A research team at MIT announced an inexpensive and self-made air pollution measurement device 'Flatburn' that can be moved by car, so that the general public can collect air pollution data
Air pollution has
Leveraging machine learning algorithms to advance low-cost air sensor calibration in stationary and mobile settings - ScienceDirect
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2023.119692
GitHub - MIT-Senseable-City-Lab/OSCS: This is the official repository for Flatburn: the open source City Scanner
https://github.com/MIT-Senseable-City-Lab/OSCS
Low-cost devices can measure air pollution anywhere | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology
https://news.mit.edu/2023/low-cost-device-can-measure-air-pollution-anywhere-0316
Below is a picture of the mobile air pollution measurement device `` Flatburn '' developed by the MIT research team. It can be installed on the roof of the vehicle and moved to various places, and the power is covered by solar power generation. The data is stored on a card installed in the device and can be accessed remotely.
Flatburn is made up of inexpensive and 3D printable parts, and all information is published on GitHub, including how to assemble, how to use, and how to interpret data. In
In 2017, the research team began building a prototype of a mobile air pollution-measuring device that would be deployed on garbage trucks in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The project will expand to New York City and Boston in 2021, using five instruments deployed in New York City to collect 1.6 million data points in four weeks to compare performance against state-of-the-art systems. bottom.
Analysis shows that inexpensive mobile air pollution measurement devices can produce sufficiently reliable results for PM2.5 and nitrogen dioxide concentration measurements, although not as good as state-of-the-art systems. An Wang of the research team said, ``After months of tracking, we can confidently say that the low-cost instrument behaves similarly to the standard instrument.'' ``By releasing Flatburn as open source, Civic groups and developing communities can follow our approach to build and share knowledge.'
'We've run several pilots around the world to make sure the data we collect is robust from an environmental science perspective,' said Simone Mora, a researcher at the Senseable City Lab. , We have improved a series of prototypes, including hardware and software protocols.'
Flatburn also has problems such as a lifespan of about 6 months when used while moving in a car, and a gradual deterioration in detector accuracy over time. Still, the research team believes Flatburn works well, and GitHub also includes guidance for working with governments and stakeholders to take action on the results of the measurements.
Carlo Ratti, director of the Senseable City Lab, said, 'Our goal is for community groups and citizens to measure local air pollution, identify its causes, and ideally form a feedback loop with government and stakeholders.' so that we can create a cleaner environment, ”commented. ``It's very important to engage with the community and look back at the sources of pollution,'' Mora said. ``We want people to have the skills to analyze data and engage with communities and officials.''
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