Four graduates of Prague’s Czechoslovak Academy of Commerce have produced a “smart” Novus bollard, which they believe could prevent accidents on the roads. It has a built-in solar panel and can also light up, thanks to the scarecrow it warns animals. With the help of Bluetooth technology, it activates other bollards in a row. At the same time, something else made them come up with the idea – they wanted to reuse old plastics.
Three young men and one girl – Miloš Nováček, Michal Řezáč, Šimon Ecler and Martina Vintiková – who graduated from the Czechoslovak Academy of Commerce in Prague this year, came up with the idea for a “smart” road bollard, which they named Novus. According to them, it could prevent accidents on the roads.
Photo: Novus bollard author team
“In addition to the LED strips that draw attention to the edge of the road in the dark, our bollard is equipped with a small solar panel, a wind power plant and a motion sensor. When a vehicle approaches the bollard, the animal scarecrow is switched on and, using Bluetooth technology, other subsequent bollards in the row are lit,” explains one of the authors of the Novus bollard, Miloš Nováček.
“Thanks to its own energy source, the bollard functions as a separate unit and
does not need power from the mains. A possible malfunction of one will not affect the functionality of the other bollards,” he adds for the team of students.
With the bollard, the students won first place in the global program for young innovators Solve for Tomorrow for the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
At the same time, they came to the idea of inventing and producing a bollard in a detour, road safety was not a topic they considered. They wanted to solve the problem of plastic accumulating in the school and were looking for a way to use it.
First, they wanted to produce printing strings for 3D printers, i.e. so-called eco-filaments from recycled PET bottles, and they even made their own cutter for them. But then after one evening car ride came a change of plan.
“I was driving and kept cursing that I couldn’t see anything, that there were no bollards on the road or that they weren’t visible. And a mischievous voice came from behind: ‘Turn on the lights!’ Of course, I had the lights on the whole time, but suddenly we thought, what if the bollards also lit up?” says Miloš Nováček.
They already had the material for the bollards. It is said that friends helped them connect the electrical components and they also looked for information on the Internet. It took them eight months to build the bollard.
“We make everything by hand, so the only problem is that we have cables, insulating tapes, connectors and tools lying around at home. We need a lot of components, but they are readily available on the market,” adds the nineteen-year-old graduate of the economic lyceum.
The desire to mass produce it
Three young people from the team, now without a classmate, admit that they are excited by the project and are thinking of founding a start-up and starting mass production. They are still working on the bollard, they are also continuing with the tests. It could also have a GPS locator or perhaps an impact sensor. The final version is not ready yet.
“We are negotiating cooperation with universities and looking for an investor, we are students after all. And we plan to meet with representatives of Besip and other institutions,” explains Nováček, who with his friend Šimon Ecler is entering the first year of VŠCHT after the holidays, while their third colleague Martin Řezáč prefers Prague University of Economics.
In connection with plans for series production, they also calculate production costs. “We bought the materials for the prototype at retail prices, so this is not a completely relevant figure. However, according to our current calculations, a Novus bollard with all functions, such as a scarecrow, solar charger, Bluetooth, would cost around three to five thousand crowns,” they calculate. At the same time, they would like to maintain the production from recycled plastics in order to keep the product’s environmental dimension.
People would steal it
According to the Ministry of Road Transport, the idea of directional posts combined with, for example, ultrasonic or optical scarers is not new. “Such directional posts are used in practice. Although similar solutions are certainly beneficial in principle, practical experience shows that their lifespan is relatively short,” explains press spokesman František Jemelka.
It calculates the reasons, including improper maintenance, where posts are often damaged or destroyed when grass is cut along roads. Normal traffic also contributes to the damage, when drivers run into direction posts and break them.
Jemelka mentions the human factor as one of the risks of installing posts equipped with intelligent technologies.
“It usually happens with posts equipped in this way that someone steals them before they are damaged by operation or maintenance. The restoration of such posts is then very expensive. The simpler and more resistant to mechanical damage the direction post is, the lower the costs of its installation and maintenance. We can see this in practice on our roads as well, where you can follow the trend towards the simplest possible solutions,” adds Jemelka and points out that the classic white direction post with a spike and reflector, which is the most widely used more widespread, it will cost five hundred crowns including VAT.
The Ministry is of the opinion that other measures, such as simple scent stakes, fences or other barriers, and the construction of underpasses or overpasses on animal migration routes are more effective for scaring off animals.
“The expansion of ‘intelligent’ direction posts equipped with any electronics or batteries also does not reflect the necessity of their ecological disposal. In their case, it is electronic waste, which increases costs, and in the event of their damage or being thrown off the road, for example into the forest, then also an increased ecological burden on the environment,” concludes Jemelka on behalf of the Ministry of Transport.
2023-07-25 12:30:29
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