Towards a Smart City: An IoT based framework to acquire environmental signals from Hyderabad.

Project Title

Towards a Smart City: An IoT based framework to acquire environmental signals from Hyderabad.

Project Area of Specialization Internet of ThingsProject Summary

INTRODUCTION

In populated cities, the main factor that affects the quality of human lifestyle is pollution, which is in different forms in our environment such as, air pollution, noise pollution, light pollution, etc. These pollutions have various effects on human health and comfort. It is proven that “Pollutants can affect cardiovascular health by hardening the arteries and increase the risk of heart attack and strokes, and there is even emerging evidence that air pollution may be linked to mental health conditions and degenerative brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and schizophrenia” [1]. It is also proven that “Continued exposure to high levels of noise has proven effects on health, including acute effects such as sleep disruption, and long-term effects such as hypertension, heart disease, and hearing loss. In addition, studies have revealed the negative impacts of noise on the learning of children. This cognitive impairment includes effects such as decreased memory, reading skills and lower test scores” [2].

To analyze this noise and various other pollutions, 10 sensing IoT frameworks based prototype will be deployed at multiple locations in Hyderabad, Pakistan. These prototypes will acquire real-time data from their locations. The prototype will collect different environmental signals such as noise pollution, air pollution, temperature, humidity, and light intensity.

COMPONENTS:

• Arduino Pro Mini: This sensor is extremely compact in size compared to its microcontroller family.  It uses ATmega328 and has 14 digital I/O pins and 6 analog pins that are useful for projects, which use multiple sensors simultaneously.
• MQ-135: MQ-135 is an Air Quality sensor, having fast response and high sensitivity. It is one of the best affordable sensors to detect air pollution through the measure of different harmful gases in the enviroment.

• DHT-22: DHT-22 is a basic temperature and humidity detecting sensor using a thermistor and capacitive humidity sensor to measure the environment. DHT-11 is also an inexpensive alternative but DHT-22 is more accurate and has a bigger range of temp/humidity readings.

• MAX9814: This is a high-quality pre-amplified microphone in its league. MAX9814 is also a low-cost sensor compared to its alternative such as, KY-038 and SPW2430. This microphone has an Automatic gain control and low-noise preamplifier, which detects low background noise and amplifies them to a fixed 12dB gain.

• SD CARD MODULE: It is an SPI interface based module, which is used for transferring data to and from a standard SD card.

References:

1. https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/what-air-pollution-does-to-your-body_n_5a1a7f47e4b064948074da5f
2. C. Mydlarz, M. Sharma, Y. Lockerman, B. Steers, C. Silva, and J. P. Bello, “The life of a new york city noise sensor network,” Sensors (Switzerland), vol. 19, no. 6, pp. 1–24, 2019.

Project Objectives

1. To understand the working principle of various environmental monitoring sensors for their potential use in our project.
2. Integration of multiple sensors program into a single working platform.
3. To design a proper PCB made prototype and model it into an acrylic box which is weatherproof.
4. To situate prototype in the most densely populated area of Hyderabad to obtain real-time data.
5. Data analysis and reporting to the planning and development authorities of Hyderabad City.

Project Implementation Method

• The prototype has to be installed in the balcony on the road with proper management so that it is safe from any animal and severe weather conditions at 10 different places will be selected in Hyderabad city to set up prototypes for data acquisition. The places would be the densely populated places of the city.
• The prototype would be given to 10 fellow class members living near the concerned location.
• The prototype has to be installed in the balcony on the road with proper management so that it is safe from any animal and severe weather conditions. Whereas, Mic would be provided with a windshield, which can isolate severe wind noises.

Benefits of the Project

1. A smart city is an IT-based infrastructure, which connects and collects big data on a single platform using the Internet of Things. It can collect information from the facial recognition of people to how many people sat on a bus at the bus stop.
2. In this project, we are working on the environmental signals that how can we make our city better and help the government tackle the issue faced by people in a daily environment.
3. The issues covered in this project will be excessive noise, bad air quality, excessive temperature, humidity, and light intensity.
4. Deploying air quality sensors in different locations of Hyderabad city can provide data to track the specific time when air quality is low and what is the cause of that.
5. Similarly, audio sensors can detect at what particular time the noise is at its peak and how can it be reduced to save lives since medical problems related to pollution claim millions of lives each year.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

Two Circuits (PCBs) would be modeled into an acrylic box one for the measurement of Air Quality using MQ-135, Temp and humidity using DHT22 connected with an Arduino Pro Mini and SD Card Module to save and store data.

The other Circuit would purely be for environmental audio recording and to extract noise signals i.e. engine noise, bus and car horns, pedestrians, aircraft, etc. The audio would be recorded from MAX9814 and stored into an SD Card module using Arduino Pro Mini.

Final Deliverable of the Project Hardware SystemCore Industry ITOther Industries IT Core Technology Internet of Things (IoT)Other Technologies OthersSustainable Development Goals Good Health and Well-Being for People, Climate ActionRequired Resources

Item Name	Type	No. of Units	Per Unit Cost (in Rs)	Total (in Rs)
			Total in (Rs)	70050
ARDUINO PRO MINI	Equipment	40	300	12000
ARDUINO UNO	Equipment	1	850	850
DHT-22	Equipment	20	450	9000
MQ-135	Equipment	20	550	11000
MAX9814	Equipment	20	1200	24000
SD CARD MODULE	Equipment	40	150	6000
SD CARD	Equipment	10	500	5000
SD CARD JACKET	Miscellaneous	40	50	2000
COPPER CABLES	Miscellaneous	10	20	200