Over the course of the past two years, AUG has been working with the University of Toronto and the drinking water facility in the municipality of Smiths Falls, to test and refine its remote photonic sensing system for continuous monitoring of disinfection by-products (DBPs). The project is funded through SOWC’s Advancing Water Technologies (AWT) program, which is supported by the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario).
AUG’s system uses chemical reagents that change colour when they react with THMs, measuring those subtle changes with a photonic spectrometer. The results are ready in just 45 minutes. Thanks to that speedy feedback, plant managers can fine-tune chlorine, pH and coagulant levels, and keep zebra mussels in check without exceeding THM standards.
Since 2016, A.U.G. Signals Ltd (AUG) has been working closely with the Agriculture and Agri-food Canada (AAFC) in developing robust crop phenology estimation/prediction and disease risk monitoring using remote sensing. The objective of this technology is to facilitate improved crop management, pest and disease mitigation and resource planning.
Closely working with AAFC, Environment and Climate Change Canada and Lim Geomatics, the team published a poster entitled “Monitoring Risk of Sclerotinia Using Space Technologies”. This poster illustrates AUG’s crop phenology estimation technology and how the crop development stages can be identified and forecasted on a daily time step, using satellite imagery.
AUG looks forward to continuing working with the project partners in further developing the crop phenology estimation/prediction technology to benefit the Canadian agriculture industry as a whole.
Please click on the image to download the poster.
Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) has announced the end of long-term drinking water advisories in Deer Lake, ON and Sachigo Lake, ON First Nation communities as of April 23, 2018 and April 20, 2018 respectively. With ISC’s support and investment, AUG has been working with these two communities through Safe Water Project where AUG is responsible for providing operational support to the water operators and deploying TRITON Intelligent Water Surveillance® (TRITON) system to the communities.
Drinking water advisories are issued when the water supply is unsafe to drink—the reasons that might affect the water quality may include water line breaks, equipment failure or poor filtration/disinfection. Drinking water advisories may also be issued when a community does not have qualified personnel trained to operate and maintain the water facility. It has been on the Government of Canada’s agenda to lift all long-term drinking water advisories in First Nation communities by March 2021.
AUG, together with its partners and support from ISC, has implemented Safe Water Project in 19 First Nation communities in Ontario since 2015, and is progressing to include more First Nation communities in other provinces to eliminate and prevent drinking water advisories. AUG is excited to see the long-term drinking water advisories being lifted from partnering communities as well as other First Nation communities who have achieved the same.
ISC has also stated that the department will continue to make additional investments to support the finalization of remote water quality monitoring system, TRITON, in First Nation communities as well as fund for TRITON’s annual maintenance costs. As a proven technology that has assisted a number of communities to lift long-term drinking water advisories, AUG is committed to continuously support Safe Water Project and First Nation communities to eliminate and prevent drinking water advisories to secure safe drinking water.
Additional information on ISC’s latest updated on long-term drinking water advisories can be accessed here.
A.U.G. Signals in Greece is participating in the WaterSpy project along with eight other consortia across Europe. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 731778. The project is an initiative of the Photonics Public Private Partnership (www.photonics21.org).
Pervasive and on-line water quality monitoring data is critical for detecting environmental pollution and reacting in the best possible way to avoid human health hazards. However, it’s not easy to gather such data, at least not for all contaminants. Currently, water utilities rely heavily on frequent sampling and laboratory analysis in order to acquire this information. For the situation to be improved, portable and high-performance devices for pervasive water quality monitoring are required. Such devices should expand current limitations in detecting contaminants, transcending today’s paradigms, and bridging different technologies available, allowing on-line monitoring of possible contaminants.
WaterSpy addresses this challenge by developing water quality analysis photonics technology suitable for inline, field measurements. WaterSpy technology will be integrated, for validation purposes, to a commercially successful water quality monitoring platform, in the form of a portable device add-on. WaterSpy will be used in the field for the analysis of critical points of water distribution networks. This will be demonstrated in two different demo sites in Italy.
The latest update on the WaterSpy project can be downloaded here: WaterSpy 2-pg
[Above] The CEO of Bayanat, Mohammed Al Beloushi (Right) and the CEO of AUG, Dr. George Lampropoulos (Left)
On Nov. 28, 2017, A.U.G. Signals Ltd (AUG) and Bayanat had a fruitful meeting for a long-term cooperation between AUG and Bayanat in the remote sensing area.
Bayanat is a commercial spinoff of the UAE Armed Forces’ Military Survey Department (MSD) that provides end-to-end geospatial services for a range of businesses across diverse sectors including defense, municipality, oil, and gas, transportation and utilities.
LIVE DEMONSTRATIONS OF LADS-LARGE ANIMAL DETECTION SYSTEM™ AND AIRSENCE™ AT ITS WORLD CONGRESS 2017 IN MONTREAL, CANADA
Real-time wildlife/vehicles monitoring using AUG’s award-winning radar-based LADS – Large Animal Detection System™
Real-time air quality monitoring using AUG’s AirSENCE™, ambient air quality monitoring system
AUG, Pavilion Premium Exhibitor of ITS Canada, showcased its award-winning and state-of-the-art products to the international audience including business representatives, government authorities and renowned researchers from Asia, Europe and North America
Overwhelming response and interest from the customers and potential partners
AUG’s LADS is published in ITS World Congress 2017 Daily News
From left to right: Mr. Hardik Patel – Senior Hardware Engineer, Mr. Gurivi Reddy Polakala¬ – Business Development Officer, Mr. Abir Mukherjee – Senior Systems Architect
Toronto, Canada: A.U.G. Signals Ltd (AUG), one of the leading experts in intelligent sensor systems and signal processing, exhibited its innovative and advanced products – LADS and AirSENCE™ at ITS World Congress 2017 held October 29-November 2 at the Palais des congrès in Montreal, Canada. AUG also participated in B2B meetings with French delegation and discussed the potential collaborative opportunities in France and rest of the Europe.
LADS – Large Animal Detection System™ is a first-of-its-kind, award-winning (ITS Canada Award, 2013) all-weather radar-based detection system designed to monitor the presence of large animals on highways and provide warnings to motorists for as long as the animals remain in the monitored region. LADS, with its state-of-the-art detection technology, delivers the following key advantages: Robust Detection, Continuous Monitoring, High Accuracy, Traffic Monitoring and Classification, Remote Access and Eco-friendly Installation. LADS is currently operational on Highway 416 near Kemptville, Ontario and in Mount Revelstoke and Glacier National Park, British Columbia.
AirSENCE™ (Air SENsor for Chemicals in the Environment) is an innovative, robust and technically advanced air quality monitoring device that gathers continuous real-time high spatial resolution data. Compact in its design, AirSENCE™ reduces the cost and the energy usage associated with air quality monitoring. It provides accurate and reliable real-time data that helps cities to monitor air pollutant levels over time, map high pollution areas and localize the sources of air pollution. Rigorously tested in both low and highly polluted areas, AirSENCE™ provides accurate and reliable data fulfilling the needs of multiple stakeholders.
AUG’s LADS in Daily News, 24th ITS World Congress 2017. Please click the above image to view the original article.
About A.U.G. Signals:
Founded in 1986, A.U.G. Signals Ltd. (AUG) has been dedicated to excellence in signal, image and data processing for over two decades. A leader in its field, AUG is at the forefront of research and development in registration, detection, recognition, classification and identification, tracking, data mining techniques, intelligent systems and online distributed processing, situation assessment for decision support, and multi-sensor information fusion.
Concrete applications of AUG’s technological innovations include the monitoring of drinking/source water and the environment, multi-sensor surveillance of maritime and land, natural resources mapping, large animal detection and traffic monitoring system and applications for the military.
About ITS World Congress:
The ITS World Congress 2017, produced by ITS America in conjunction with ITS Canada and co-organized by ITS Europe and ITS Asia-Pacific, brings together global leaders in intelligent and transformative transportation to showcase and evaluate the latest innovative concepts, active prototypes, and live systems. Academics, researchers, policymakers, businesses, entrepreneurs, investors, implementers and the media—thousands of people from the transport, automotive, telecommunications, and technology sectors—will engage in robust discussions and spirited debates as to how this rapidly changing and ever-expanding industry is addressing the very real challenges facing our mobile, connected societies today and in the future. ITS World Congress 2017 is held October 29 – November 2 at the Palais des congrès in Montréal.
A.U.G. Signals Ltd. (AUG) will be attending WEFTEC 2017 in Chicago, IL between October 2 – 4, 2017. WEFTEC is North America’s largest conference of its kind that offers unparalleled experience, training and education to water quality professionals around the world.
AUG will be present to discuss about TRITON Intelligent Water Surveillance® and its benefits as well as various case studies to demonstrate its proven effectiveness in diverse environments in monitoring and detecting the water quality. AUG can be found in booth #7755 where thorough explanation about the system and one-on-one Q&A sessions will be available.
Dr. George Lampropoulos presenting AirSENCE at the forum.
Dr. George Lampropoulos, President and CEO of A.U.G. Signals Ltd (AUG), delivered a presentation on the successful collaboration between Peking University, University of Toronto and AUG – at the 6th Ontario-China Research and Innovation Collaboration on May 15, 2017. AUG was invited to share the experience of successful collaboration with China.
Peking University, University of Toronto and AUG started working on a prestigious project entitled, “Portable Integrated Sensor Network for Online Ambient Air Pollution Monitoring in Urban Environments”, in 2014. This project was funded under ‘Ontario-China Research and Innovation Fund (OCRIF)’ program with the support of Ontario’s Ministry of Research, Innovation and Science (MRIS), the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), China and Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE). The project team has made a significant progress over these years and resulted in ground-breaking research results and key publications. AirSENCE™ – a low-cost, compact and real-time commercial air monitoring is developed under this project.
Dr. Lampropoulos said, “OCRIF is a great platform for bringing innovative ideas to market. These collaborations lay a strong foundation for future research partnerships support the growth of Ontario’s clean tech industry in domestic and international markets.” He also discussed the best practices for successful collaborations and future collaborative opportunities during the presentation.
AUG crop growth stage estimation technology with AAFC:
* Prestigious project under AAFC’s AgriInnovation Program for crop management and disease risk assessment
* Project to provide a commercial tool to facilitate sustainable agriculture management, pest and disease mitigation and resource planning
* Project will benefit large and small farming operations and also strengthens Canada’s expertise and international competitiveness in agriculture sector
Partnering with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), A.U.G. Signals Ltd. (AUG) initiated a new project for crop growth stage estimation technology for crop management and disease risk assessment using Earth Observation data.[1] The objective of this 18-month project is to develop robust growth stage (phenological state) estimation and key growth date prediction products to facilitate improved crop management, pest and disease mitigation and resource planning.
Application Concept: The project will advance development of a method to determine growth stage for a wide range of crops of importance to Canada (corn, soybeans, field peas, wheat, barley, canola etc.). The product will be developed by enhancing an effective growth stage estimation procedure based on technology previously developed by AUG and using space-based synthetic aperture radar (SAR), specifically RADARSAT-2 and TerraSAR-X polarimetric data.
Expected Results: The outcome from this successful AgriInnovation Program project will be an automated process to ingest satellite SAR and optical data for accurate growth stage estimation (measured as number of days since emergence), producing information which is temporally updated and capable of timely delivery in order to inform crop management decision-making and resource allocation. This project will expand and improve AUG’s earth observation capabilities, enhancing Canada’s expertise and international competitiveness in the agriculture sector and benefitting both large and small farming operations. Ultimately, this project will lead to a commercialized crop growth estimation tool that can support sustainable agriculture management and disease risk mitigation in Canada and around the globe.
[1] Funding for this project has been provided by the AgriInnovation Program’s Research and Development stream, under the Growing Forward 2 policy framework. / Les fonds pour ce projet proviennent du volet Recherche et développement du programme Agri-innovation, une initiative du cadre stratégique Cultivons l’avenir 2.
Highlights
* Second prestigious pilot project in ITS after the successful installation of Large Animal Warning and Detection System along Highway 416 near Kemptville, Ontario
* Project scheduled for operation in the Mount Revelstoke and Glacier national parks, British Columbia by Summer 2017
* Deployment of AUG’s state-of-the-art SENTINEL–military grade scanning radar-based safety/security system–on the Trans-Canada Highway (Hwy-1)
* Project to provide wildlife monitoring across a 1 km zone and reduce wildlife vehicle collisions by 75%
* Commercial SENTINEL system ready to enter the market by the end of pilot project
Toronto, Canada: A.U.G. Signals Ltd (AUG), one of the leading experts in intelligent sensor systems and signal processing, today announced its new pilot project with Parks Canada under the Build in Canada Innovation Program (BCIP) for the wildlife monitoring in the Glacier National Park, between Revelstoke and Golden, British Columbia. During this project, AUG will deploy its multi-sensor SENTINEL system on the Trans-Canada Highway (Hwy-1) in Glacier National Park, delivering the product to Parks Canada. SENTINEL is an extension of the AUG’s existing Large Animal Detection System (LADS). Unlike conventional detection systems, SENTINEL’s advanced analytics differentiate between cars, trucks and wildlife/people that would improve the monitoring capabilities, transportation planning and emergency response services.
SENTINEL’s other key benefits include extremely low false detection rates, all-weather operation, low maintenance and warning system capability. SENTINEL also has broader applications for modern public safety and security systems, including critical infrastructure such as bridges and tunnels, airside security at airports, and portable intrusion detection and tracking for private industry and military applications.
In this pilot project, AUG plans to validate several performance metrics and will provide real-time insights and remote support for a period of 18 months. After the completion of this pilot project, AUG will have commercial SENTINEL and LADS systems ready to enter the surveillance and wild-life detection markets respectively.
Dr. George A. Lampropoulos, President and CEO said, “We continue to collaborate with our partners for the innovation and excellence in signal, image and data processing. AUG believes in the value of collaborative relationships and building partnerships with government, industry, academia and clients to understand the world and make it safer. Our mission is to deliver customized, reliable and robust solutions that meet the needs of AUG’s global clientele. AUG’s SENTINEL is truly an innovation in the industry and is able to do what no other system has done before: reliably and effectively detect large animals on highways, 24/7. SENTINEL, with its classification feature is a disruptive product in the surveillance industry. With the on-going research and other upcoming projects, AUG is positioning itself to capitalize the growing opportunities in ITS domain.”
About A.U.G. Signals Ltd.
Founded in 1986, A.U.G. Signals Ltd. (AUG) has been dedicated to excellence in signal, image and data processing for over three decades. A leader in its field, AUG is at the forefront of research and development in registration, detection, recognition, classification and identification, tracking, data mining techniques, intelligent systems and online distributed processing, situation assessment for decision support, and multi-sensor information fusion.
Concrete applications of AUG’s technological innovations include the monitoring of drinking/source water and the environment, multi-sensor surveillance of maritime and land, natural resources mapping, large animal detection and traffic monitoring system and applications for the military.
About the Build in Canada Innovation Program
The Build in Canada Innovation Program helps Canadian innovators land their first sale and get their innovations tested by the Government of Canada. If you have an innovation that hasn’t hit the market yet, BCIP wants to be the first to buy it and test it.
