What if the roads we drive on were sensors for an interconnected, smart city? Nanite™ turns the road itself into the sensor, enabling real-time technologies such as traffic & congestion monitoring, adaptive speed limits based on the real-time flow of traffic, and dynamic roadway lighting systems for efficient use of energy.
For work in developing smart sensing concrete for urban applications, Oceanit and the Hawaii Department of Transportation (DOT) were recognized for ‘Best Poster’ at the 8th International Conference on Weigh-In-Motion, held last month in in Prague, Czech Republic.
Our poster, ‘Using Smart Materials for Weigh-in-Motion, NanoWIM‘, was recognized for its innovative approach in using hybrid nanomaterial-based additive, Nanite™, to transform traditional concrete into smart sensing concrete for Weigh-In-Motion applications. The poster was prepared by Oceanit in partnership with Goro Sulijoadikusumo P.E., Highways Planning Survey Engineer/GIS Administratorat the Hawai’i State DOT.
For several years, Oceanit and Hawaii DOT have been collaborating to explore how the smart cities and roads of the future will work. Oceanit has developed ‘smart’ materials and artificial intelligence capabilities to deliver the IoT-connected highways of tomorrow.
Nanite™ and NanoWIM is being used by Hawaii DOT’s Harbors and Highways divisions to capture vehicle count and weight data for the thousands of trucks that use our highways.
Weigh-In-Motion (WIM) is an evolution of vehicle weighing. Capturing weight data from trucks is vital information, not only because trucks cause the most wear and tear on our roads, but because overweight vehicles can damage infrastructure, like bridges, and could be unsafe to control. However, keeping the wheels of commerce turning is also important and WIM is a more efficient process that allows trucks to bypass static scales.
The ICWIM8 Conference was composed of a series of scientific and technical sessions, panel discussions, and end-user forums to forward the development of WIM systems that optimize efficiency. The conference addressed a broad range of technical topics related to heavy vehicles and weight and size measurement systems, providing access to current research and best practices, freight analysis, and related policy issues.
The Hawaii DOT is particularly interested in these conversations because of Hawaii’s reliance on shipping. Hawaii imports a majority of our food and goods meaning that from harbors, to distribution centers, to stores, heavy vehicles are required to move shipping containers and keep the islands running. Overweight vehicles can cause significant damage to Hawaii’s highways, bridges, and local roads.
While Nanite™ looks and performs like concrete, it transforms the road into a sensor that can measure data like vehicle load, speed, how many vehicles use a certain road. Nanite™ could even allow for vehicle autonomy in the smart city of the future. NanoWIM uses Nanite™ to the specifically track the weights of multi-axle trucks coming and going from Honolulu harbor.
