Seoul plans to expand 190 sets of smart light poles with enhanced functions this year

  Recently, the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) in South Korea announced the expansion of the smart light pole pilot project. It plans to build 190 sets of smart light poles in the four districts of Guro, Dongjak, Gangdong, and Jongno in the South Korean capital before the end of this year.

  In February, SMG has installed 26 sets of smart light poles S-poles in 6 locations including Seoul Plaza, Sungnyemun Gate, and Cheonggyecheon.

  As an urban infrastructure, S-pole integrates traffic lights, street lights, closed-circuit televisions, and safety signs. It is also equipped with ICT-based wireless wifi, smart closed-circuit televisions, Internet of Things sensors, and even drones. SMG reports that 26 S-poles initially installed provide standard models and guidelines for the standardized construction of smart light poles.

  The smart light poles of the new expansion plan will add charging piles and drone charging station equipment. The customized smart light poles in Han River Park will also be equipped with closed-circuit televisions. And their corresponding abnormal sound monitoring functions will also be expected to improve the city's emergency response capabilities. When abnormal sound is detected, the CCTV will rotate in the direction of the sound to capture the picture. In addition, SMG can also add "smart warning lights" to the pole. By sounding an alarm to inform that an emergency has occurred, you can get rescue quickly.

  In the second half of 2021, Seoul will carry out a pilot project of charging piles and drone stations on smart light poles, adding the function of S-poles to solve the shortage of electric vehicle charging piles and promote the Seoul green city plan. UAVs are used to monitor disaster events or accidents and save lives.

  "S-Poles is the core infrastructure of a smart city. While improving the urban landscape, safety, and convenience, it can also reduce city management and operating costs. From electric vehicle charging to drone technology, we will be committed to developing the functions of the city's new needs to create a smarter urban infrastructure." said Lee Won-Mok, Director General of SMG's Smart City Policy.

  To expand the construction of S-poles, Seoul has completed 10 standard models and related installation and operation guidelines. These 10 standard models all provide flexible functional configurations to add according to the needs of the surrounding environment.

  The guidelines also include message services based on target recognition, urban phenomenon analysis based on S-DoT (Seoul Urban Internet of Things Data Collection), and city QR codes (used to view city culture or tourism information).

  According to SMG, smart light poles will also lay the foundation for future autonomous driving and signal transmission through collaborative intelligent transportation systems (C-ITS) and 5G.

  As the capital of South Korea, Seoul has approximately 240,000 functional poles (including street lamp poles, traffic lamp poles, monitoring lamp poles, and safety lamp poles, etc.), and the number of replacements is between 3,500 and 3,700 per year. The city will review the needs of these old and new poles based on the principle of intensive construction to expand the construction of smart light poles.