What is/was your role in CENTAUR®?
I’ve been involved in CENTAUR® since inception as part of the Horizon2020 project team. As the technical lead, my role covered all aspects of hardware and software design, from product development and manufacturing to installation, commissioning, and maintenance of deployed CENTAUR® systems.
What key areas of your expertise were relevant to this project?
Primarily, I brought experience in electronics, civil engineering, and measurement and control solutions to consolidate the academic outputs into a commercial product.
What challenges did you help address during the project?
The greatest challenge was around the internetwork communication. Maintaining reliable data transmission from inside a reinforced concrete chamber, across varying distance, over varying terrain is an industry-wide challenge. A close second was designing a system to be installed in a live sewer network with minimal disruption to the sewer network and the general public.
What is your most significant achievement or proudest moment from this project?
The most significant achievement is the evolution of the product from an elaborate set of components that comprised the early prototype, through a number of streamlining stages, to the proceduralised and compact solution with simple installation methodology that is our commercial offering today.
What did you find most rewarding about working on this project?
As a techie, and self-professed nerd, the opportunity to build something of this magnitude, that will become a commercial product, was incredibly rewarding.
What do you think this project’s influence will be?
I firmly believe CENTAUR® is a game-changing technology for the water industry, the ability to intelligently and safely control flows enables an environmentally- and budget-friendly way to prevent escapes from sewers.
