Fuelics: “Smart” city solutions from purely Greek minds

With the “Digital Transformation Bible 2020-2025” setting the pace towards the digital transition, 315 municipalities in the country with a population of up to 100,000 inhabitants have the opportunity through the project “DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT – Development of Smart Cities applications and Technologies for the Internet of Things (IoT)”, to choose from a wide range of actions those that best serve their needs and local peculiarities and with their implementation to make their cities “smart“!

The project consists of seven axes with 39 individual digital transformation actions, which aim to bring the 315 municipalities much closer to what is known as “smart cities“, bringing the technologies of the new digital era into the everyday life of citizens.

Fuelics designs, manufactures and offers solutions for Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, combining hardware and software, related to the reduction of the energy footprint of municipal buildings, energy saving, sustainable mobility and the improvement of quality of life.

The solutions offered by Fuelics per axis are described below:

Reduction of the energy footprint of municipal buildings: Digitization of energy consumptions (heating oil, electricity) and management of the most precious commodity that nature offers us, water. It offers exclusively “Made in Greece” sensors that it self-manufactures or is supplied by also Greek deeptech companies.Fuelics installs in each building metering structures that carry information over its Edge Computing IoT platform, aiming at the universal remote management of sensors and the presentation of measurements in an understandable way, either through the desktop or through mobile applications on Android and iOS.Fuelics’ platform is built in such a way as to offer comfortable and fast interconnectivity through APIs with third-party platforms, promoting cooperation, an element that in every way is promoted through the company’s corporate culture, adding its own stone to the enhancement of our country’s technological ecosystem.

The water management of municipal buildings is done with the ultimate goal of its proper use and with emphasis on the detection of leaks. Proper water and energy management promotes the protection of the environment and helps to save energy and natural resources.

The sensors that Fuelics produces for the management of energy and water are:

A level-based sensor (NB-IoT) based on ultrasonic technology for the management of oil tanks.A tool for improving operational efficiency, since fuel reserves can be controlled, orders can be optimally planned and receipts/refuelings can be reliably monitored.

Sensor (NB-IoT) of pulses and specific protocols that digitize water meter data. It offers simultaneous (up to 4 water meters) recording of water meter readings, identification of leaks and pipeline breakages.

Sustainable Transportation: Fuelics has invested several years of research and development for the production of a sensor (NB-IoT) for the detection of overlying metal objects or otherwise parking sensor / avoidance-parking. This sensor sinks into the roadway or pavement and detects the presence of metal overlying structures. Based on a highly sensitive sensor, the magnetometer, the sensor is used to identify occupied parking spaces (so a municipal authority to inform drivers about the possibilities of parking and to route them quickly there). The same sensor, however, strategically placed in accessibility points by people with disabilities, can facilitate their movement, since the municipal authority will be informed about the occupation of an access point (crossings, ramps, sidewalks) and will facilitate the smooth movement.

The parking/avoidance-parking management sensor has a powerful self-calibration system that allows it not to forget the way of measurement even if other metal objects are placed next to it at a later time, it can also operate on an extremely low signal of the mobile network.

Improving the quality of life:

A) Fuelics has developed a waste bin management sensor (NB-IoT) that can be installed either in aboveground or underground waste bins and alerts the city’s intelligent collection system when the bin is ready for collection. Of similar logic is the sensor for the management of wastewater or septic tanks that inform about the filling of the tank and their immediate pumping.

B) It has also developed in collaboration with a major European firm a system for the diagnosis of overconcentration of rainwater in the water pipes of runoff with the ultimate goal of predicting flooding phenomena. Sensors placed in runoff pipes measure speed and level of rainwater and with special computational models it is possible to provide early warning of flooding phenomena.

Fuelics was founded in July 2019 and since then has gradually completed a series of solutions that mainly exports to Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, where it implements projects. It is worth noting that it is a purely Greek high-tech company based on the experience and research past of its founders and owners. It is a member of ElevateGreece, SEV and SEKPY, has productive and research infrastructures, while it cooperates steadily with NCSR “Demokritos.”