SODAQ AIR: portable air quality monitor
“Making the crowd aware of the immense changes in air quality in their daily lives and routines is where change can start to take place.”
Challenge
Developing a portable air quality monitor to measure the levels of particulate matter in the air.
Outcome
An air quality sensor that gives real-time, location-specific data about the air you’re breathing.
How does the AIR work?
The SODAQ AIR measures:
- PM2.5 (particulate matter)
- Indicative values for PM1.0, PM4.0, and PM10
- Temperature
- Humidity
- Shock
- Barometric pressure
The SODAQ AIR functions as both a static and portable air quality monitor that measures air quality in 10-second intervals. The LED strip on the AIR turns green, yellow, or red, to provide real-time insights into the air quality. All the air quality data is automatically sent to the global Knowyourair map, where it can be downloaded. Read more about AIR.
The engineering process
The first rendition of the AIR proved to be quite a challenging process, as the technology required hadn’t yet been created. Our in-house expertise allowed us to create hardware small enough to mount on a bicycle, while still providing accurate data on air pollution. Over the years we’ve continued to decrease the AIRs dimensions, and increase its sensitivity while optimizing the device for low energy consumption. The current rendition of the AIR is powered by a supercapacitor which considerably increases the device’s lifetime.
The collaboration
In 2015, we created the first rendition of our portable air quality monitor. Then, in 2017, as part of a collaboration with the Dutch Province of Utrecht and company Civity, the AIR became part of the Sniffer Bike project. This collaborative project came to its completion in January 2021, at which point the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and Environment (RIVM) examined the data and determined that, going forward, the portable air quality monitors would be valuable additions to the existing network of fixed air monitoring stations. In 2021 we made the AIR an off-the-shelf product and created the Know Your Air map to give individuals as well as smart cities and large companies access to an open-source database of global air quality measurements.
