Adaptive street lighting with camera-free sensing

How adaptive lighting differs from part-night dimming

Conventional part-night dimming lowers light by the clock, regardless of whether anyone is out. That is better than full output all night, but it misses reality: during quiet hours light still goes unused, and when someone does pass through it stays dimmed.

Adaptive lighting reverses the principle. The base level is deliberately low but rises as soon as someone approaches. For residents and pedestrians that produces light when it is needed, rather than uniform brightness with no relation to use.

How the sensing works at the light point

The EnvioLux Sense Kit detects movement using radar. Radar works without an image and is insensitive to darkness, rain and fog, which matters outdoors. What it registers is movement with direction and speed, not a person.

The event becomes a control command: the triggering luminaire raises its output, defined neighbouring luminaires follow, and after a set run-on time without further events the group returns to the base level. The result is a corridor of light that travels with the movement.

Planning zones and scenarios

Adaptive lighting is primarily a design task. What matters is not that light responds, but how: base level, raised level, how far the response travels, run-on time and the time windows in which the scenario is active at all.

• Residential street: A low base level during quiet hours with a clear increase on approach, so paths and driveways are legible.
• Cycle path and footway: A travelling corridor of light with enough lead distance, so the route ahead of the person is already lit.
• Junction: A higher base level, because several modes of travel meet here. The increase supplements rather than replaces base lighting.
• Business and industrial area: Clear reduction outside operating hours, with an increase at entrances and on patrol routes.
• Parks and green spaces: A sensitive layout with nocturnal wildlife in mind, often along defined path axes rather than area flooding.

Safety, acceptance and wildlife

Adaptive concepts have to meet the requirements that apply to the street in question. The reduction is therefore not a free parameter but is checked against the project-specific requirements and the function of the street. Where requirements set a particular level, that level is maintained.

Acceptance also depends on communication. Residents should understand that the street is not going dark but responding to demand. Ecologically, reduced spill light and shorter periods at full output are a welcome side effect, and one that stands up well when colour temperature and shielding are chosen accordingly.

How Sense and EnvioTerminal work together

• Detection: The Sense node detects movement at the light point, camera free and largely weather independent.
• Rule set: EnvioTerminal holds base level, raised level, neighbour relationships and run-on time as a scenario.
• Time control: Calendar profiles define when adaptive behaviour applies and when fixed values do.
• Evidence: Operating data per light point shows how often and how long output was raised.
• Adjustment: Scenarios can be tuned during operation without any intervention at the light point.

Anonymous usage data as a by-product

Because the sensing counts movement events, anonymous counting data about the use of streets and paths is produced, aggregated and without any personal reference. For transport planning, cycling strategies or prioritising maintenance that is a useful basis which would otherwise require separate surveys.