Articles

Following the successful deployment of AirSENCE™- air quality monitoring system in the cities of Mississauga and Oshawa, Toronto’s King Street, and the 2015 Pan Am Games, A.U.G. Signals Ltd. (AUG) has begun a project to develop and evaluate sensor-based methods for utilizing geospatial air quality data for Canada’s future smart cities.

The project is funded by GeoConnections and aims to evaluate the challenges and opportunities of collecting, sharing and presenting Geographical Information System (GIS) data using a network of air quality sensor monitors located near roads across the City of Mississauga, as well using mobile sampling devices in the City of Toronto. Air quality sensor data will be continuously collected using AUG’s AirSENCE™ air quality monitors.

The results of this project will demonstrate the viability of using emerging sensors in future smart cities as tools to help develop Canada’s geospatial data infrastructure. More specifically, it will enable and encourage the adoption of CGDI for the study of environmental exposure and resulting health impacts.

AirSENCE™ is an innovative, compact and affordable air monitoring device that gives real-time, 24×7 air quality information. With novel, unique and cost-effective technology, it provides pollutant concentrations that can be used to assess population exposure and health effects caused by ambient air pollution.

 

First Nations Safe Water Project is featured in Aboriginal Water & Wastewater Association of Ontario (AWWAO) January 2019 edition of the Waterdrum [click here to view] to share its vision, achievements and credibility in securing safe drinking water for First Nations communities (on page 10). A.U.G. Signals Ltd. (AUG) is proud to be First Nations Safe Water Project’s partner in providing TRITON Intelligent Water Surveillance® (TRITON) system to monitor the quality of water on a continuous basis. It has been supported by a number of studies and projects that real-time monitoring technology like TRITON could significantly reduce Boil Water Advisories for First Nations. Deployment of TRITON combined with focused training and certification to the local water operators through the First Nations Safe Water Project have eliminated long-standing Boil Water Advisories in 4 First Nations communities thus far, and continues to support securing safe drinking water in 19 First Nations communities across Ontario, Canada.

First Nations Safe Water Project, along with representatives from AUG, will be attending upcoming AWWAO’s 4^th Annual Tradeshow on January 29^th, 2019 at Valhalla Inn, Thunder Bay. Details for registration and events can be found here.

 

A.U.G. Signals Ltd. (AUG) is proud to announce it is now certified to ISO 9001:2015 for the design, assembly, installation and servicing of its water monitoring systems.

An ISO 9001:2015 certified quality system requires companies to consistently provide products and services that meet customer requirements and aims to enhance customer satisfaction.

“Achieving this certification is a major achievement and demonstrates AUG’s commitment to quality and continually improving the service we provide to our customers” said CEO, Dr. George Lampropoulos. “We are proud of what we have accomplished and recognise the hard work that has been put into receiving this certification.”

The audit was performed by CWB Registration in December 2018 and met the strict criteria with 0 nonconformities.

Founded in 1986, 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.

A.U.G. Signals Ltd (AUG) was invited to attend the 3^rd China International Innovation Challenge Competition on Dec. 20, 2018, held in Shanghai, China. AUG showcased its AirSENCE™ air quality monitoring system and won an award for Top 10 project presentations at the event.

This international event was an integrated effort by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China to showcase and introduce new breakthroughs in IT, computer science, battery technology, and cleantech, and was attended by over 200 delegates from industry and academia. The event aimed to connect innovators in high tech industries and promote technology transfer from research to scalable businesses.

The event furthers AUG’s impact in China, helping to provide accurate and real-time data to improve the well-being of the environment and community. This adds to work already being done with AirSENCE™ units in Beijing and Chengdu, and TRITON Intelligent Water Surveillance® in Lanzhou.

AirSENCE™ is an innovative, compact and affordable air monitoring device that gives real-time, 24×7 air quality information. With novel, unique and cost-effective technology, it provides pollutant concentrations that can be used to assess population exposure and health effects caused by ambient air pollution.

A.U.G. Signals Ltd. (AUG) participated in the CleanConnect 2018, 5th International Cleantech Transfer and Investment Conference on Nov. 15 – 16, 2018 held in Nanjing, China.

The CleanConnect Conference is one of the most effective nexuses in connecting the Chinese market with global technology in environmental and clean energy sectors. More than 300 environmental business leaders and sustainability practitioners around the world come together to meet with the Chinese entrepreneurs, investors and end users, exploring cross-border cooperation and investment opportunities in water treatment, solid waste, air quality, energy and environmental issues.

Through this conference, AUG successfully demonstrated AirSENCE™ as a game-changer in both indoor/outdoor air monitoring for providing consistent, accurate and reliable measurements of multiple contaminants and other environmental parameters at a very low-cost. AUG looks forward to expanding its reach in China to support a sustainable environment and the well-being of its citizens.

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.

For the original article on SOWC, please visit: A.U.G. Signals: Near-real-time readings help drinking water plants keep THMs in check

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.

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

 

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.