Sep 5 – 7, 2025
Asia/Kolkata timezone

How we built a pump monitoring system for Deutsche Bahn with wireless sensors using Zephyr RTOS

Sep 6, 2025, 3:00 PM
40m
Room 1: Plenary

Room 1: Plenary

Talk (40 min) Zephyr

Speaker

Oliver Völckers
BeST Berliner Sensortechnik GmbH

Description

In 2020, Deutsche Bahn's startup accelerator DB mindbox approached BeST Sensor GmbH with the task of developing a monitoring system to detect irregularities in waste water pumps for high-speed trains.

We developed a radically new sensor and signal processing system using RISC edge nodes based on Zephyr RTOS. Several challenges had to be overcome, such as a non-digital legacy infrastructure, harsh operating conditions, extreme quality requirements and a very limited budget. Despite these challenges, we were able to develop a wireless sensor system that permanently monitors the pumping process, automatically evaluates the quality of each process and wirelessly transmits the results to the customer. This system has now been in 24/7 operation for over three years. As a result of continuous improvement, we are now excited to announce the second generation of these devices.

In this talk, I will explain
- How agile project management can work with a large organisation that is often perceived as bureaucratic
- How the open source software community helped us meet seemingly impossible requirements
- how we managed to keep the customer happy and the project within budget

Session author's bio

Oliver Völckers
1984-1990 Study of Computer Science, Technical University of Berlin, Diplom-Informatiker
1992-1999 Product Manager, Biotronik GmbH & Co KG
2002-2003 Program Manager, IEE S.A., Luxembourg
2004-2012 Founder of VC-financed sensor startup Tech21
since 2013 CEO of BeST Berliner Sensortechnik GmbH, signal processing and sensor development

Special accommodations

none

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Level of Difficulty Beginner

Presentation materials