex measurement systems are their large size, high price, and laborious maintenance. The
extensive cost of acquiring and operating these stations severely limits the number of installations resulting in a limited spatial resolution of the available pollution information. In recent
years, several low-cost solid-state gas sensors became available on the market. Most of these sensors show an electrochemical reaction when exposed to a specific gas. These solid-state gas
sensors are inexpensive, small, and suitable for mobile measurements. To measure the main pollutants in Zurich, we integrated a few low-cost gas sensors in wireless sensor nodes and deployed them
on top of trams. The nodes' mobility allows obtaining a higher spatial measurement resolution and to increase the covered area without the need of hundreds or thousands of sensors. In this talk,
I will concentrate on the challenges of designing and maintaining such an air quality monitoring network, on-the-fly calibration of low-cost sensors under mobility, and efficient measurement
scheduling at city scale. |
