We often hear about new technologies, and in various contexts, but we rarely learn that they can also help at-risk children, such as for instance in the KlokTex project.
What is the KlokTex project?
Containers for textiles, clothing and shoes for children and adults.
It is a charitable and environmental project, which supports mainly the Klokánek Fund for Children at risk. Containers with the logo of the Klokánek are placed throughout the Czech Republic for collecting unneeded but usable clothing and footwear. By placing such clothing, footwear, textiles, as well as toys in these containers, their donors are directly involved in helping both materially and mainly financially. More on www.KlokTex.cz.
“The project was launched to help those who need our help. Thanks to all clothing and footwear donors, we have, as part of the project, financially supported charities with an amount exceeding 3 million CZK. We will continue to pursue increasing this assistance despite the difficult period,” says Pavlína Klementová, executive head of the company.
The efficiency as a key to support
The KlokTex project includes hundreds of containers distributed throughout the Czech Republic. As a part of the project, the operation of the whole system must run very efficiently, from negotiations with municipalities on the location of containers, their production, collection, and sorting of submitted textiles and footwear, so that the costs associated with the operation do not exceed the benefits of the whole project.
One of the essential cost items is the collection of submitted textiles and footwear, which can amount to 60 % of operation costs. Optimal collection planning considering both container locations and especially their filling level fundamentally affects the efficiency of the whole process and has a direct impact on project costs.
To solve the optimization of collection, the company was looking for a device that will measure container fill levels and pass this information to the collection route planning tool. A device that will communicate wirelessly, work on battery for several years, operate throughout the country, and the cost of purchase and operating it will be lower than the savings from optimizing collection process.
Internet of Things (IoT) solution
To solve collection optimization, the management of the KlokTex project selected the company Sensority, specifically its product DistSense.
“This solution meets all our needs and requirements. Sensority took a step forward and adjusted the attachment so that the device could be easily mounted in a container without any risk of damage or destruction. At the same time, they helped us integrate the data into our systems”, says Pavel Koutecký, Managing Director of the company.
DistSense meets all requirements, it is robust yet sufficiently small, uses an infrared laser to measure, allowing for reduction of energy consumption and extension of battery life. In addition, laser beam enables to
adjust the direction and width of the measurement.
The device is wirelessly connected to the Internet via the NB-IoT network and thanks to precise tuning of the internal antenna ensures perfect signal reception throughout the Czech Republic, even in metal containers. Data transfer is encrypted and further processed in the cloud. The data is available in the application and can be further integrated into the customer’s systems.
“Shortly after installing the first route with DistSense devices, we were able to start optimizing collection and realize real savings in our operation. By installing the devices at all our locations, we achieved a complete overview of how containers are filled and were able to adapt the entire collection system and thus significantly increase its efficiency”, adds Koutecký.
