The setup
In Kraftringen’s case, they placed radar sensors to know if a car occupies a charging station, if a vehicle occupying a station is charging or not and if any issues arise with the hardware or the software. Kraftringen and their colleagues have set up a Bluetooth Mesh network on the local square where the testing has taken place, through which they send the data to the IoT platform Yggio.
The value
By implementing sensors like this, Kraftringen can monitor their valuable charging stations that are still new and few to make sure that no one vehicle is idly occupying them – A trend that they already had noticed before installing the sensors. The company can take measures to protect the charging stations from idle cars if they see a rising trend in cars simply occupying those stations for parking.
Restarting stations remotely
One of the main goals for Kraftringen to apply sensors to their charging stations was to restart the station’s modems remotely when issues arise. A use case like that is to be considered an advanced one, and thus, it required several parties cooperating to develop the specific solutions required. Luckily, Kraftringen was involved in the SOM project (more about this in the video), where Kraftringen could find partners with the necessary skills to make this idea a reality.
Visualizing data
Kraftringen will also visualize their collected data to customers through an app or a website. Such data could be which charging stations are free if any stations are having issues, how long Kraftringen expects a vehicle to occupy a station, and other relevant information extracted thanks to the sensors. Using data in such a way is an excellent example of how data collection can be valuable to both a company and its customers.