Low cost sensors and system development for indoor environment monitoring of hospitals.

Project Title

Low cost sensors and system development for indoor environment monitoring of hospitals.

Project Area of Specialization Biomedical EngineeringProject Summary SUMMARY

The number of medical equipment, which is vital for health care facilities, is very limited primarily in developing countries. Furthermore, the performance of these existing equipment is also deteriorating due to various factors including environmental issues. The environment of the hospital should be safe and healthy for both patients and medical professionals. Moreover, the presence of excessive dirt-particles, air pollution, significant variations in room temperature, and humidity can have a negative effect on the efficiency of the equipment and well-being of people. The adverse quality of air inside the hospitals can have unhealthy chronic effects on medical personnel too. The environment in hospitals, particularly where patients are housed, should have regulated temperature and humidity level. 

In this project, we want to develop a Low-cost and smart system based on sensors to observe and monitor the indoor environment at hospitals including intensive care units, operation theaters, and laboratories. The system would consist of sensors to monitor the air quality, presence of dirt particles, the concentration of harmful gases like CO2, Methane, CO, and parameters like temperature, humidity, fire, and smoke. The system would be consisting of low-cost sensors integrated with the main microcontroller in order to have processing and artificial intelligence. Furthermore, this system will have Wi-Fi/GSM capability to communicate as well. 

The system would consist of the green electronics-based self-fabricated and inexpensive state of the art sensors. The system would be smart enough to generate alerts to the concerned department depending upon the situation. The parameters recorded by the system will be displayed in the command unit of the hospital including emergency services using the mobile-based application. The project would be able to connect with the thermal comfort system of hospital so that a healthy environment would be maintained.  The main objective of the project is that we can provide a better and healthy environment to patients, health care personals, and increase the life and quality of medical equipment. The project would have a profound socio-economic effect as it will help to make hospital environment healthier, reducing the cost of medical equipment and will help in retaining its efficiency and performance. Furthermore, our proposed device will be extremely beneficial for those health care facilities which are located closer to the industrial or economic area and usually face the poor air quality. Figure 1. shows the complete scheme of the proposed projects consisting of data collection through sensors, data processing through modules and information sharing through mobile App, display, emergency alert and alarm system. 

Figure 1. Scheme based architecture of low-cost and smart indoor environment monitoring system.

Project Objectives OBJECTIVES

Our project “low-cost sensor and system development for indoor environment monitoring of hospitals” use to solve many problems of hospitals such as to identify temperature, humidity, thermal comfort, indoor air quality, visual comfort, and acoustic comfort. As to get maximum results from different machines in hospitals it is necessary that we must provide specific room conditions to them. Recovery of patients also increases as they stay in environment which is necessary for their health. Productivity of staff of hospitals is maximum when they work at controlled environment. It also helps in increasing living standard of people.

In this project we design and fabricate low-cost paper-based temperature and humidity sensors. As electronic wastes are increasing day by day which results in increase of pollution to avoid this problem, we convinced to design our own paper-based sensors to test temperature and humidity. The fabricated sensors would be environment friendly, reusable, foldable, effective and easy to fabricate with low-cost, non-energy intensive, eco-friendly and solvent free fabrication techniques.

Our objective is to develop a low-cost, indigenous, state-of-the-art device that can sense vital air parameters including concentration of dust particles, hazardous gasses, smoke and humidity. Our device will continuously monitor the air quality and would display the observed parameters on mobile-based application and locally available displays. Through app hospital administrators can monitor environmental conditions of all departments of the hospital by sitting in his office or from anywhere. Moreover, in case of critical condition, alarms would also be reported to concerned personnel for best possible decision making and prevention from life threatening conditions. 

The projects also include the integration of sensor system with the thermal comfort system of the indoor environments. Thermal comfort represents the subjective state of mind satisfaction with the thermal environment. The effects of noise on humans are reflected in psychological effects such as nervousness and decreased concentration. This project helps in significant health and financial benefits for the implementation of Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ) in the built environment. The quantifiable objectives of our projects are:

1. To fabricate ultra low cost and biodegradable sensors at Lab for temperature and humidity sensing.
2. To develop a sensor system to monitor the indoor thermal comfort level.
3. To develop a sensor system to monitor the presence of hazardous gases.
4. To develop a sensor system to monitor the acoustic and visual comfort level.
5. To develop a system to monitor the sensors data locally and remotely using display and mobile app, respectively.
6. To develop and emergency system to generate alerts in emergency condition to the concerned persons as well as the management to control the environment.
    

Project Implementation Method IMPLIMENTATION

Low-cost, indigenous, and smart monitoring system for the environment parameters is very much crucial for our community. Particularly in the industrial cities of the Punjab, owing to industrial advancement, the air quality has deteriorated. The proposed monitoring system will be able to continuously monitor various parameters of air quality. The proposed sensor system consists of sensors located at different point of the hospitals to monitor the environment parameters like temperature, humidity, dirt particles, smoke etc. The system would also comprise different gas sensors to sense the presence the hazardous gasses into the environment. The sensors would be able to communicate to the central module. The central system would communicate the monitored data to the concerned authorities and personals through the mobile app. The system overall consists of three layers as Figure 2 shows the block diagram of proposed project. The sensor layer consists of sensors and from this layer the data would be collected from all the sensors and will further be relayed to the control layer. The control layer processes the input data into the useful information for application layer. The application layer will be used to provide information to the concerned person by displaying them the information using LCD displays and Mobile App. The application layer includes intimation the concerned ones through alarms and the action part as the looking into the data and the necessary action would be taken so that indoor environment could be maintained for better performance and health.

Figure 2. Block diagram-based scheme of environment monitoring system.

The process to design a system for the challenges, mentioned before, consists of five steps (see Figure 3). The design process starts with design and fabrication of paper based, and green sensors for indoor environment parameters. The system consisting of sensors would be developed by integrating the individual sensors with the modules. The data obtained would be processed from preliminary data to the useful data so that only the useful data would be communicated for further processing. The processed data would be communicated to concerned person, decision makers, stake holders and authorities. The data would be displayed on LCD display to concerned person available locally. A mobile app would be developed so that the data could be monitored remotely as well. An emergency alert and alarm system would also be developed so that the alerts would be generated to expedite the response in the case of emergency or critical situations. The system would be integrated to the thermal comfort system to automatically maintain the comfort level as its own. The developed system would be passed through the rigorous calibration and testing process so that the system could repose accurately in operations.  

Figure 3. Implementation process for indoor environment system.

Benefits of the Project BENEFITS

People spend most of the time about 90% indoor whether in residential or commercial buildings or in their vehicles. We are continuously exposed to the indoor environment. Other than normal and working peoples, the patients spend 100% of their times in indoor environment even at hospitals or homes. Generally, all environmental aspects have a massive impact on the quality of people’s lives and productivity of workers. The indoor air quality and thermal comfort subsequently are significantly affected by the temperature, relative humidity, airflow pattern, dirt particles and other parameters in the indoor space. People spending their time indoor have face some life threating condition by leakage of hazardous gases or with presence of fire. The project proposed a smart solution for indoor environment to monitor the level of thermal comfort, indoor air quality, visual comfort, and acoustic comfort. 

The project monitors the described parameters using sensors network placed in indoor environment.  In this project we are taking care of the issues of sensors as increasing the electronic waste due to the use of non-recyclable and non-degradable materials. Existing sensors are fabricated from solvent based, costly, non-ecofriendly and chemical intensive fabrication process. Owing to the said issues, we are working on the fabrication of some sensors as temperature and humidity sensors through cost-effective, environment friendly processes using biodegradable, easily and readily available materials. Some sensors such as dirt sensors, pressure sensors would also be used in this project because a good indoor air quality is also affected by dirt particles and gases. Similarly, a good indoor air quality is necessary for the rapid recovery of patients, healing of wounds and to overcome many complexities due to dirt particles in environment of operation rooms. Also, some medical machines require specific range of environmental factors for their accurate working so a low-cost sensor network is used at hospitals. Best indoor air quality is also necessary for the staff working at hospitals. Few highlights of benefits of project are:

1. Paper based our own fabricated sensors would be used in this project as cheapest to the existing ones. 
2. Our green electronics-based sensors contribute positivly towards environment because of eco-friendly fabrication.  
3. Low-cost sensor system to save the lives of hospitalized and diseased persons from life threatening conditions.
4. Smart sensor system to maintain the quality of the environment in hospitals to maintain the performance of too expensive medical equipment’s.
5. The system would positively contribute to increase the performance of healthcare professionals by providing them a maintained environment.
6. The project can add it contribution to providing the good health and well-being of the humans by reducing illness and deaths from hazardous gasses and pollution.
    

Technical Details of Final Deliverable DELIVERABLES

The proposed project consists of sensor network to continuously monitoring the indoor environment. The project would be measuring/sensing the key parameters of indoor environment related to health of people living or working indoor as thermal comfort, hazardous gases, visual comfort, and illuminance comfort. The proposed project sensing the environmental factors as well as display it locally and remotely through display and mobile app, respectively. The system also gives alerts in emergency conditions to the concerned persons through alarms, messages, and the management to take preemptive measures to maintain the health save lives from life threatening conditions. 

The proposed sensor and emergency system would be able to use at hospitals to provide the thermal, visual, and acoustic comfort and improved air to the patients and medical personals. The thermal comfort system has usage in hospitals to maintain the performance of the costly testing equipment as the performance has negative effect of the temperature, humidity etc. The system also has implications in hospitals to provide the dirt and dust free environments for diseased persons as well as operation theaters and testing rooms. The proposed system would have usage in homes to provide the improved standards of living at houses. The project could also be used in industry and working environment so that the healthy facilities would be provided to the workers and employees to increase the productivity and reduce the illnesses. The comfort and improve environment feel the healthcare professionals and patients satisfied and give condition for prosperity. The project also has the usage in schools to improve the performance of students by providing them the thermal comfort, indoor quality air, visual and acoustic comfort. The project provides the health benefits to occupants and workers productivity inside. The overall deliverables of the project are:

1. Self-fabricated low-cost sensors for humadity and temperature measurement.
2. A sensor system to monitor the indoor thermal comfort level.
3. A sensor system to monitor the indoor air quality and presence of hazardous gases.
4. A sensor system to monitor the acoustic and visual comfort level.
5. A system to monitor the sensors data locally and remotely using display and mobile app, respectively.
6. An emergency system to generate alerts in emergency condition to the concerned persons as well as the management to control the environment.
    

Final Deliverable of the Project HW/SW integrated systemCore Industry HealthOther Industries Medical , Manufacturing , Others Core Technology OthersOther Technologies Internet of Things (IoT), Clean TechSustainable Development Goals Good Health and Well-Being for People, Decent Work and Economic Growth, Sustainable Cities and CommunitiesRequired Resources

Item Name	Type	No. of Units	Per Unit Cost (in Rs)	Total (in Rs)
			Total in (Rs)	79850
High Graphite Content Pencils	Equipment	20	100	2000
Copper Tape	Equipment	3	3500	10500
Silver Tape	Equipment	2	1200	2400
Aluminium Foil	Equipment	2	250	500
Paper (Photo, baking, butter etc)	Equipment	10	100	1000
Arduino Mega	Equipment	3	2000	6000
Arduino Uno	Equipment	2	1000	2000
LCD	Equipment	4	400	1600
Bread Board	Equipment	3	150	450
Digital Temperature Sensor For Characterization	Equipment	1	1000	1000
Development of Characterization Environment	Equipment	2	5000	10000
Methane Monitor	Equipment	2	5000	10000
Dirt Monitor	Equipment	2	1500	3000
Fire Monitor	Equipment	2	1000	2000
Smoke Monitor	Equipment	2	1500	3000
Digital Humidity Sensor	Equipment	3	1000	3000
Bluetooth Module	Equipment	3	300	900
Zigbee	Equipment	3	1000	3000
Wi-Fi Module	Equipment	3	2000	6000
Resistors and Capacitors	Equipment	50	10	500
Jumper Wires for Arduino	Miscellaneous	100	5	500
Solder Iron and Stand	Equipment	1	1000	1000
Solder Wire and Paste	Miscellaneous	1	1000	1000
PCBs Preparation (PCB Sheet, Solutions etc)	Miscellaneous	1	2000	2000
Printing	Miscellaneous	1	2000	2000
Stationary	Miscellaneous	1	2000	2000
Overheads (delivery costs, currency fluctions etc)	Miscellaneous	1	2500	2500