SACAQM opens AI_r Sensor Hosting Programme
- Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University
The move is to encourage participants and broaden data access to improve air quality monitoring capacity.
The South African Consortium of Air Quality Monitoring (SACAQM) has opened participation for its AI_r Sensor Hosting Programme, inviting public institutions, NGOs and private organisations to host AI_r devices as part of a two-year air quality monitoring study. The programme is designed to broaden access to environmental data, strengthen local monitoring capacity, and make air quality information more visible and actionable for communities and decision-makers.
AI_r is a South African-designed and South African-assembled technology platform that brings together air quality sensors, communications and artificial intelligence in a single integrated system. It combines cost-effective environmental sensing with IoT connectivity and real-time AI analytics, enabling continuous monitoring of parameters including PM1.0, PM2.5, PM4.0, PM10.0, VOCs, NOx, COâ‚‚, temperature and humidity. Data from the network is made publicly available through an AI-powered online dashboard, supporting transparent, data-driven environmental monitoring.
Under the hosting programme, selected organisations receive an AI_r sensor free of charge for the duration of the study. Hosts are responsible for collecting the device from Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½, installing it outdoors in a sheltered location, providing Wi-Fi connectivity, and ensuring that it remains powered and continuously connected. The form notes that data usage is approximately 100 MB per month.
Beyond expanding monitoring coverage, the deployment of AI_r sensors will help drive a next-generation air quality modelling capability. Real-time data from the AI_r network, combined with complex atmospheric modelling and satellite observations, will position SACAQM to develop one of the most advanced air quality intelligence platforms globally, delivering improved forecasting, stronger risk assessment and better decision support.
AI_r is also gaining international traction. Partners at the University of Leeds are deploying the technology as part of a major university-led initiative, building one of the largest university-based air quality sensor networks in the UK. Here, 90 units are being rolled out in underserved communities. This expansion highlights the growing global relevance of the South African-designed and assembled AI_r platform and its potential to support more equitable, data-driven environmental monitoring in cities around the world.
The programme reflects SACAQM’s broader mission to solve the affordability problem in air quality monitoring through AI-powered IoT, while building a stronger environmental intelligence network for South Africa.
It also builds on international and national support that has helped advance the AI_r platform, including support from Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), the Pierre Fabre Foundation in France, the Horizons Institute UK (with funding from Dr David Fine), South Africa’s National Research Foundation (NRF), and the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI).