Snow and other types of precipitation are responsible for a substantial part of loads acting on a construction. Even though complying with building norms should rule out the possibility of a construction disaster occurring, in reality the key to a building’s safety is its proper maintenance. Monitoring the amount of snow accumulated on the roof is vital for snow removal scheduling. Sense proposes their own solution of this issue – sensors S-One that combine the advantages of tensometric and laser sensors.
“Companies operating in other branches, such as motorization, equip their products with indicators that alarm the user when something is not working properly,” said Artiom Komardin from Sense. “Construction failures cause much more destruction than car failures, yet the only knowledge about the current condition of a building comes from annual technical condition assessments. We decided to create a diagnostics system for constructions that would inform the users about a building’s condition in real time.”
Sense focuses on large buildings with flat roofs. Their S-One system in a patented solution, unique at the global scale. It is a network of laser sensors that are placed directly under the roof and measure vertical structure deflections. Mounting the sensors at the top of the columns allows for keeping full functionality of the floor, what is especially important in production halls. All readings are sent to a cloud using WiFi or Ethernet communication. The Sense software analyzes the results and visualizes them in an easy-to-understand way. It also alarms the user with an email or an SMS if the deflections are dangerously high.
The S-One system does not only detect high snow loads, but it also informs about the dangers of rainwater or hail accumulation. To top it off, it can detect leaking water that gets absorbed by insulation.
All functions of the system allow for more economical snow removal management. When provided with detailed data, building users can plan to remove snow in an optimal way and reduce the maintenance costs.
Sense was founded by Artiom Komardin, a civil engineer with experience in the energy industry. The second founder, Przemysław Gałązka, is the current CEO of Sense. He has studied geodesy and applied informatics; he is also an experienced developer of data security systems.
Sense has already carried out a pilot implementation of their system for IKEA. At the moment, they are planning to install S-One for all IKEA stores in Poland. They are also entering the Lithuanian and Belarusian markets and actively looking for an investor. In the first quarter of 2017 Sense will be representing Poland during the finals of the Startup Europe Awards 2016 in Brussels in the “Smart Cities” category. We are keeping our fingers crossed!
