Internet of Things + Construction: Converge | D-Construct Episode 1 (Part 2)

Hello and welcome to the first ever episode of D-Construct, our monthly technology review show with Basestone! Each month Tom Payne (Co-Founder, The B1M), Alex Siljanovski (CEO of Basestone) and Simon McCabe (CTO at Basestone) will take a look at construction’s hottest new tech and the impact its having on the industry!

This month’s theme is the Internet of Things and what it will mean for construction.

The Episode is split into two clear parts. In Part 1, we explored what the term Internet of Things actually means and its wider context (if you missed that, watch it here). In Part 2 we catch-up with Gideon Farrell of tech start-up Converge to find out what they are doing with concrete monitoring … and whether their sensors really are indestructible!

“We automate sensor monitoring in all the heavy industries” explains Gideon. “In construction we’ve started with concrete temperature monitoring”.

The progress of concrete curing (setting) time is usually assessed by its temperature. At present, temperature sensors are typically embedded within concrete and the data from each sensor is then collated manually before being laboriously fed into a spreadsheet.

Converge have developed a piece of hardware encased in resin (a node) that connects to each temperature sensor. These nodes create a low frequency mesh network across a site and transmit the data from each sensor back to the site office.

“Construction sites are a rough environment for radio frequency” says Gideon. “A mesh network doesn’t rely on signal from one cell tower, it bounces signals between each node so that if one is damaged or temporarily obscured, the network is maintained. It’s self-healing in that respect”.

“Our system enables engineers and their teams to become much more efficient on site” he continues. “We’re taking away a time-consuming manual task and enabling them to get on with their actual jobs”.

"Our system enables engineers and their teams to become much more efficient on site"

Converge claim to have tested their nodes in extreme temperatures and weather conditions, simulating the types of environment faced on construction sites around the world. But how will they fare in the D-Construct blender? We find out in this video!

What is the Internet of Things? Find out by watching D-Construct: Episode 1 (Part 1) now!

D-Construct is produced by The B1M in association with Basestone. The production team includes: Alex Siljanovski, Simon McCabe, Laura Davies, Priya Joshi, Tom Payne and Fred Mills.

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