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A low maintenance particle pollution sensing system using the Minimum Airflow Particle Counter (MAPC)

  • Ted Van Kessel
  • , Ramachandran Muralidhar
  • , Josephine B. Chang
  • , Jun Song Wang
  • , Michael Schappert
  • , Hendrik F. Hamann
  • IBM

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Minimum Airflow Particle Counter (MAPC) is a portable, low-power, low-cost, wireless optical counter which has been specifically designed for ultra-low-maintenance operation in heavily polluted environments. When exposed continuously to air with high particulate matter concentrations, the primary mode of failure for particle counters is a build-up of dust within the instrument. The MAPC circumvents this failure mode by severely restricting airflow through the system, enabling an estimated 5-year maintenance cycle. Such a long operational lifetime makes this instrument particularly suitable for IOT applications such as environmental air quality monitoring and pollutant source attribution using spatially distributed wireless sensor networks. Here, we present the theory of operation, instrument design, and collected data from a two-month field deployment in Beijing. We find that the MAPC performs comparably to other low-cost optical counters, but with a significantly enhanced maintenance-free operational lifetime.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - 2017 IEEE International Conference on Big Data, Big Data 2017
EditorsJian-Yun Nie, Zoran Obradovic, Toyotaro Suzumura, Rumi Ghosh, Raghunath Nambiar, Chonggang Wang, Hui Zang, Ricardo Baeza-Yates, Ricardo Baeza-Yates, Xiaohua Hu, Jeremy Kepner, Alfredo Cuzzocrea, Jian Tang, Masashi Toyoda
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages4577-4582
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9781538627143
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 1 2017
Event5th IEEE International Conference on Big Data, Big Data 2017 - Boston, United States
Duration: Dec 11 2017Dec 14 2017

Publication series

NameProceedings - 2017 IEEE International Conference on Big Data, Big Data 2017
Volume2018-January

Conference

Conference5th IEEE International Conference on Big Data, Big Data 2017
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityBoston
Period12/11/1712/14/17

Keywords

  • Air pollution monitoring
  • inverse problem
  • IOT
  • optical particle counter
  • PM2.5
  • source attribution

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