KYOWA Engineering Laboratory, Inc. is based in Shizuoka, Japan and provides a system to measure reference points of concrete structures. Measuring concrete structures such as highways, bridges and tunnels are important for preventing accidents caused by deterioration or earthquakes. Acconeer’s A1 radar sensor was chosen thanks to its low power consumption and cost effectiveness.

Acconeer’s A1 radar sensor is utilized for measuring reference points of concrete structures. It is important to monitor gaps of concrete structures such as highways, bridges and tunnels because deterioration of these infrastructure is a common problem in Japan. Bridges being exposed by sea breeze and highways being damaged by repeated traffic loads would lead to cracks and collapse of concrete infrastructure. Therefore, data collected from monitoring gaps is used for maintaining and preventing damages of concrete infrastructure.

KYOWA constructed a system to monitor distance and displacement to target objects. Low power consumption is the most crucial aspect for long-term continuous distance measurement. In addition, competitive price is required for simultaneous observations by multiple terminal units. Acconeer’s A1 radar sensor matched both requirements, low power consumption and cost performance, and it enabled KYOWA to construct a measurement system.

KYOWA evaluated the accuracy of laser, ultrasonic and Acconeer’s radar sensor, and the result of Acconeer’s radar sensor was better than that of laser and ultrasonic.

In order to integrate the sensors to their products, they checked how much measurement data could be collected in a unit time, within one minute. They edited the data collected within one minute as a measurement data. They adapted the measurement data and achieved a measurement capacity of ± 1 mm, with target distance is from 30cm to 200cm.