Manhole Cover Research Articles

Using Design Activism to Empower and Value a Community Group

I have been working as a Masters student with a group of people that don’t generally have a voice in everyday discourse – perpetrators of domestic violence. Stopping Violence Dunedin (SVD) is run by experienced facilitators who instead of placing blame on their clients, work to empower them with a sense of community and positive self-worth. These men are taught to appreciate and build on their own sense of worth and my Masters project focused on creating a value object to enhance their journey of change towards a non-violent life. The value creation process involved using communication design as a tool to develop a social enquiry, working to understand this community and the challenges they face. By looking at their entire system of interactions and experiences, I was able to develop a series of milestones for the men which led to the development of a key prototype. The first ‘shift’ key could be gifted to the men in the group who show a shift in their thinking and are able to engage in the process of change. The second ‘manhole cover’ key to the men who develop leaderships skills and can men-tor newer group members. The outcome of the object created a value proposition working to celebrate the milestones that these men reach. This sense of value and appreciation could also extend to the possibility of an alternative future for the men – a future without violence.

Validation of an Embedded Motion-Capture and EMG Setup for the Analysis of Musculoskeletal Disorder Risks during Manhole Cover Handling.

Musculoskeletal disorders in the workplace are a growing problem in Europe. The measurement of these disorders in a working environment presents multiple limitations concerning equipment and measurement reliability. The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of inertial measurement units against a reference system for their use in the workplace. Ten healthy volunteers conducted three lifting methods (snatching, pushing, and pulling) for manhole cover using a custom-made tool weighting 20 and 30 kg. Participants’ back and dominant arm were equipped with IMU, EMG, and reflective markers for VICON analysis and perception of effort was estimated at each trial using a Visual Analog Scale (VAS). The Bland–Altman method was used and results showed good agreement between IMU and VICON systems for Yaw, Pitch and Roll angles (bias values < 1, −4.4 < LOA < 3.6°). EMG results were compared to VAS results and results showed that both are a valuable means to assess efforts during tasks. This study therefore validates the use of inertial measurement units (IMU) for motion capture and its combination with electromyography (EMG) and a Visual Analogic Scale (VAS) to assess effort for use in real work situations.

Evaluation of the Visually Impaired Experience of the Sound Environment in Urban Spaces

Visually impaired people have unique perceptions of and usage requirements for various urban spaces. Therefore, understanding these perceptions can help create reasonable layouts and construct urban infrastructure. This study recruited 26 visually impaired volunteers to evaluate 24 sound environments regarding clarity, comfort, safety, vitality, and depression. This data was collected in seven different types of urban spaces. An independent sample non-parametric test was used to determine the significance of the differences between environmental evaluation results for each evaluation dimension and to summarize the compositions of sound and space elements in the positive and negative influence spaces. The results suggested that visually impaired people (1) feel comfort, safety, and clarity in parks, residential communities, and shopping streets; (2) have negative perceptions of vegetable markets, bus stops, hospitals, and urban departments; (3) feel anxious when traffic sounds, horn sounds, manhole cover sounds, and construction sounds occur; and (4) prefer spaces away from traffic, with fewer and slower vehicles, with a suitable space scale, and moderate crowd density. These results provide a reference for the future design of activity venues (i.e., residential communities, vegetable markets, bus stops, parks, shopping streets, hospitals, and urban functional departments) and the planning of accessibility systems for visually impaired urban residents.

SLAMDATMO in roadway and sidewalk environments by helmet-mounted LiDAR and IMU

This paper presents a method for simultaneous localization, mapping, detection, and tracking of moving objects (SLAMDATMO) using LiDAR and IMU set on a helmet of micro-mobility rider. An environmental obstacle map built by SLAMDATMO represents stationary objects, road boundaries and road surface conditions in roadway and sidewalk environments. This map can be used to active safety for micro-mobility, such as bicycles, e-bikes, and e-scooters. Distortion in the LiDAR scan data is corrected by estimating the helmet’s pose (three-dimensional position and attitude angle) based on the information from Normal Distributions Transform (NDT)-based SLAM and IMU. The road surface, boundary, stationary and moving-object scan data are classified from the corrected LiDAR scan data. The moving scan data are used for DATMO, whereas the stationary scan data are used for point-cloud mapping. The boundary scan data are used to detect obstacles, such as curbs, gutters, and steps. The road surface scan data from LiDAR are in conjunction with IMU, and potholes and humps, such as manhole cover and cracks, are detected to reduce the falling risk of micro-mobility. The experimental results in a road environment of our university campus show the effectiveness of the proposed SLAMDATMO method.

Bandwidth enhancement of a low‐profile monopole antenna embedded in a circular cavity on a manhole cover

This article presents a low-profile disk-loaded monopole antenna specifically designed to be embedded into a manhole cover and a method to improve the bandwidth of the antenna. The antenna is placed deep inside a circular cavity formed on a manhole cover and is covered with a thick radome to protect the antenna from strong external impacts. The effect of the cavity size on the bandwidth of the antenna was studied, and as a result, it was found that the bandwidth of a low-profile monopole antenna is greatly enhanced when the cavity diameter is about one wavelength. The bandwidth enhancement mechanism due to the cavity size is analyzed in terms of the quality factor (Q) of the antenna. A prototype was fabricated and measured; the disk-loaded monopole antenna with a diameter of 0.2λ0 and a height of 0.04λ0 (λ0 is the free-space wavelength at the center frequency) provides a wide impedance bandwidth of 14.3% (10-dB return loss) when placed inside a cavity with a diameter of 0.82λ0 and a depth of 0.1λ0. The antenna radiates vertically polarized omnidirectional fields in the horizontal direction and has a stable measured peak gain that varies from 4.5 to 5.5 dBi across the measured impedance bandwidth.

An Overview on the Manhole Edge Computing

One of the most important basic platforms in a smart city for preventing recurrent manhole cover accidents is an intelligent manhole cover management system. Manhole cover removal, loss, and injury endangers people's safety, which is contrary to the aim of smart cities. This article describes an intelligent manhole cover management system (IMCS) for smart cities that is based on edge computing. Each manhole cover has its own radio frequency identification tag with tilt and vibration sensors, and communication is done through a narrow-band Internet of things. Meanwhile, based on the collected data, edge computing servers communicate with appropriate management employees through mobile devices. The effectiveness of the proposed IMCS was shown in a demonstration application in Hangzhou's Xiasha District. It halved the repair time, possibly improving the safety of both humans and manhole covers.

Stress-strain condition of flat manhole covers under internal pressure in presence of mechanical defect with different dislocation on surface

One of the most common damage to the structural elements of vessels and apparatus of hydrocarbon processing plants is mechanical damage, which mainly occurs during repair and installation operations. One of the prerequisites for the occurrence of this type of defects is the use of a locksmith tool and other devices, tools and devices, upon contact of which with the surface of the elements to be repaired and mounted, risks, scratches, balls, nicks and other damage are formed. The vast majority in terms of the degree of occurrence on the surface of structural elements of all defects of a mechanical nature occupy scratches. There is practically no technical device operating in a hazardous production facility and does not have at least one of the elements of this type on the external surface. With respect to the surface on which the scratches are arranged, these defects can be both small geometrical dimensions and sufficiently extended. Such defects generally do not limit the life cycle of the object, but can have a significant effect on the redistribution of the stress-strain state in the element. The redistribution of the stress-strain state can serve as an initial stage for the generation of potential fracture sites from the concentration of increased stresses in these zones. Also, not only the presence of a scratch, but also the length, as well as the nature of the location on the surface of the element, can affect the stressed-deformed state of the element. Therefore, the actual work is a study of the change in the stress-deformed state of the flat manhole cover with a scratch, the arrangement of which on the surface has various options. In this work, the stress-strain state of the flat manhole cover is simulated depending on the change in the angle of inclination and the location of the scratch on it relative to the central zone.

Alarm method of communication intelligent manhole cover based on multiple event fusion

As a comprehensive utilization of pipeline resources, communication intelligent manhole cover (CIMC) can effectively real-time monitor communication manhole cover and protect the safety of communication pipeline. Due to the complex working environment of manhole cover and the random error of sensor, the traditional monitoring method usual leads to frequent false alarm in actual applications. In order to ensure the monitoring service quality and improve the service efficiency, a new alarm method of CIMC with multiple event fusion in this paper via jointing analysis of multi-sensor status signals is proposed based on the equipment status signals generated by the CIMC terminal and abnormal alarm events definition. The experimental result shows that the proposed CIMC alarm method by means of multiple sensor signals in this paper can not only make up for the defect of a single sensor, but also reduces the false alarm rate caused by the random error of sensor and CIMC system. It can promote the intelligent monitoring efficiency of the manhole cover and be conducive to the construction of intelligent transportation and smart city.

IoT based wastewater spillage detection system

Internet of Things (IoT) is a system of interrelated devices including computers, processors, machines, or objects capable of transferring data over a network with no object-object, object-system interactions. In India, one of the most influential problems observed is the overflowing drains in the sewage system which becomes more problematic during the monsoon seasons when the authorities are unaware of the overflowing drains. It becomes unhygienic for the nearby residents and also causes water-logging which leads to breeding of pests. Our solution to this problem is an IoT system which instantly notifies the municipal authorities about the overflowing drains via email or notification at the city control center, also the citizens will get updates via social media or a mobile application. This system mainly comprises a low-powered IoT based portable device to be attached below the manhole cover. It leverages the LoRa technology to transmit the sensor data. Also, the frame of the manhole will be using solar power to charge the device. The proposed system makes the management and monitoring of the underground drainage system easier and hence saves the lives of hundreds of manual scavengers who die each year while cleaning the drainage systems.

Attention-Based Multi-Scale Convolutional Neural Network (A+MCNN) for Multi-Class Classification in Road Images.

Automated pavement distress recognition is a key step in smart infrastructure assessment. Advances in deep learning and computer vision have improved the automated recognition of pavement distresses in road surface images. This task remains challenging due to the high variation of defects in shapes and sizes, demanding a better incorporation of contextual information into deep networks. In this paper, we show that an attention-based multi-scale convolutional neural network (A+MCNN) improves the automated classification of common distress and non-distress objects in pavement images by (i) encoding contextual information through multi-scale input tiles and (ii) employing a mid-fusion approach with an attention module for heterogeneous image contexts from different input scales. A+MCNN is trained and tested with four distress classes (crack, crack seal, patch, pothole), five non-distress classes (joint, marker, manhole cover, curbing, shoulder), and two pavement classes (asphalt, concrete). A+MCNN is compared with four deep classifiers that are widely used in transportation applications and a generic CNN classifier (as the control model). The results show that A+MCNN consistently outperforms the baselines by 1∼26% on average in terms of the F-score. A comprehensive discussion is also presented regarding how these classifiers perform differently on different road objects, which has been rarely addressed in the existing literature.

A WSN system for high-precision cable manhole cover movement detection uses TDOA ranging method

In the research of the power cable anti-theft problem, the demand for high-precision positioning of the cable manhole cover is proposed. For this reason, a wireless sensor WSN node with ranging function is studied. The system uses the Stm32 chip as the MCU core, uses 433MH radio frequency signals and ultrasonic signals to implement a ranging circuit based on the TODA principle of arrival time difference, and sends data to the cloud server through the NB-IoT module to achieve the purpose of alarming. The system has the characteristics of good real-time performance and high positioning accuracy. It can be applied to the theft prevention of cable manhole covers, and can also be extended to the detection of indoor moving objects.

Investigation on Hydraulic Characteristics of Turbine-Type Manhole Cover

Manhole cover is an important device of urban drainage infrastructures. The hydraulic characteristics of turbine-type manhole covers were studied through numerical simulations and physical experiments. The flow field characteristics and water surface were investigated. The drainage process is divided into two parts: free flow regime and submerged flow regime. Numerical and experimental results are in good agreement. It is indicated that the depth of water is constant in the later stage of unstable free drainage, while it changes with time and determines the discharge under the subsequent unstable submerged drainage condition. The influence of the depth on discharge is mainly reflected in the submerged drainage stage, in which period the discharge is linearly related to the square root of the depth. While in free flow regime, the discharge is affected by volume fraction of water with second order. The correlation between the depth and the discharge in the process of submerged flow is proposed based on dimensional harmony principle. With the characteristic of massive discharge, the design of turbine-type manhole cover provides one more choice in urban drainage construction.

Manhole Cover Detection Using Depth Information

Nowadays, the security of manhole cover has become a growing concern. In the past, manual inspection and Internet of Things were often used to ensure the safety of manhole cover. With the advent of smart cities, people look forward to using cameras as a more convenient method to detect whether manhole covers are damaged. Based on the structure of object detection network, we integrate the depth information in the picture and create a new model which improves the accuracy of detecting damaged manhole covers.

The Environmental Rehabilitation Research for Manhole Covers on City Roads

In order to facilitate inspection and maintenance for municipal public pipelines located below urban roads, more and more manholes were set up on the road surfaces. However, due to various inadequate design and construction etc., the manhole suffered most serious diseases such as collapse of wellhead, broken up of pavement around well, subsidence of manhole and damage of internal well structure. Which not only harms its life span, but also affects the driving safety and the city appearance. Firstly, this work investigated the manhole diseases of typical roads in cities of Changsha etc. and concluded that there are only two main types of road manhole diseases. The most prominent one is the pavement damages. The second one is the wellhead subsidence greater than 20mm. Secondly, the main causes of manhole disease was found out from the aspects of both design and construction. In design, the lack of details of wells and its surrounding backfill materials are main causes. In terms of construction, there are many problems such as insufficient attention to quality control, inadequate operation of key processes and lower level of construction refinement. Finally, systematic and comprehensive measures to deal with various kinds of diseases of manhole in not only design and construction but also prevention and restoration were presented.

Use of Scrapped Rubber Tires for Sustainable Construction of Manhole Covers

Scrapped tires from vehicles are produced in large quantities. Despite numerous existing uses of scrapped tires, a large quantity ends up at the landfill sites, which contributes to environmental degradation. The development of more applications of scrapped tire usage can reduce the disposal of tires at landfill sites. This research proposes a novel use of scrapped tires by using the strips taken from scrapped tires in replacement of steel bars as reinforcement. Manhole covers were produced using scrapped tires by completely replacing the steel with scrapped tires. Four different samples of manhole covers were prepared and tested. The highest bearing capacity of 25.5 kN was recorded with a sample of 100 mm thickness made with cementitious composite, which is 2.25 times higher than the bearing capacity of a conventional reinforced-concrete manhole cover. The use of manhole covers made with scrapped tires can effectively address the theft issue of manhole covers. The lifecycle cost analysis shows that the manhole cover made with scrapped tires is 3.4 times more cost-effective in comparison with the conventional manhole cover. This research shows a new avenue of the potential use of scrapped tires as reinforcement in structures, which can improve sustainable construction practices.

Design and Development of Smart Manhole

In today’s world, urban area house a majority of the population of any country. Analysis of both historical and real-time data results in an enhanced understanding of the urban infrastructures systems and consequently in an improvement in their management, By 2030 it is estimated to grow more. As urban areas are resorting to smart methods, either by IoT or by redesign of existing service sector, underground drainage plays a prominent role to provide a healthy environment, good hygiene and safety to a large population density. For this a good underground drainage system is necessary. We can bring about a change by simplifying and reducing the cost of maintenance of existing system. This can done by drastically reducing the time taken to pinpoint the area affected. By replacing existing manhole with sensor based manhole cover at certain key locations, real time data like flow rate of water, concentration of toxic gases can be determined. This data is sent to the authorized service station prior to its blockage thus preventing the flooding of streets through a speedy maintenance regime.

Research on High-precision Manhole Cover Extraction and Settlement Disease Detection Method Based on Laser Point Cloud

Research on High-precision Manhole Cover Extraction and Settlement Disease Detection Method Based on Laser Point Cloud

Stress-Deformed Condition at Different Angle of Scratch Inclination on Flat Cover of Hatch-Blade

Defects of mechanical origin are quite often found on the structural elements of the devices of the production facilities of the fuel and energy complex. One of the most common mechanical defects is scratches and hairlines on the outer surface of the structural elements. The current regulatory and technical documentation establishes standards for the rejection of defects of various types, which provide for the decommissioning of objects with unacceptable defects for repair or subsequent dismantling. However, in most cases, mechanical defects such as scratches are within acceptable sizes and do not have a decisive effect on the life, reliability and safe operation of vessels and apparatus. However, the presence of such defects can change the stress-strain state of the object to a more unfavorable side, and therefore accelerate the process of accumulating damage at points of concentration of increased stresses. Subsequently, places with a concentration of increased voltages under certain operating conditions can be sources of premature destruction of the element and failure of the object as a whole. Therefore, the actual work is the simulation of the stress-strain state of the flat manhole cover with a scratch, having a different arrangement. In this work, the stress-strain state of the flat manhole cover is examined depending on the location of the scratch on it at a different angle relative to the vertical axis of symmetry of the cover.

MANHOLE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

A smart city is the future goal to have cleaner and better amenities for the society. Smart underground infrastructure is an important feature to be considered while implementing a smart city. Drainage system monitoring plays a vital role in keeping the city clean and healthy. Since manual monitoring is incompetent, this leads to slow handling of problems in drainage and consumes more time to solve. To mitigate all these issues, the system using a wireless sensor network, consisting of sensor nodes is designed. The project aims in designing a manhole management system using IOT which alerts the managing station through web page when any manhole crosses its threshold values and also the system monitor the sensors data on LCD module. This system reduces the death risk of manual scavengers who clean the underground drainage and also benefits the public. The project makes a use of water level sensor, water flow sensor, Temperature sensor, Gas sensor and raspberry pi zero w processor. The controlling device of the whole system is raspberry pi processor. In this rise in temperature, explosion due to toxic gases, overflow, manhole lid left open is detected by the sensors. The signals from the sensors are fed to the raspberry pi, which is programmed to generate alerts. In this we use sensors to detect blockage, floods, and gases. The sensors will identify the clogging inside the drainage system and will give information to the user through email and further actions will be taken care by the municipal.&#x0D; Nowadays, accidents due to broken and missing manhole covers are quite frequent. Manholes are not monitored properly in developing countries. These accidents can lead to serious injuries and also death.&#x0D; Hence, here we propose a system to overcome this problem. We have included an array of sensors for complete monitoring of the manhole cover so that such accidents can be prevented. This project includes a gas cover to monitor the gas emitted from the sewage systems so that toxicity can be monitored, the internal temperature is also monitored if a check for a change in the temperature as the property of manhole change with temperature which could need to crack formation, Also, a float sensor is used to indicate when the water level goes beyond a certain level, in case of any alert due to any of the parameters we check on the IOT website. Also, all the parameters are continuously updated on the website.

MANHOLE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

A smart city is the future goal to have cleaner and better amenities for the society. Smart underground infrastructure is an important feature to be considered while implementing a smart city. Drainage system monitoring plays a vital role in keeping the city clean and healthy. Since manual monitoring is incompetent, this leads to slow handling of problems in drainage and consumes more time to solve. To mitigate all these issues, the system using a wireless sensor network, consisting of sensor nodes is designed.&#x0D; &#x0D; The project aims in designing a manhole management system using IOT which alerts the managing station through web page when any manhole crosses its threshold values and also the system monitor the sensors data on LCD module. This system reduces the death risk of manual scavengers who clean the underground drainage and also benefits the public. The project makes a use of water level sensor, water flow sensor, Temperature sensor, Gas sensor and raspberry pi zero w processor. The controlling device of the whole system is raspberry pi processor. In this rise in temperature, explosion due to toxic gases, overflow, manhole lid left open is detected by the sensors. The signals from the sensors are fed to the raspberry pi, which is programmed to generate alerts. In this we use sensors to detect blockage, floods, and gases. The sensors will identify the clogging inside the drainage system and will give information to the user through email and further actions will be taken care by the municipal.&#x0D; &#x0D; Nowadays, accidents due to broken and missing manhole covers are quite frequent. Manholes are not monitored properly in developing countries. These accidents can lead to serious injuries and also death.&#x0D; Hence, here we propose a system to overcome this problem. We have included an array of sensors for complete monitoring of the manhole cover so that such accidents can be prevented. This project includes a gas cover to monitor the gas emitted from the sewage systems so that toxicity can be monitored, the internal temperature is also monitored if a check for a change in the temperature as the property of manhole change with temperature which could need to crack formation, Also, a float sensor is used to indicate when the water level goes beyond a certain level, in case of any alert due to any of the parameters we check on the IOT website. Also, all the parameters are continuously updated on the website.