What is GeoGuard?

GeoGuard is an innovative end-to-end GNSS service for the continuous monitoring of structures and ground deformation.

GeoGuard Service includes hardware and activities specifically designed for the monitoring of the displacements and deformations of structures and ground on selected points, customized to different application scenarios, by means of accurate price-competitive GNSS positioning with centimeter-level accuracy in near real-time, or millimeter-level accuracy for daily/sub-daily solutions.

Field inspection

Preliminary inspection activity of the site to be monitored, in order to design the most appropriate solution

Hardware deployment

deployment of the sensing infrastructure, composed by GeoGuard
Monitoring Units, according to the site characteristics

Data transmission

connectivity setup between the sensing infrastructure and the GeoGuard Cloud

Data processing

GeoGuard Cloud, where data are collected and processed. Positioning and management data are delivered to the customer information systems

Customer support

online help desk service, to support the customer in the day-by-day operations

Professional services

design, build and manage customized solutions according to the customer business needs

Social & industrial challenges

From now to 2030 $57 trillion in infrastructure investment are estimated. $400 billion a year could be saved by getting more out of existing capacity.
Precise and timely measurements of the geometry of critical infrastructure guarantee these results and help in the prevention of catastrophic failures and reduction of insurance costs.*
Economic losses due to natural disasters (landslides, floods, earthquakes and drought) since 2000 are in the range of $2.5 trillion.**
A proper monitoring system facilitates the development of hazards prediction to mitigate or eliminate the risk thus promoting management strategies.

* McKinsey Global Institute, Infrastructure Practices January 2013 ** UNISDR 2013 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (GAR13)

GeoGuard is designed to face and respond to social and industrial challenges:

Natural Hazards

Precise and timely measurements to predict hazards and mitigate or eliminate risks. In particular for:

– subsidence
– uplift due to natural phenomena or oil & gas production/storage
– landslides
– river floods
– extreme weather events

Infrastructure

Precise and timely measurements of the infrastructure movements and deformations. In particular for:

– transportation & travel (bridges, airports, harbors, railways, …)
– water distribution (water tanks, pipelines, …)
– energy (dams for hydro power plants, penstoks, towers for high voltage, wind farms, …)
– domestic security for military purpose (radars, radio systems, …)
– telecommunication infrastructure (data, cellular and broadcasting network towers)
– oil & gas transportation and storage
– cultural heritage and large stadiums preservation

System architecture

The GeoGuard system architecture is constituted of two main components:

GeoGuard Monitoring Unit (GMU)

It is based on newly designed price-competitive Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers. The sensing infrastructure is composed of one or more GMU, integrated with additional sensing equipment according to the customer needs, permanently installed on the object to be monitored.

GeoGuard Cloud

It is the system that collects and organizes the data from GMU, verifies the data flow integrity, performs the positioning data processing in order to obtain and analyze deformations.

GeoGuard Monitoring Unit (GMU)

A GMU is a remote terminal unit specifically designed to operate in challenging environments. It can be powered in any location supporting AC, DC or solar power. GeoGuard Cloud can remotely manage the units via two-way communication. The GMU unit contains:

Processing Module: it includes microprocessor unit and local storage unit;
Communication Module: it includes the communication features with Ethernet, GSM/3G LTE and M2M radio connections;
Positioning Module: t features a L1 GNSS receiver (GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BeiDou constellations) and a 3-Axis MEMS accelerometer;
Sensing Module: it features digital, analog I/O and an industry standard communication bus to connect and monitor any sensor the specific application might require;
Power Module: it provides power supply by alternate current (AC) and direct current (DC) from different sources, including photovoltaic panels.

GMU can create an autonomous local network, linked to the GeoGuard Cloud through a single point of external connection (GW).

GeoGuard Cloud

The core of the GeoGuard service receives and processes the data from the sensing infrastructure and provides point position time series, displacement and deformation information to the customer. It consists of the following functions:

Sensing infrastructure interface: receives the GNSS positioning/sensor raw data and the unit metadata from the sensing infrastructure;
Remote GMU management: provides all the information needed to manage the service, including administrative and service level agreement data;
Data processing:is tailored to best exploit the measurements of price-competitive GNSS receivers and is devoted to perform statistical and quality analyses of input observations and output results (detection of trends and sudden changes in position and sensors time series), in order to issue early warnings to the customer. It exploits goGPS and Bernese GPS Software 5.2 processing engines;
End user service interface: exposes the information provided by the GeoGuard service in two different modes:
- a WEB Application enabling users to exploit the GeoGuard service functionalities according to the end user practices;
- a REST API allowing fast and easy integration of GeoGuard services into external management information systems.

Who are we?

The GeoGuard service is delivered by GReD and Softeco through a collaboration program with the purpose of designing, building and operating solutions for the continuous monitoring of critical infrastructures and ground deformations. The service is guaranteed by the strong skills, assets and proven experience of GReD and Softeco in their fields of competence.

Softeco

GReD

GReD srl (www.g-red.eu) is a Spin-off SME of Politecnico di Milano, founded in 2012, which studies, designs and implements innovative and highly customized solutions based on geomatic technologies. GReD is characterized as a center of excellence focused on Research and Development, professional advice and algorithmic elaboration for the creation of state-of-the-art and innovative solutions based on geomatic technologies in the following application areas:

advanced surveying and cartographic applications;
augmented GNSS applications;
high precision high resolution gravimetric application;
space applications.

R&D activities concern the maintenance of state-of-the-art internal skills and in particular the definition and development of products and services for:

high precision GNSS navigation and positioning;
high precision high resolution gravimetric maps determination.

Portfolio

GeoGuard mentioned in “Il Sole 24 Ore” newspaper

“Il Sole 24 Ore” newspaper included GReD among Italy’s excellent entities in its magazine “Ricerca Tecnologica, Innovazione Hi-Tech medica e scientifica“, with an article dedicated

Detail

High-voltage electricity towers monitoring for TERNA Rete Italia

In the framework of the collaboration between Terna Rete Italia SpA and GReD, targeted at the precise monitoring of the stability of high-voltage electricity towers, pilot tests in

Detail

Contacts

info@geoguard.eu

Softeco

Softeco Sismat s.r.l.
Via De Marini, 1 – Torre WTC,
16149, Genoa, Italy
Phone: +39 010 60261
Fax: +39 010 6026350
info@softeco.it
www.softeco.it

GReD

Geomatics Research & Development srl
c/o ComoNExT, Via Cavour 2,
22074 Lomazzo (CO), Italy
Phone:+39 02 36714448
Fax: +39 02 36714453
info@g-red.eu
www.g-red.eu

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