$80,000 reclamation award for improved rainfall measurement equipment

SNOTEL automated data collection site. Credit: NRCS

Click on the link to read the press release recovery website (Chelsea Kennedy):

The Reclamation Bureau selects eight solutions, who each receive $10,000 and continue in the Every Drop Counts challenge. This challenge is demanding precipitation measurement instruments that are reliable, accurate, low maintenance and capable of operating in remote areas under extreme weather conditions.

The Counting Every Drop Challenge is a two-stage prize competition with up to $300,000 in total prizes. The ideal solution would not require a fluid such as antifreeze to operate.

“Better rainfall monitoring is the key to enhanced water management. We are excited by the innovative concepts of the Phase I winners and look forward to how they move forward and perform in Phase II.” “The goal of this award competition is to develop new instruments that increase accuracy and reliability while reducing maintenance so that they can operate cost-effectively in extremely remote areas.”

The winning solutions selected to move on to Phase II include:

• Rixel – Their solution is a fluid-free and active rain station that measures any type of rainfall. It can work in harsh environments ranging from extreme cold to hot. Environmentally friendly design discharges only water into the environment.
• planet earth – Their solution is a fluid-free rainfall metering device consisting of a pot mounted on a load cell. After completing the process of weighing the precipitate, the precipitation will be released into the environment using a wiper that continuously cleans the vessel.

• Orion Labs -Their system provides a fluid-free solution for accurate precipitation detection and measurement and builds on existing rain gauge collection methods, adds enhancements with software capabilities, and a unique, low-power, low-cost redundant A custom-designed storage unit for the solution.
• PGRAWS – Their rain gauge with a redundant array of weighing scales known as PGRAWS is a novel gripper style rain gauge based on the weight measurement of all types of precipitation. Redundant collection buckets with independent mechanical operation contribute to high equipment reliability.
• PMASS Precipitation measurement with an advanced solid-state sensor solution, known as PMASS, combines a downward pulsed coherent radar, a camera-based sensor, and a temperature sensor. The machine learning solution estimates rates and accumulated depth of precipitation from features extracted from the radar and camera subsystems.
• Rahavi Brothers – Their equipment benefits from the enormous energy stored in propane. In extremely cold weather, we use this energy to melt solid precipitation. The AI-powered control board is responsible for controlling the process to enhance accuracy and performance.
• top solver – His device uses an array of rain sensors along with a custom control unit. which meets and exceeds all challenge requirements while providing the required accuracy and fail-safe redundancy.

Selected teams will build their prototype and a preliminary review will be done during this phase. Five of the eight teams will receive $15,000 to continue prototype development during this phase. Teams that ship their prototypes for testing will receive a $3,000 milestone prize. The top solution that meets all requirements and is liquid free will receive $100,000. Other solutions will share $30,000 in innovation prizes.

Reclamation is partnering with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, NASA Tournament Lab, Geonor, Inc., and Freelancer for this prize contest.

To know more, please visitwww.usbr.gov/research/challenges/counteverydrop.html.

Reclamation hosts award competitions to foster innovation by engaging a non-traditional, problem-solving community. please go to reclaimWater Prize Competition Centerto learn more.