City as Living Lab chooses solartonic for WaterMarkers in Milwaukee

solartonic is excited to be participating in this unique project in Milwaukee, USA, where our solahub IoT platform integrates with WaterMarkers that alert the local community of impending flooding and provides a call to action to conserve water consumption and disposal.
For full details of the project and solartonic’s involvement, read this article that describes the origins, motivation and execution of the Watermarkers project.

“This past winter we were dealing with some very specific electrical challenges and chose to revisit our solar options, …………We researched solar technologies around the globe to consider our options, but solartonic’s technical track record, comfort with prototyping, and location in the Midwest (Michigan) really helped make our decision seem like a no-brainer.”
Aaron Asis, Urban Designer & Project Designer at CALL

solartonic has been involved in a number of community-related projects over the years. To design and build the WaterMarkers, solartonic collaborated with two other companies. Ignition Arts, an arts fabrication company out of Indianapolis, is handling the WaterMarkers’ digital components. Meanwhile, the signage is being designed by Poblocki Signage, a local Milwaukee sign fabrication company that is fabricating the letters and handling the installation.

Harry Giles, co-founder of solartonic, says the WaterMarkers project is built on its solahub technology. He describes solahub as a “total Internet of Things (IoT) platform”, configured for smart devices, mounted on a solar-powered framework, and remotely connected through wireless communications.

Giles says it can be configured to manage a variety of tasks, including “safety, services, mobility, planning, sustainability, maintenance, transportation, and communications”. It does so through remote cloud-based monitoring and control of “security, messaging, illumination, mobile networks, environmental sensing, pedestrian movement, parking, and traffic flows.”

“Typical framework installations are integrated into poles, roadway portals, signage structures, bus shelters and canopies,” says Giles. “solahub can be located anywhere it is needed, independent of electrical supply and cable connections.”

The WaterMarkers will be mounted on a solar-powered pole that will be connected to wireless communication networks.

“For the WaterMarks project, we are uniquely integrating solar power and wireless network communications into their solahub framework pole system, that supports a smart sign which is illuminated at night and signals flooding events,” says Giles. “When flooding is forecast, the sign lighting will pulse a warning to the local community, as a visual signal to take action to cut water consumption in order to reduce flooding of the city stormwater system.”

The WaterMarks warning signal will be activated by monitoring the Milwaukee city website, which advises on flooding incidents. Additionally, solartonic’s solahub platform will give WaterMark’s a local Wi-Fi access point for community members to connect to on their mobile devices, allowing them to gather more information about and interact with the WaterMarks project. Solahub’s flexibility and autonomy will allow WaterMarkers to be placed anywhere, with no need for electricity, fiber optic cables, or other wired network communications to be connected to the internet.

“This autonomy makes the solartonic platform ideal for placement all across Milwaukee for the WaterMarks products,” says Giles. “We’re very excited to be involved in WaterMarks. We love to interface with community-based projects — we think it’s very important. Our philosophy for how we operate is very sympathetic and conducive to these applications.”

Giles believes a lot of cities will see this type of project in the near future. Projects that are both art-based and community-focused, giving residents significant meaning in terms of real-life experience that they can touch, feel, and see within their environment.

Watermarks features