For the fourth consecutive year, Everynet’s LoRaWAN technology has monitored and guaranteed the safety of the athletes who participated in the Tor des Géants , one of the toughest races in the world. 330 kilometers to cover in a maximum time of 150 hours and with a height difference of 24,000 meters; participants run for days, 24 hours a day, resting only for micro intervals of up to 20 minutes.
The darkness, the tiredness, the cold and the difference in height can be very dangerous and to face this race it is necessary to have a very high level of training and above all the availability of devices that guarantee the safety of the participants. Everynet, a subsidiary company of the Elmec group, together with the VDA trail that organized the event and the rescue teams, provided the necessary technology for timely rescue: a monitoring solution that thanks to a sensor supplied to each runner and to the use of LoRaWAN technology, allows to constantly monitor the athletes and to send an alert signal in case of danger, even in places that are inaccessible or not covered by the cellular network.
In this year’s edition there were several moments of difficulty; in particular an athlete, due to cold and dehydration, had an illness and remained at the edge of the course for some time. Fortunately, the tracker he had on board reported the anomaly and was promptly recovered by highly efficient rescue teams and transferred to the emergency room. The rescue system had already been tested in the 2017 edition, during which a sleep stroke had caused a runner to fall off a cliff. Thanks to the use of LoRaWAN technology and Everynet’s IoT platform it was possible to receive the alarm launched by the athlete, identify the inaccessible area in which he was locked and intervene to bring him quickly to safety.
Everynet is one of the founding members of the LoRa Alliance and provider of Low Power Wide Area connectivity, able to manage connected objects even in remote places with low energy consumption. “This new technology, now at an excellent level of performance, has infinite potential, as it allows to widen the use of the Internet of Things both in urban contexts and in productive sectors such as agriculture and industry 4.0, as well as in the world of safety and prevention. The limit, by now, is only our fantasy – commented Antonio Terlizzi,Head of Global Sales of Everynet. Only one gateway (radio transmitter) LoRaWAN is able to cover large areas without being influenced by the orography of the territory, it is a type of connectivity that adapts perfectly to the communication of signals of any kind, both in mountainous and maritime and urban areas ” Terlizzi concluded. A more advanced monitoring system was used in the last edition of the Rampigada , a half marathon that took place on August 25th in the Piedmontese ski resort of San Domenico di Varzo (VB); Everynet has provided a gateway to track coverage. The same LoRaWAN network will help runway managers to identify immediately the signals emitted by skiers and mountaineers in difficulty.The system uses a sensor made ad hoc, the result of collaboration with rescue teams. Thanks to the contribution of Elmec 3D, the business unit dedicated to additive manufacturing, in just a few days we moved from the design phase to the prototyping and field testing phase. SAPRA from Cassano Magnago also took part in the project and provided the device’s electronics. The sensor was inserted into a case, designed, prototyped and 3D printed by Elmec 3D. Elmec’s additive manufacturing laboratory has been involved in designing a lightweight case without mechanical buttons that could be damaged by cold or impact. To remedy the problem, the technicians have made soft, thanks to the thin print thickness, an area of the device that can be pressed to launch the alert.Another gateway network has been installed on Campo dei Fiori , the mountain massif that dominates Varese, a destination for lovers of trekking and nature who can thus venture into the woods without risk. Next Saturday 21st September the Campo dei Fiori Trail will take place another good opportunity for Everynet and Elmec 3d to secure all the participants.
Article originally published in Italian here