At present, numerous monitoring systems are used for infrastructures such as visual inspection, topographic and photogrammetric methods, sensors based on transmission of electrical signals… Many of these techniques have various disadvantages that sometimes make them only suitable for the local inspection of an area of the structure, limited only to making instantaneous measurements or not being applicable in certain scenarios. To these are added other aspects such as the complexity of its use, its increased sensitivity to environmental factors or the high costs of operation and maintenance.

Faced with these systems is the DFOS (Distributed Fiber Optic Detection) system that allows real-time measurements at thousands of points along a fiber optic cable, allowing measurements of continuous temperature, acoustic and deformation profiles, both in time and space.

WHY USE FIBER OPTICS AS A SENSOR

The main advantages offered by this technology lie in the good properties of the optical fiber: low attenuation, immunity to electromagnetic noise and deflagrations, high transmission speed, small size and weight, flexibility, possibility of multiplexing… Among the variety of Optical Sensors, distributed sensors are very suitable for monitoring large infrastructures. Turning an existent or newly installed optical fiber into thousands of sensors, and then monitor tens of kilometers of asset with a single interrogator, makes it a very cost effective and non-intrusive solution that is being adopted by more industries every year.

OUR VALUE PROPOSITION
  • DFOS technology is in tendency for many applications. At Aragon Photonics we are proud to provide scientists, engineers and integrators with a robust, reliable and open access DAS and DTSS interrogators, capable of capturing huge amount of valuable data.
  • Aragon Photonics exploits the license of the “Chirped-pulse phase-OTDR” technology, which commercial name is HDAS and was born in the University of Alcala de Henares (Madrid), our main R&D partner.
  • HDAS technology can be considered the highest fidelity DAS technology as it provides a linear and quantitative response, with extremely high sensitivity and an homogeneous performance along the fiber.
  • Our second product, BLAST DTSS, complements the HDAS in a clear commitment of developing high performance distributed sensors.
  • Thanks to our strong network of partners we are able to provide support for many markets. Don’t hesitate to contact us and become a partner our ecosystem.
MARKETS & APPLICATIONS

Oil & Gas

  • Pipeline leak detection and location. 
  • Ground movement monitoring (landslinedolines, etc.) .
  • Inline inspection tracking (PIG) .
  • Intrusion and security. 

Power cable

  • Ice or over-heating in fiber/wire.
  • Wind fluctuations over the fiber.
  • Control of elongation fiber/wire.
  • Vibrational modes of fiber.

Railway

  • Rock falling.
  • Landslide.
  • Trains tracking.
  • Intrusion and robbery in railway environment.

Seismic Activity

  • Seismic monitoring using VSP (Vertical Seismic profiling) 
  • Ground movement monitoring. 
  • Reservoir monitoring. 

Water pipelines

  • Pipeline leak detection and location. 
  • Ground movement monitoring (landsline, dolines, etc.).
  • Inline inspection tracking (PIG).
  • Intrusion and security. 

Perimetral security

  • Working environment: Warning of digging machinery (excavator, hammer, etc.).
  • Anti-intrusion: Warning for jumping, cutting, and digging around fences.
  • Street holes manipulation.
  • Fiber and copper wires stealing.

Highways

  • Car accidents.
  • Traffic jams.
  • Get-in/out in opposite direction.
  • Speed limit.

Smart cities

  • Warning of digging machinery.
  • Intrusion of non-credential people in locations.
  • Monitoring of accident of vehicles, trams, underground.
  • Breakdown in pipelines or communications networks.

Subsea cable

  • Anchor or trawl net aggressions.
  • Changes on the seabed.
  • Seismic movement around fiber.
  • Connection fail between connection wires​.
DFOS Technology
DFOS Technology

HDAS is a revolutionary patented DFOS system developed by Aragon Photonics and the University of Alcalá de Henares.

DFOS Products

Aragon Photonics provides the most advanced instruments to monitoring infrastrutures using DFOS technology.