CIT UPC at the main world congress on smart cities

13/11/2018

The UPC presents various technology prototypes at Smart City Expo World Congress, a leading event in the smart cities industry that brings together experts and suppliers in this field, and 890 exhibitors, on 13 to 15 November at Fira Barcelona (Gran Via site).

At the Smart City Expo World Congress, the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) through the CIT UPC Technology Center presents A4EU: a multi-risk platform for early detection in Europe of hazards due to extreme weather and climate events. The technology, which was developed as part of the ANYWHERE European project led by the UPC Center of Applied Research in Hydrometeorology (CRAHI), helps to improve the coordination of teams acting in emergency situations and the populations exposed to the risks.

At the fair, the UPC shares a stand (no. 506, in Hall 2) with the Echord ++ European project in which the Institute of Robotics and Industrial Informatics (CSIC-UPC) is involved. One of the other prototypes displayed by the UPC is a sensor created for the European project CAPTOR. These devices have been used to measure air quality (particularly tropospheric ozone) in pilot projects in Spain, Italy, and Austria. The coordinators of this initiative are Jorge García Vidal and José María Barceló, researchers in the UPC Department of Computer Architecture.

Other items on the UPC stand are a omnidirectional rotation system, designed by the Industrial Equipment Design Centre (CDEI), which can rotate 360 degrees and is based on the incorporation of standard wheels. The design can be used in sectors such as logistics, hospitals, mobility, and transport. In addition, a scalable power module will be exhibited, which was designed by the Centre of Technological Innovation in Static Converters and Drives (CITCEA). The module can be configured in different ways for convertor equipment, so that energy can be manged bidirectionally (for chargers of electrical vehicles, among other applications). 

Project and technological capacities

Other projects that the UPC is working on in the area of smart cities will be presented at the Congress: PaperChain, a circular economy model for transforming paper waste into secondary raw materials; Incover, a system for producing bioproducts and bioenergy from microalgae cultivated in waste water; and Optima, an initiative focused on the development of smart equipment for the application of plant protection products to improve food quality. In addition, a mobile application will be exhibited called Dosaviña, which was designed for grape producers to calculate the ideal amount of pesticide to distribute in trellis vines. Biometallum, Metro Haul and Slicenet are other products that will be highlighted at the Congress.

In addition to these projects and technology prototypes created by research centres and groups, the University will demonstrate its technological capacities in the field of smart cities, which cover smart mobility, electric vehicles, urban planning, data science, smart grids, emergency management, robotics, waste management, renewable energies, communications, eHealth, precision agriculture, biodegradable packaging, and bioprocesses.