Sombee Mounted on Electric Kickboard "Measuring Fine Dust on Surrounding Roads"

by Hwang Junho

Published 05 Nov.2020 08:27(KST)

Development of Disaster Early Warning Monitoring Technology Based on Personal Mobility
Disaster Safety Management and Preemptive Disaster Risk Response

Ssombee Concept Diagram

[Asia Economy Reporter Junho Hwang] Equipment capable of observing surrounding living environments such as air quality, atmospheric conditions, and ground status using various shared service mobility devices like electric kickboards, electric bicycles, and electric carts has been developed.

Dr. Bongju Jang's research team at the Construction Research Institute announced on the 5th that they have developed 'SOMBI (Sensors On Multimodal MoBIility),' a personal mobility-based urban disaster monitoring system. SOMBI is a system that equips various shared service mobility devices with Internet of Things technology to monitor environmental information such as air quality (fine dust, etc.), weather conditions (temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, etc.), and ground status (ground temperature, vibration, etc.) around roads and buildings near us.

The strength of SOMBI lies in its ability to monitor environmental information in areas closely related to daily life, such as incineration plants, roadsides, and factories. The research team developed a SOMBI prototype that can be mounted on electric kickboards and conducted observations on internal roads within the Construction Research Institute located in Goyang City. The results showed that even on days with good fine dust levels, the fine dust concentration at internal points adjacent to the 8-lane round-trip road within the institute was about 1.6 to 2.0 times higher than at more distant points. In the case of internal unpaved roads, fine dust concentration was found to increase up to 300 times compared to surrounding levels.

Dr. Bongju Jang stated, "SOMBI is a core smart city solution technology for urban disaster risk monitoring and can provide customized living information for citizens within the city." He added, "We plan to optimize the SOMBI technology as soon as possible and establish a regional-level 'surrounding environment and risk information' pilot service through cooperation with shared kickboard service providers and local governments."