Information technology, artificial intelligence pumps and smart cities with Wilo

When we look at the common feature of the devices that have entered our lives in recent years, we see that all of them are “smart”. While it is an extremely ordinary action to answer incoming calls via our smart watch on our wrist, it is quite normal for most of us to operate the coffee machine in the kitchen via the application or to use smart thermostats that adjust the temperature of our home – taking into account our habits – according to the current weather data by connecting to the internet.  Smart devices now reveal everywhere, in every sphere, and our adaptation to them is very fast. While the number of devices connected to the Internet was 10,000 in 1975, it is expected to exceed 100 billion in 2050.

The concepts of IoT (Internet of Things), Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI), which entered our lives with smart devices, are very popular today and they have started to appear in many different areas. For example, in the following lines, I will talk about the industry’s first artificial intelligence pump.

IoT, the internet of things;  is defined as a system of devices that communicate with each other and connect to each other and share information through various communication protocols, creating an intelligent network. Internet of Things technology works based on 3 different methods: Radio frequency (RFID) identification, machine-to-machine communication (M2M) and near field communication (NFC).

Big Data, on the other hand, is the data that is analyzed, classified, transformed into a meaningful and processable form. Big Data has 3 characteristics and is defined as 3V. These are Volume, Velocity and Variety. Big Data is huge instant data coming from a wide variety of sources such as social media, search engines, machine data, archives. Big Data is a kind of reserve that you can use in every field of your company, from sales strategy to customer satisfaction, from service services to marketing strategy. Google has 21 data centers, 13 of which are in the USA. Today, these centers are no different from an oil well or a gold mine.

We connected the devices to the internet with IoT and stored the data with Big data, analyzed it, now the last step is learning, namely AI (Artificial Intelligence). Artificial intelligence; refers to systems or machines that mimic human intelligence to perform tasks and that can iteratively improve themselves based on the information they collect. One of the best up-to-date examples that Artificial Intelligence will change our lives is Google’s artificial intelligence company Deepmind, with a new program it has developed, by learning the protein structure of many organisms such as plants, bacteria and animals, including those in the human body, and enabling drug discovery 1000 times faster than existing methods. .

Briefly, the concepts of IoT, Big Data and Artificial Intelligence are now an integral part of every technological development and progress in every sector. They have already begun to form the basis of not only the shaping of products but also their commercial strategies, but they also play a major role in the management of today’s smart cities.

Our Cities Continue to Grow and Consume!

According to UN (United Nations) data, 68% of the world’s population is expected to live in cities by 2050. Visualize the Atatürk Olympic Stadium completely full and multiply it by 2.6. Considering that so many (200,000 on average) people migrate to cities per day may make the situation more realistic. 70% of the world’s energy is consumed in urban areas. This is a sizable share and it shows us that smart management of our limited resources is a big imperative. However, 80% of GDP (Gross domestic product) is also produced in urban areas. Our cities are growing, producing and inevitably continue to consume resources. At this point, our cities have to be smart and our biggest helpers in this regard are information technologies such as IoT, Big Data and AI.

Smart cities have 6 basic components. These are smart transportation, smart living, smart governance, smart environment, smart economy and of course smart people. Information technologies are an integral part of each component. For example; With the smart solid waste collection systems that use occupancy sensors and processor cards placed in the trash cans, garbage collection costs can be reduced by up to 43%. Another example is a significant reduction in theft rates thanks to pre-crime detection systems through data analysis. In our world where access to clean water is getting harder day by day, one of the most important issues in our cities is water management. With the leakage sensors to be installed on the pipes, water loss information can be transmitted to the data centers via IoT and water loss can be prevented with immediate intervention. common in megacities like Tokyo n is an application.

Wilo’s target is at least 35%!

Wilo, aims to provide clean water to 100 million people by 2050. As part of this goal, they believe connectivity, operational reliability and maximum efficiency are key factors for further resource savings in the future. The way to do this is to invest in smart water solutions. For this reason, they have declared in the 2021 sustainability report that they will strive to increase our smart water systems by at least 35% per year.

The first smart circulation pump, Wilo-Stratos MAXO, which they started to sell as of 2018, enabled the rewriting of the specifications in the HVAC industry. The most important factor that makes it smart is that it has an artificial intelligence, that is, a software with the ability to learn. Wilo-Stratos MAXO eliminates the need to set working points thanks to its Dynamic Adapt Plus feature. When he first starts working, it positions himself in the middle of the curve, analyzes the flow for 24 hours, and recognizes and learns the system. It uses the information he learned the next day. It does this not only when it is first commissioned, but throughout its life. In this way, it provides 20% more energy saving compared to ∆p-v operation. Another smart feature is that it can communicate with smartphones, tablets, other pumps in the system and building automation. You can access the pump data from the application on your mobile phone, see the temperature, flow, pressure, operating mode, error and warning codes instantly and transfer them to the cloud over the internet.

Combination of Wilo-Stratos GIGA 2.0 and Wilo-Stratos MAXO for complete intelligent system solutions

Developed by focusing not only on pump efficiency but also on complete system efficiency, the smart product family continues to expand with the Wilo-Stratos GIGA 2.0, which we started to sell in 2021. Like the Wilo-Stratos MAXO, the Wilo-Statos GIGA 2.0 also has the ability to learn and analyze the Dynamic Adapt Plus feature. However, in a scenario where you use Wilo-Stratos GIGA 2.0 in the primary circuit and use the Wilo-Stratos MAXO model in the secondary circuit, when the demand in the secondary circuit decreases with the multi-flow adaptation feature, Wilo-Stratos GIGA 2.0 automatically reduces the total flow requirement by taking this information. It provides the operation with panelless pump communication. Thus, the system efficiency is maximized as well as the electricity savings of the Wilo-Stratos GIGA 2.0 with IE5 engine and the Wilo Stratos MAXO with EEI<0.18.

Intelligent pump solutions are possible not only on the clean water side, but also on the wastewater side. Wilo-Rexa SOLID Q, which entered our lives as of 2018, works with the artificial intelligence of NEXOS Intelligence to maximize system efficiency. It is a wastewater pumping pump with high communication capability that can communicate with building automation and up to 4 pumps without a panel, transferring data to the cloud. In addition, when a piece blocking the impeller comes to the suction side with the clogging detector sensor, it rotates in the opposite direction and removes the foreign matter, providing a safe operation.

Wilo’s smart pump portfolio, which spent 71 million euros for R&D studies in 2021, will continue to expand and we will start to talk much more about smart pumps with a minimum 15% growth target in sales in this area.

While all devices are getting smarter at a rapid pace, we humankind’s greatest power, empathy and love, has still not been lost to any device, and it will probably always be the main superpower.

Author: Nihan Çelik, Mechanical Engineer, Wilo