Monitoring for Critical Civil Infrastructure
date
Aug 4, 2025
type
Post
AI summary
slug
monitor-infrastructure
status
Published
tags
designNotes
summary
This code is for an ESP32-based data logging system, utilizing various libraries and APIs for handling tasks such as data logging, wireless communication, and configuration management.
Thesis
The infrastructure-monitoring market remains dominated by expensive, proprietary data loggers, creating high barriers to entry and imposing significant costs on contractors deploying large-scale sensor networks. Our vision is to introduce a truly commoditized solution: a low-cost, high-quality data logger that matches the performance of established devices yet is priced to minimize hardware margins. By driving down hardware costs, we gain rapid market access and focus our revenue model on scalable software services and analytics. This lean, modular approach unlocks the full potential of real‑time monitoring across industries, enabling organizations of any size to deploy dense sensor networks and leverage powerful cloud-based insights without prohibitive upfront investment.
Hardware
The infrastructure monitoring industry is long overdue for disruption. Companies like Worldsensing have developed reliable low-power LoRaWAN loggers, but their dominance is not due to any unique hardware innovation. The core of their products—solar-powered batteries, off-the-shelf MCUs, standard sensor interfaces—is not difficult to reverse engineer or reproduce. Their market position is built on execution, scale, and trust, not on proprietary breakthroughs. This creates a clear opportunity for a lean, focused alternative.
My approach is to leverage mature supply chain to develop a modular, reliable, and cost-effective data logger platform that integrates seamlessly with LoRaWAN networks. The hardware will be structured around well-supported platforms such as the RAK4631 (based on Nordic’s nRF52840), which offer both BLE and LoRa capabilities in an ultra-low-power footprint. These devices are already proven in the maker and early industrial IoT community, and with careful firmware and power design, they can match the multiyear field performance of current commercial offerings.
Configuration will be streamlined through a custom Android app using BLE, eliminating the need for USB or proprietary programming tools. Field technicians will be able to pair with the logger, configure sensor parameters, perform diagnostics, and initiate tests directly from their phone. This mirrors how Worldsensing and other vendors operate, but adds the advantage of flexibility and full customization.
The logger platform will support standard interfaces such as SDI-12, RS-485 (Modbus), analog (0–5V, 4–20mA), pulse, and digital I/O. On top of that, a suite of pre-integrated sensor options will be available for out-of-the-box applications: vibrating wire sensors (via external excitation boards), MEMS inclinometers, tilt meters, crackmeters, barometers for auto-compensation, rain gauges, and soil condition probes. The firmware will be designed to support multiple sensor types per node, with a flexible config layer to enable mixed deployments.
The power system will center around rechargeable LiFePO₄ cells with optional solar panels, or a primary battery for sites where solar is not feasible. All designs will be open for contract manufacturing, allowing scale and reliability without compromising cost.
From a business perspective, the strategy is simple: commoditize the hardware, add value through configurability, support, and integration, and price it aggressively. By offering a fully integrated logger at a fraction of the current market price—without locking users into proprietary cloud services—we can win trust in a conservative market through transparency and flexibility. Long-term, the moat will not be in the hardware itself, but in field reliability, firmware maturity, and a support ecosystem that empowers engineers to deploy and scale confidently.
This is not a clone business. It’s a refactor—streamlining an overpriced and inflexible segment of industrial IoT with modern tools, practical engineering, and a ruthless focus on value.
Software
While the hardware side of infrastructure monitoring is becoming increasingly commoditized, software remains the true differentiator. For this reason, the core of the product ecosystem will be a lightweight yet powerful data management and visualization platform tailored for civil infrastructure applications.
The platform will serve three primary functions:
- Ingest data from field-deployed loggers via LoRaWAN (through public or private network servers).
- Provide configuration, alerting, and health monitoring for each deployed device.
- Present sensor data in a meaningful and intuitive way, including 3D context views for real-world structures.
Unlike existing platforms that are either overly generic or bloated with GIS and BIM integrations, the approach here is focused: provide contractors and engineers with exactly what they need for monitoring geotechnical and structural behavior—no more, no less.
A major value-add will be the ability to display sensor data in a spatial context using 3D models or simplified "digital twin" representations. Think of a stripped-down alternative to Bentley’s iTwin: no complex CAD integrations required, just enough 3D context to visualize sensor location, displacement trends, crack growth, or tilt vectors over time. This can be done using WebGL or CesiumJS, paired with a project-based asset manager that aligns sensors to structure geometry.
The platform will also support alert thresholds, report generation, and exportable charts and datasets for compliance with DOT or agency reporting standards.
From a go-to-market standpoint, the software will not chase enterprise megaprojects from day one. Instead, the strategy is to sell into small but high-frequency use cases—contractors needing to satisfy vibration or crack monitoring requirements on a bridge retrofit, a retaining wall job, or a historic building under nearby excavation. These small jobs are underserved by legacy players because they don’t justify the upfront cost or support requirements. But they are exactly where civil engineers and specialty contractors make repeat purchasing decisions and develop brand loyalty.
By offering a platform that integrates seamlessly with low-cost, field-proven hardware and is tailored to these real-world scenarios, you create a wedge into a fragmented market with high long-term value. Once trust is built at the small-project level, it becomes easier to scale into larger agency contracts, permanent monitoring installations, and integrated digital twin offerings.
To-do
WS tilt meter is a very easy entry into the market, explore existing PCB & enclosures and try to add LoRa capabilities. Similarity, explore GNSS and VM meters.