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Design and Development of a Low-Cost IoT based

Environmental Pollution Monitoring System
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Abstract— Environment pollution is one of the foremost and to improve the environmental degradation and manipulate
crucial factors affecting lifestyles and health of human, living pollutants [1].
organisms, natural or built environment. This paper will
provide a low cost environmental pollution monitoring system According to statistics report of the World Health
for monitoring the highly toxic gases like (CO2, CO, & CH4),
Organization (WHO) (2014), polluted air is one out of the
sound pollution, temperature and dust measurements which is
designed by observing users’ requirement to distinguish and eight reasons of global deaths [2-3]. The air quality model of
keep away from disclosure to air and noise pollutants. The WHO shows that ninety two percent of the sector’s populace
system consists of multiple gas sensors, dust device, sound sensor lives in locations where air quality level is over “WHO’s
and temperature sensor that are integrated into a single Ambient Air Quality Guidelines” (10 g/m3 per annual
platform. This paper will present a brand new system that mean). PM2.5 consists of pollutants inclusive of nitrates,
includes digital hardware for obtaining atmospheric data and sulfate and black carbon, which goes very deep into the lungs
software to analyze the results. The designed system can provide and inside the circulatory system and imposes very high risks
calibration of the sensors along with improving the optimization to human body [4].
to preserve vitality which results in the improvement of the
precision of sensor information. In addition to this, the system is
connected to the web via Wi-Fi or customer’s tablet or Some of the contaminated sources can have an effect on
smartphone and can be interfaced to another device for the indoor environments. Unsafe gases are generated from
Internet of Things (IoT) based applications. This work makes an cooking such as carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide
attempt to observe the quality of air and sound of a particular (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and so forth. These risky gases
location and send this information to responsible people who create an oxygen inadequacy inside the lungs and enhance the
will use this information to upgrade the standard of living of
local people of that location, which is one of the first ideas about threat of lung cancer in non-smoking ladies [5-7]. Poisonous
Smart City. The cost and effort of implementation is incredibly gases generated from factories, motor cars, and power plant
cheap and easy as the sensors and the microcontrollers are are responsible for producing greenhouse gases [8].
available in abundant. The online data storage system has
extended the user friendly environment by modernizing all A huge number of people are being connected with each
existing factors over a general server. The experimental results other every day all over the world with the help of internet.
demonstrate the effectualness of this research work in terms of
Modern era has connected not only people, but even devices
quick detection and real time response.
are capable of communicating with each other by the help of
Keywords— IoT, Environmental Monitoring System, Noise internet of things (IoT) [9]. The quantity of devices being
Level, Toxic gas, Sensors. connected with Wi-Fi are increasing rapidly. The main idea
of IoT is to attach smart devices that can be connected in a
I. INTRODUCTION server, and then use the amassed, and administered data to
Environmental pollutants are as vintage as the civilization serve in any mobile apps or software. The system can be as
itself. It has ended up as a major challenge for the last few complex as executing industrial processes, because it does
decades. Technological innovations have introduced radical not rely on human interaction, or notify customers of changes
variations in human life-style and countrywide economic in their surrounding environment [10]. The idea of IoT is
structure with prodigious power over nature. The existing totally established by the communication of sensors and
environmental situation of Bangladesh is imbalanced. The electronic devices, when connected to the internet; it
noise and polluted air are drastically intimidating generates records that allow to take initiative on them [11]. In
bionetworks, human health and financial enhancement of reality, IoT is capable of offering low price monitoring
Bangladesh. Air pollutants are increasing due to inhabitants’ alternatives at the side of a growing infrastructure, which
explosion. Along with that, consumption of fossil fuel, allows emerging observing tasks at a reduced cost associated
vehicular smoke and massive industrialization are with past decades.
responsible for air pollution. The inhabitants of primary cities
of Bangladesh are also exposed to high level of sound Literature [12] demonstrated personal and wearable
pollution due to the reasons like building construction and environmental monitoring systems where multiple sensors
vehicular noise. The authorities have taken necessary actions have integrated to detect air quality in indoors and outdoors.

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Even though the system has conducted numerous noise sensor, dust sensor and temperature sensor. The devices
experimentation, the system needs to be advanced in terms of based on IoT can discover toxic gases, noise detect in indoor
the smart phone applications and internet connectivity. The environments like home, workplace, industry along with
article [13] proposed an industrial pollutant tracking system outdoors environments. For transmitting the sensed data to
by the use of LABVIEW software. The paper proposed an consumers, an android application named “Environment
IoT based online industrial pollution observing system which Monitoring” is developed which can be accessed via internet
was used to control extreme contamination caused by using connection.
raw disposal of waste. Despite of missing the final hardware
setup the article reported that the device could gather data Design strategies and methodology are described in
such as temperature, pH values, CO gas concentration, and section II. Experimental setup such as simulation design,
humidity. In [14], an IoT based environment monitoring hardware and software implementation are briefly discussed
device is recommended. The system is capable of measuring in section III. In section IV, data representation is displayed
the levels of temperature, CO, relative humidity, UV along with the cost analysis. Finally, future work and
radiation, particulate matter (PM) 2.5 and noise using conclusion are studied in the section V.
sensors. It is also capable of preserving the data in a MySQL
database. The Environment Ministry of Chile and the II. DESIGN OF THE PROCEDURE
National Air Quality Information System (SINCA) are Implementation along with retaining a contaminated air
accountable for observing & distributing data about the air observing system is costly particularly when the intention is
quality in Chile [15]. In literature [16], an IoT based air- to achieve a long term goal to monitor over a large area. It is
pollution observing and predicting method is proposed. To very crucial that the websites are optimized for large
monitor the pollution perfectly, the system was well coverage at a reduced price [19]. Procedures to design a long-
synchronized with numerous numbers of sensors. To exhibit term air and noise pollution tracking network for a city area,
the improving trend of estimation of air contamination begin with choosing sites by assigning present statistics.
analyzed by the data acquired from front- end discernment After that, optimization can be done to any suggested system
method, the neural network was used. These days, air based at the contamination levels. A network allotted
pollution is monitored with the aid of static air quality erratically in the metropolis for monitoring, could lead to a
measurement stations that are operated by authorized people. higher evaluation of the effects of pollution on human health
These stations are surprisingly reliable and can measure the than the uniformly allotted system that exists at present. This
pollution in air to a high degree of precision and accuracy by results in a low-cost & effective solution for observing the
the help of analytical instruments including mass surroundings.
spectrometers. But high cost of obtaining and working, such
stations limits the wide range of installations. The system proposed here is based on the wireless
transmission of environmental variables, spatially disbursed
In literature [17], a station for noise monitoring was within the urban area, its supervision and storage are
established at the Association for the Development of connected through an internet platform. The device can be
Industrial Aerodynamics (ADAI) at the University of considered as an IoT-based data acquirement system. The
Coimbra. It was modified into a flexible server for monitoring proposed system uses IoT to deal with the surroundings
real time data of environmental noise. A web page was pollutants in real-time applications. Dust sensor, gas sensors
premeditated and executed which permitted consumers to and noise sensor are embedded in this system to display the
view and acknowledged an overview of the advancement of pollution constantly to preserve the standard of the
the noise level of 24 hours. A Raspberry Pi based wireless environment.
sensor network for observing and monitoring environmental
pollution data was presented in the article [18]. The system The data acquisition system had distant nodules
was tested to ensure stability and workability. It was created disseminated within the urban areas and a central server was
at National Physical Laboratory, U.K. and later on it was used to maintain the data acquisition system. Within the
implemented near a railway construction site located at the nodes, the following environmental variables are displayed
center of London. Up to now noise monitoring has depended by an android application as well as by a dedicated website:
on traditional techniques and appliances along with baseline Temperature, Gas (CO, CO2, & CH4), Noise and Dust
surveys involving trained professionals and expensive sound pollution. For the persistence of this device, nodes are going
level meters. But, the expanded costs of such solutions to be outlined as the hardware and there will be designed
restrict large-scale noise surveys and so the time and spatial software to collect and transmit data wirelessly to the server.
resolution obtained are normally low. The usage of The nodes consist of a microcontroller ATmega328, sound
contemporary technology can offer solutions to the issue detector sensor module, two gas sensors (MG812 for CO2
described. and MQ-2 for CO & CH4), dust sensor module
(GP2Y1010AU0F), temperature detector (Model SEN-
This paper proposes an IoT based low cost environmental 00017), USB to UART device module, LCD display. The
pollution monitoring system with a developed android app for system can be powered by a lithium-ion battery and a solar
users. This device can be used as a real-time environment panel could be implemented for power backup in future. As
pollutants tracking device. The goal of this research is to soon as the nodules are mounted in the monitoring site, the
explore a personal environment monitoring device embedded gadget will start to sense the environmental parameters and
with an IoT device, to compute environmental detoxification. data will be gathered which later on will be transmitted to the
The device adopts a couple of environmental gas sensors, web server. Each sensor will collect data and transmit data


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along with its location to its station server. Each time the date sensor such as security, switch, and observing applications.
and the local time will be noted thus creating a complete data Its precision can be easily accustomed to the suitability of
base. An android app is developed for front-end users to usage. It is combined with a microphone which provides the
observe the collected data. The design of the proposed system input to an amplifier, a buffer circuit, and peak detector.
is displayed in a block diagram shown in Fig. 1. When the sound is detected, an output signal in terms of
voltage is processed by it. The microcontroller receives the
signal and then performs required processing.

Fig.1 Block diagram of the proposed system

III. PROPOSED SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE

The hardware experimental setup of the system for
observing environmental contamination is shown in Fig. 3.
The simulation was utilized using Proteus software shown in
Fig.2. After the simulation, the hardware was implemented.
The proposed model is discussed into main two parts: Fig.3 Hardware setup of the prototype model
hardware implementation and development of software &
mobile application. The dust sensor (GP2Y1010AU0F) is utilized for locating
dust in homes, cigarette smoke and etc. and it is designed as
A. Hardware Implementation: a sensor for applications which includes purification of air for
The hardware implementation of the system mainly purifier function. LM35 Temperature sensor is also
contains of microcontroller ATmega328 which is well known embedded with the other sensors. We interfaced the system
for its low power consumption and great enactment. The with computer by USB to TTL converter. An application used
microcontroller was utilized to read and control the data from to give the data over the server. We used TTL converter to
sensors. It sent the information to a pre-authorized server and interface the computer and microcontroller and also to read
a LCD display was used for demonstrating the data. Wireless the data from microcontroller and illustrate them to computer
Gas Sensors (MG812 & MQ-2) were used to measure the CO, applications.
CO2 and CH4 gas concentration in air. These are quite simple
and a very cost efficient gas sensors and used in abundant B. Software Implementation:
because of their high performance and power optimization Visual Basic was used to develop the software. The data
quality. were sent in a hoisting site by this software. It continuously
transferred the temporary files from the visual basic software
to the microcontroller and microcontroller established these
data as a serial data. The server mainly executes three
objectives which are receiving and displaying the information
of the sensors through microcontroller, storing data of the
sensors in the database for future analysis, and sending the
sensor data to customer to analyze & acquire information.

Fig.2 Circuit simulation of the prototype model

Fig.4 Back end representation of the software
The sensor used for detecting sound is sound sensor
module available in the market which can be utilized to detect The first function of the server is to obtain the data in real
the sound intensity. There are numerous ways to use the time from sensors at the location where the device is installed.


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The next function is to accumulate the data of pollution and mobile apps can display the pollutant level which is shown in
the last function is to provide access of the data to all the Fig. 6.
customers and experts’ server through IoT. The main
objective of the client is to obtain wireless sensor data from
main server using IoT. Consumer page investigates the data
that comprises of the pollutants level in an area. The back end
representation of the software is shown in Fig. 4.
C. Android Application:
AppSheet is a platform to create apps for users using the
data stored in cloud storage or in a spreadsheet. The app can
be accessed from variety of devices such as smart phones,
tablets, and web browsers.

Fig.6 Front end representation of the sensors’ data at different times

Fig.5 Mobile Apps layout
All the sensors’ data were displayed in the Fig. 7 for a total
For the environment monitoring application, at first the duration of five months. Dust sensor data represented as black
data for different parameters such as various gases, sound, solid lines. Whereas, red, green, blue, pink colors displayed
dust particle and temperature were collected using sensors for sound, methane gas, carbon monoxide and temperature
a duration of 24 hours. Later on the data was stored in the respectively. The units are visible at the right-top of the Fig.7.
Google spreadsheet. The spreadsheet was integrated with the
appsheet platform which allowed customizing the front-end
of the application using various features offered by the
appsheet. When user interface was created, the app was
published under the name ‘Environment Monitoring’ for
general use and the app can be downloaded from the app store
using android version 4.2 or above on smart phones or tablets.
The layout of the developed mobile apps for smartphone
users is shown in Fig. 5.

IV. RESULT AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION

The performance of the developed IOT based system is
tested and verified by conducting various experiments. Fig. 6
shows the front end representation of the sensors’ the data
that were observed by the system at different times. The
Fig.7 A graphical representation of sensors’ data of 150 days
pollutants’ level was displayed by the monitoring system for
a particular place displayed in Fig. 6. The contaminant data
The experimental demonstration of the prototype model
were sent to the server for checking the levels of the pollution
confirms its workability, consistency and effectiveness. The
by the controller. Fig. 7 shows a graphical representation of
cost analysis of the proposed device is displayed in Table I.
the total output data stored in the server. The details of the
From the table it can be observed that the prototype model
time and date at which the pollutants were measured are
costs only 45 USD which is less than the model proposed in
displayed by the server. This data are stored in the server for
literature [14].
future analysis. The user receives the values of the
atmosphere from the server using IoT and consumer
investigates these pollutant levels of a specified area. The


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TABLE I. COST ANALYSIS Available:http://www.who.int/phe/health_topics/outdoorair/databases.

(Accessed: February 1, 2018)
Serial Main Components Price [4] [Online]. Available: http://www.who.int/en/news-room/detail/27-09-
No. 2016-who-releases-country-estimates-on-air-pollution-exposure-and-
1. Microcontroller, LCD Display, Crystal, $5 health-impact (Accessed: January 10, 2018)
Vero-Board, Connecting wire [5] Pope III, C. A., Burnett, R. T., Thun, M. J., Calle, E. E., Krewski, D.,
2. PL2303 USB to TTL Converter $2 Ito, K., & Thurston, G. D., “Lung cancer, cardiopulmonary mortality,
3. Sound Sensor Module $2.5 and long-term exposure to fine particulate air pollution,”Journal of the
American Medical Association, 287(9), pp. 1132-1141.
4. Gas Sensor (MG812 CO2 Gas Sensor) $15
[6] George F. Fine, Leon M. Cavanagh, Ayo Afonja and Russell Binion,
5. Gas Sensors (MQ-2 for CO, CH4 Gas $2.5 “Metal Oxide Semi-Conductor Gas Sensors in Environmental
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Analysis and Networking (CDAN), March 2016, pp. 1–5.
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