103 Off-Grid Edge Nodes Across 3.6 km
A 103-node city edge deployment at roughly 35 m spacing creates about 3.6 km of distributed sensing coverage for Chennai corridors, campuses, port edges, and civic perimeters. The engineering constraint is not only coverage density. Chennai’s coastal profile combines 1,382.9 mm annual rainfall, 58.8 rainy days, heavy October-November monsoon concentration, and an average land level of about 2.0 m above mean sea level.
For a procurement team, that means the pole is part of the resilience design, not just a mounting point. The Sentinel / Sky Hub configuration should place battery and compute compartments above expected waterlogging levels, seal cable entries, coordinate foundations with storm-water drains, and account for salt-air exposure in surface treatment and hardware selection. The system is a pure smart pole with no lighting system: its role is local sensing, edge processing, autonomous operations support, and event metadata delivery.
Chennai Engineering Inputs
| Parameter | Engineering value | Design implication |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment quantity | 103 poles | Dense edge-node pattern for linear assets and perimeters |
| Typical spacing | 35 m | About 3.6 km of practical corridor coverage |
| Annual rainfall | 1,382.9 mm | Elevated service zones, sealed entries, drainage coordination |
| Rainy days | 58.8 days | Maintenance planning around monsoon exposure |
| Mean land level | ~2.0 m above sea level | Plinth height and flood clearance become first-order requirements |
| Storage class | 5-20 kWh | Buffered operation for sensing, compute, and scheduled robotics loads |
Chennai’s urban scale also matters. The Corporation area expanded from 176 sq km to 426 sq km in 2011, while the wider metropolitan area is about 10.9 million people. Climate normals list a 33.1 degrees C daily maximum mean, with May-June maximum means around 37 degrees C. These numbers point toward sealed electronics, conservative thermal derating, corrosion-aware fasteners, and serviceable field modules.
Local Processing and Human-Controlled Response
Each SOLARTODO Sentinel / Sky Hub node is configured as a fully off-grid physical-AI edge node, powered by on-pole solar replenishment plus battery storage. On-pole solar should be treated as a replenishment layer, not an unlimited energy source; storage buffers the scheduled drone, sensing, compute, and robot-operation workloads.
The edge payload can support anonymous vehicle count, crowd density, intrusion and perimeter awareness, PM2.5, PM10, wind, humidity, pressure, noise, and illuminance sensing. Raw video and sensor streams stay on the pole for local processing; only de-identified event and status metadata should leave the site. Counter-UAS coordination remains non-lethal and human-authorized, limited to detection, tracking, command coordination, soft aerial net-capture, or close-approach deterrence. Radar, where required, should be treated as an optional partner-sensor input rather than pole hardware.
For Chennai, the value of this architecture is practical: distributed local intelligence, reduced cabinet dependency in flood-prone areas, and metadata-first integration with command centers designed for PDPL-LGPD-oriented processing.
Read the full configuration: solartodo.com/solutions/chennai-smart-streetlight-103-unit-35m-skyhub-drone-pole
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