Festo water technology is used around the world in the infrastructure of cities. The company is making an important contribution to the automation of newly constructed water and wastewater treatment plants, as well as to the modernisation of existing facilities.
Efficient pneumatic technology
Festo is currently working on a water project in Saint Petersburg, where it is providing new systems-based energy efficient technology using pneumatic automation. In addition to modernising 34 pumping stations, Saint Petersburg’s water utility has set itself the goal of reducing power consumption for drinking water by more than 33%. This is supported by the pneumatic automation technology, which results in much lower energy costs than electric actuators for opening and closing the butterfly valves in the sand bed filters and pumping stations.
Futuristic AquaJelly technology
At the recent Metropolitan Solutions Fair, Festo demonstrated with the help of its AquaJellies what efficient systems in the field of water technology might look like in the future. AquaJelly, developed within the framework of Festo’s Bionic Learning Network, is an artificial autonomous jellyfish with an electric drive unit and an intelligent adaptive mechanism that emulates swarming behaviour. These autonomous jellyfish display innovative communication capabilities and real-time diagnostics and offer the possibility for energy efficiency and lightweight construction of automated systems. The current status of each individual jellyfish can be recorded and monitored via a smartphone app, while other functions such as detecting battery levels are made possible through the real-time diagnostics.
As a concept for the future, AquaJelly demonstrates the self-organisation of decentralised units. Since its body consists of 99% water, Festo believes this will be applicable to the coordination of rainwater overflow basins in the field of wastewater technology.
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