Self-powered wireless IoT nodes for emergency management

Expected and unexpected events affect road infrastructure leading to several issues that require maintenance interventions or prompt actions. In order to face the issues mentioned above, specially designed platforms can be used. Despite the high number of solutions presented in the last decades, it is difficult to find real applications of systems deputed to the emergency management of the abovementioned infrastructures. This paper aims at describing an innovative platform and the results of its first application. The platform consists of a system and algorithms that allow environmental and structural monitoring and emergency management. The proposed system consists of a network of wireless sensor nodes that are self-powered by mean of photovoltaic energy harvesters. Two different types of algorithms were designed to monitor the environmental and structural condition (i.e., the vibro-acoustic signature) of different types of structures and infrastructures, and to display, thanks to a dashboard, several predefined alarms, escape routes, safe place, and gathering points. The results presented in the paper refers to the first application of the platform, here tailored for an Italian theme park in the framework of the project "SICURVIA" funded by Regione Calabria, Italy. These results, presented for the first time, show that the platform is able to extract crucial information about the conditions of the thematic park's assets, and, at the same time, this information are used to recognize an emergency, trigger the related alarm, and provide a plan to manage the extraordinary event happened.