Hardware components | ||||||
 |
| × | 1 | |||
 |
| × | 1 | |||
 |
| × | 1 | |||
The project is a platform capable of measuring the INAG (National Index of Geographic Agglomeration) in places that have an agglomeration of people, such as markets, restaurants, bars, pharmacies, bank branches, hospitals, lotteries, factories, among other places that have a relevant flow of people circulating at the same time in the environment. The startup developed its own hardware technology, called SmartFlow, which is able to identify the number of smartphones within a radius of 15 to 70 meters.
The website https://inag.com.br will transmit in real time the Agglomerations Index in all locations where the hardware is installed. Thus, it will be possible to measure the transmission rate of the COVID-19 virus in several locations and inform all those close to you about which locations are more crowded / empty.
Through INAG in real time, people who need to be in potentially crowded places can choose the best times to avoid contact with other people.
INTRODUCTIONThe startup Milênio Bus emerged in a Hackathon (open innovation event) promoted by the Metropolitan Public Transport Company of the Government of the State of São Paulo (EMTU), where we identified the lack of real-time decisions in public transport for both the company and passengers, for lack of real-time data. The name “Milênio Bus” was because we understand that the Millennial generation seeks mobility options that bring comfort and practicality, especially if the data is there in the palm of your hand. We thought: if we knew on the cell phone which bus is empty and when it will arrive, we could wait for it and travel in greater comfort.
When talking to EMTU specialists, we were surprised that there was no concrete estimate of the capacity of the buses, and that many times even the GPS of the bus was not fully functioning. That's when we decided: we need to be a company that provides bus planning and operation data in real time, and by Artificial Intelligence, bring the best decisions for companies and passengers.
The project proved to be so innovative and disruptive that, with it, we won more than 15 national and international awards (among them, we won an award for best startup at Harvard and MIT).
With the evidence of the project worldwide, we found that the ability to scale agglomerations in public places is a major differential of the company, and that this product can be used in several applications.
When faced with this Challenge (COVID-19 Detect & Protect Challenge), we were extremely excited, because we believe that it is extremely important to improve our technology and install SmartFlowhardware in markets, restaurants, bars, pharmacies, hospitals, agencies, lotteries, stations by train and subway, etc.
Greater control and transparency of the flow of people in the state of São Paulo will bring a more solid base for the government, individuals and companies adopt measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 disease.
It will also be an important metric for the media, which will be able to inform the population about the estimated number of people circulating in places of great potential for agglomeration.
THEORETICAL REFERENCEAccording to an article published on the New York Times website [1], South Korea is a separate case in the world, the nation in question suffered from a sudden increase in the cases of COVID-19, until within a few days, a testing operation to be able to identify the main foci of the disease across the country and thus help in the incisive isolation of those suspected of contracting the new virus.
According to the article itself, mass tests were carried out on the population. The government created several testing sites, where people didn't even need to get out of their vehicles to do the same.
In the case of people diagnosed with COVID-19, an application is installed that can identify the GPS position during the contagion period. Thus, it is possible to trace a history of all the places where they have been and even estimate which people had a possible contact with her.
In this way, people suspected of having had contact with a person infected with COVID-19 were also required to perform a test at the drive-through stations.
According to a G1 article [2], South Korea is a global example in combating the new coronavirus, with a lethality rate of the virus substantially lower than that seen in countries like the USA, Italy and Iran.
The solution adopted by South Korea has the same strategy as the solution proposed by Milênio Bus, in which the objective is to provide decision making based on transmission data and people infected by the new Coronavirus.
PROBLEMCurrently, Brazil has few resources to measure the transmission rate and the number of people infected with the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
In contrast, Brazil is already the 2th country in the world with the highest number of deaths due to COVID-19, and with the potential to become one of the countries with the highest number of infected in the world (June / 2020).
Since the virus is transmitted through physical contact with other people, social isolation has become the only viable option to contain the transmission of the virus. The big problem is that isolation requires that a large part of businesses are closed and the population is confined to their homes.
In a megalopolis like the state of São Paulo, closing trade is extremely damaging to the economy and unsustainable in the long run. This means that trades will open again despite the high rate of contagion.
Thus, the agglomerations in the state of São Paulo may get out of control and bring a higher rate of people infected by COVID-19.
Shops and mobility companies are also at risk of taking a huge loss if the flow of people is not as expected. We understand that the flow may be low due to the fear of individuals being subject to possible contact with agglomerations when visiting these places.
JUSTIFICATIONWith a platform open to everyone that has updated and real-time data on the Agglomeration Index (INAG) in the State of São Paulo, it will be possible to assertively measure the transmission rate of the new coronavirus on time, in different regions of the state. By crossing this data with, for example, the number of people infected in the specific region of the city, we can infer the rate of transmission of the virus in specific regions of the city. This will allow the government and local governments to take specific measures to open and close shops, when necessary.
The Agglomeration Index will also allow people to feel more secure when visiting public places. She can check in the palm of your hand that the place is crowded before going to it.
It is also possible to install SmartFlow in hospitals. In this way, with the patient's permission, we were able to identify the places where he was during the period of transmission of the disease and estimate in real time the places where the virus circulates in the city.
In summary, the proposed solution can bring greater control and more assertive decisions to the government and city halls and, for individuals, comfort and security when visiting potentially crowded places.
DEVELOPMENTIn November 2019, Milênio Bus developed its own technology hardware called SmartFlow (figure below). It is capable of identifying, in real time, the number of smartphone-type cell phones in a radius around it. Depending on the hardware parts, it is possible to detect cell phones within a radius of up to 15 meters or up to 70 meters.
The hardware consists of an embedded card and a WiFi adapter. The maximum distance that the hardware can detect smartphones depends on reception sensitivity of the WiFi adapter used in the assembly. A practical example used on a bus is the one in the image below, in which SmartFlow has a USB WiFi adapter of model TL-WN823n from TP-Link. It has a smartphone detection potential within a radius of up to 15 meters:
Through the identification of probe requests from smartphones, we were able to obtain the Mac Address of each of them, make them anonymous and obtain the smartphone count and even the Origin / Destination of each one, when we cross the data with the GPS of the bus. As shown in Figure 3.
When manually validating the assertiveness of this hardware, we analyzed a variable assertiveness between 85% and 91% in more than 120 samples in the passenger count.
The installation of the hardware is very simple: just plug it into the outlet with a cell phone charger.
The platform with the Agglomeration Index (INAG) is also already online. Just access it through the link: https://inag.com.br/.
When accessing, the website checks your current location and directs search engines to the places around you. In the example below, we search for “Mini Mercado Consulado dos Doces”, which is a market that we are currently testing with the platform in full operation. Follow the images with the results obtained from the search performed at INAG.
When talking to those responsible for the store, they confessed to accessing the platform with great frequency and that the data is with an assertiveness very close to the actual number of people in the store. We have been testing the platform on the market since 30 / March / 2020.
TESTSAfter the initial development phase, a mature product was obtained, both in hardware and software, thus having an entire environment configured for conducting pilot tests and small-scale installation.
Tests were carried out in the office where the company is located, they made it possible to collect data from recurring employees who came to the room daily. In this test, it was also possible to obtain proof of how the system would behave in an environment with a high number of employees. smartphones, as the office is located in a commercial building, so a large amount of data was obtained from adjacent floors and rooms.
SmartFlows were also installed in the home of two company employees, Marcel and Willian, in which the amount of data obtained was much less, due to the small circulation of people in residential areas, this test was very important, as the sensitivity of the data was much greater, in this way, there was much more control over the detected smartphones, enabling a study of how the system behaved in such situations, the sensitivity of detection with walls between the devices and the operating distance of the same.
Since February 2020 the startup installed 8 SmartFlow devices on a coral line train, one device in each car, this test was very important to obtain data from people flow in a real and busy environment, as well as assess connectivity of the device with the mobile network, and also put into practice the performance of the hardware in case of communication failure or other physical problem.
In addition to the cell phone count itself, other interesting analyzes are that the passenger flow increases proportionally in all wagons at the same time, but this happens with greater intensity in some of them. A good example of this is between 17:20 and 18:50 on 02/28/2020 (see Figure 13).
During this period, the train performs an Origin / Destination of the Light (departure at 17:40) until Students (arrival at 18:50). It is possible to notice that the passenger count in cars 5 and 6 increases with greater intensity during the journey, as well as a sharp drop in the number of passengers in all cars at 18:50, when the train reaches its final destination.
To actually quantify the accuracy of the system, observations must be made during the operation of the train used in the tests in order to compare the actual number of people in the wagon to the values obtained by the installed hardware. In this way, correction factors can be determined for the passenger count that will guarantee the accuracy of the system, especially at peak times.
The startup currently has a client with the system running on 4 buses in the city
of São Paulo / SP.
The average assertiveness obtained by SmartFlow was 88% each time measured, below, some graphs obtained on the Metra 8301 bus, which is an articulated bus with a maximum capacity of 110 people, which makes the route São Bernardo - Jabaquara - Diadema - Morumbi. It was possible to obtain data on the capacity and the average time of origin / destination of passengers by period of the day:
Through our tests, we were able to identify that rain is a decisive factor for the capacity of the buses, as always on rainy days the bus presented larger capacity. It is also worth mentioning that the average speed of the bus is relatively lower on rainy days (around 30% lower only, as it is a corridor bus).
When presenting the results to private bus companies, we noticed a great interest in identifying time slots in which the bus runs empty, as they are able to ask public companies for a readjustment in their itineraries and, with this, to make their operation more profitable.
Public companies, on the other hand, see this information as something disruptive for the planning of lines and operations.
SPTrans, for example, commented that there is an internal project in progress that checks the flow of passengers through ticketing. However, this is estimated data, as ticketing can only detect the place of departure and is only able to account for passengers who have paid for the trip (that is, exempt passengers and who “ride” are an exception).
In the following Figure 16, some real images of the installation of the pilot test that we are carrying out on the Metra 8301 bus, in partnership with Mercedes-Benz, in the city of São Bernardo do Campo / SP. And in Figure 17, you can see the installed hardware.
More recently, a SmartFlowwas installed in a local market, called Consulado dos Doces, this pilot aimed to analyze the behavior of the system in static locations, where possibly people can gather and, consequently, increase the transmission of the virus. The installation is shown in Figures 18, 19 and 20.
From the data collected by SmartFlow installed in the mini-market, it is possible to observe them on the INAG platform, showing the agglomeration index, distance from the user to the location, opening hours, counting people during the day and route to the establishment.
The establishment (supermarket, pharmacy, gas station, hospital, etc.) or city hall (in the case of squares, public roads, etc.) opts for a pilot project in about 3 months with the estimate of the Agglomeration Index (INAG).
As soon as payment is made, the purchasing, manufacturing and approval process begins. After installing the hardware, we collect stocking data and provide access to our platform. During the execution of the pilot project, several indicators are measured, such as:
- Stocking index on site at certain times;
- Influence of external factors on the number of people;
- Length of stay of the smartphone in the establishment;
- Cell phone tracking anonymously if the user passes through 2 different devices (Origin / Destination);
After the pilot period, we verified how many decisions we were able to provide the company to improve the operation and planning.
We raised costs that the company optimized and, based on that, we priced the solution and closed a 24 to 36 month contract with an estimated monthly fee of R $ 100 / month per installed device.
It is worth mentioning that our biggest differential is the price, scope of the solution and ease of installation (just plug it in).
The scope is due to the fact that the number of indicators monitored in real time.
Another interesting bias is the collection of the establishment's stocking data for the crossing of contamination information by COVID-19, analysis of human traffic and verification of isolations. If the establishment is in agreement, it is possible to provide this information to the public in real time through the website https://inag.com.br/ in order to raise their awareness and also inform them of possible agglomerations. For local authorities / government, the data is even more relevant, enabling a detailed analysis of the progress of contamination based on the level of agglomeration.
TEAMToday we have a fully qualified technical team, specifically developed to improve the hardware in a differentiated way for the market, meeting the needs that companies seek. This solution that we developed and the precision we are working on is the big difference, we are also patenting our hardware and software to ensure greater security over the years.
The team consists of 2 founders:
- Marcel Ogando, graduated in Control and Automation Engineering from Mauá and has more than 10 years of experience with systems development. Currently, he leads the technology team and is responsible for the product;
- Fábien Oliveira, graduated in Control and Automation Engineering at UNIFEI and has already participated in several technology and robotics competitions, always getting a great highlight. Currently, he is responsible for the operation and administration of the company;
2 interns in the technology area:
- Lucas Simões, graduated in Systems Analysis and Development at FIAP. He is responsible for the web development of the solution and for the integration of the counting devices with the database;
- Willian Chan, currently in the penultimate year of Computer Engineering at Mauá. He is responsible for the development of Data Science algorithms for estimating the number of passengers in the SmartFlowhardware. It also develops neural networks and artificial intelligence algorithms.
1 sales representative:
Vinícius Sammarone, currently studying administration at UNIP. Responsible for representing the company commercially and performing the pre-sale and post-sale process.
After a competition to solve problems in the public transport sector, held in 2017 by EMTU, called Hackathona Metropolitana, the three founders of the startup participated in the competition and identified that the companies do not have great control of their fleets due to the lack of information generated to improve this performance, based on research to understand the market and the products that currently meet this demand. Thus, in this competition, the company's initial idea was born, through a solution developed to deliver a result with greater efficiency and more details of information in the existing system on the market today.
With the victory in this competition, the entrepreneurs had access to the EMTU incubation program, where they could better develop their solution and test the results in the laboratory.
During this incubation program, the startup started to enroll in several other startup programs, with the aim of showing and improving the solution by having contact with various market players. Thus, in August 2017, the project was called for the “International Create Challenge” competition in Martigny, Switzerland. For three weeks, the project's entrepreneurs were incubated participating in the competition at IDIAP, Europe's renowned cognitive intelligence institute, in which the startup can improve its technology using the concept of “Perception Activity Understand”. At the end of the competition, the Milênio Bus team was the winner, bringing an unprecedented title to Brazil. This achievement generated a very positive repercussion for the startup.
After that, the project started to be recognized in the entrepreneurial environment. In April 2018, the Milênio Bus project was the big winner of HackBrazil (there were more than 600 projects from all over Brazil in the competition) at the renowned Brazil Conference, held at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in the USA. It was a great opportunity to present the project to the best universities in the world.
When we returned to Brazil, we were approved in the residency program of MobiLab (Laboratory of Innovation in Urban Mobility of São Paulo), in April 2018. This laboratory of the Municipality of São Paulo is linked to two departments: Mobility and innovation. The benefits for startup during this residency period were:
i) Greater contact with the 18 companies that provide services to urban transport in the city of São Paulo, which represent a fleet with over 14 thousand buses;
ii) Mentoring in relation to the urban mobility sector, business model and partnerships;
iii) Coworking environment;
In May 2018, we were selected to participate in the FUTURE BLOCKCHAIN SUMMIT event, held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
In October 2018, we were selected in the Brazil-Germany Chamber's Startups Connected notice. Thus, we were chosen by the announcement as the best startup in the urban mobility sector, in which we started to receive support and mentoring in the urban mobility segment, as it evaluated that the product being developed has two major contributions, be it in the area of stimulating the use of public buses, such as reducing air pollution, such as CO2. The support of the Brazil-Germany Chamber, in addition to offering financial support, provided direct contact with entities in the urban mobility sector in Brazil and Europe, such as Mercedes, and we are developing indicators of CO2 reduction in public bus transport.
In March 2019, we were finalists in the NTT DATA competition in Japan, in which we were in 3rd place, receiving an honor award for the merit of the program.
In May 2019, we were selected by the acceleration program of “What Design Can Do”, based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to represent Brazil, as one of the most innovative startups in the urban mobility sector. During the program, we received mentoring and financial support to improve the solution. In addition, we participated in a week-long bootcamp in Amsterdam, with classes and training for the startup's evolution in the program.
In March 2020, Milênio Bus was one of the 5 startups selected for the Rural School Transport Challenge, carried out by the Minas Gerais Department of Education, with the aim of optimizing and making more precise the provision of data on routes, mileage and students transported in rural areas.
In April 2020, Milênio Bus was selected as one of the winners of the Movin’On Start Up Challenge, being among the 40 startups in the world with the most innovative and dynamic solutions to solve the great challenges of sustainable mobility. There were 326 startups from 61 countries competing in the challenge.
In Figure 24 below, an illustration of our main achievements and participation from the start of the startup to the present day is shown.
We have a stock of 3 hardware (SmartFlow) that will probably be used in the coming days. We intend to install it in a supermarket, hospital and restaurant / pharmacy, and to disseminate the platform to all who want to take advantage of the data.
If approval and financial support for this Challenge is obtained (COVID-19 Detect & Protect Challenge), we will be able to install and test the hardware at no cost in various locations / establishments in the city of São Paulo in a period of 3 months. Thus, we will have resources to ensure greater strength and dedication of the team of employees and maintenance of technology to keep the product in full operation, transmitting data to the population in real time. As a result, the scale and impact of the solution will be exponentially greater. Therefore, we will have enough strength to justify a contract with the government to enable the installation in all points with great potential for agglomeration in the State of São Paulo.
If the indicators of several locations with the installed solution are successfully generated, the agglomeration rates are leveled and / or decreased, and the best decisions are made, it will be possible to observe in practice an improvement in the number of people infected with the disease. Based on them, we want to replicate the results to several other locations / regions in the city of São Paulo and to other cities in the country, in addition to the possibility of expanding to other suitable segments and their respective establishments. And it can be continuous and scalable at a time right after the crisis.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES[1]
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/23/world/asia/coronavirus-south-korea-flatten
[2]
https://g1.globo.com/bemestar/coronavirus/noticia/2020/03/16/coronavirus-o-qu
e-esta-por-tras-do-sucesso-da-coreia-do-sul-para-salvar-vidas-em-meio-a-pand
Comments