Adroit Sees The Future In Smarter Sensors

An Adroit aquaculture monitoring kit with temperature/dissolved oxygen, and salinity/conductivity sensors, being trialled at Westhaven in Auckland.

“Businesses wanting to get ahead of environmental legislation are investing in new technology and better data as the key to achieving this,” says Blair Stewart, Commercial Director of Adroit.

“Legislation such as the Fresh Water Management Act puts the onus on the likes of dairy farmers, industrial sites, aquaculture businesses and city councils to stay within predefined limits parameters including nitrates, sediments, algae and faecal bacteria.

“As a result, we’re seeing increasing demand for IoT solutions that offer real-time wireless monitoring using high-end sensor technology, that puts the tools in the hands of the businesses to monitor and manage environmental impact,” he said.

Adroit’s journey began as a creator of bespoke IoT equipment, guided by the mantra of being the company that can ‘make dumb devices smart’. But now, Stewart says Adroit has now been able to leverage its deep knowledge of the IoT to add sophisticated off-the-shelf monitoring and control solutions for a wide variety of business applications.

“Sensor technology has vastly improved, providing better accuracy, reliability and real-time measurement of more sophisticated parameters, enabling IoT devices provide the sort of measurements that were previously only available using lab testing.

“Where in the past an IoT system might simply have deployed a number of devices to simply measure water temperature or flow for example, now applications might include fish farms using smart sensors to monitor water parameters such as dissolved oxygen, salinity and conductivity and make data-driven decisions to positivity impact fish growth and reproduction – a vastly expanded brief that has a direct and measurable effect on the bottom line,” he said.

Adroit’s new solutions include hardware and software they’ve built themselves or in partnership with leading global suppliers or research institutes.

“We’ve positioned ourselves with a unique offering - the ability to build, combine and customise products to provide IoT solutions not available anywhere else in the world,” says Stewart.

Current Adroit applications include:

- Real-time wireless air quality monitoring - so building managers can monitor and ensure healthy work places.
- Water quality monitoring - to meet regulation requirements, and understand impact on environment.
- Soil monitoring - to protect against plant damage, but also automate irrigation and reduce water usage.
- People and vehicle counting - to help understanding movement patterns for facilities planning.
- Smart security - to automate existing processes such as door locking, improve protection of assets.
- Flood detection - automated detection of floods in buildings and other locations.
- Temperature + CO2 monitoring - for detection of faults in industrial chillers and beer systems.

Stewart says that the key to a successful IoT implementation is establishing a strong business case, developing solutions that leverage proven technology, followed by planning and project managing implementations, and lastly ensuring there is appropriate ongoing maintenance and support.

“We’re moving into a new era of IoT, where IoT equipment and platforms are a part of business operations and the data they provide is integral in business success. We’re excited that Adroit is at the leading edge of this new technology,” he said.

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