Table of Contents

Distributed sensor network

Introduction

The distributed sensor network is a classic example of the Internet of Things application. Information is gathered from different locations and based on the data controller system makes decisions and controls actuators which can also be in different places. The classical distributed sensor network is a weather station all over the world or traffic monitoring systems in transportations. In this project, we will develop and implement a simple distributed sensor network solution to illustrate the concept and logic of the system. Although the real-life distributed sensor network is expected to have hundreds of sensors, the minimum number of sensors is still at least 2 items. For simplification and cost efficiency in this task, we will have minimal setup and simple operation.

Task

You need to create a simple sensor system which monitors the temperature and humidity in the different locations of the room. Based on sensor data you need to set ventilation fan on and off. If the combination of temperature and humidity in the different places of the room is exceeding a certain limit, run the fan on the window. Stopping the fan must be defined again by the input from the sensors but triggering values must be different than starting the fan. Temperature and humidity values, which trigger fan, can be selected by the student, according to the present condition and the experiment room.

Hardware description

Remote lab instructions

  1. Log into your account at distance.roboticlab.eu.
  2. From under “My site” go to “My devices”.
  3. If you already have something booked then click on the “Book” link or icon.
  4. Choose available IoT device.
  5. Click on the “Book” link or icon.
  6. Choose your preferred end date by clicking on the empty field and then clicking on a date. Press save when you are done.
  7. Go back to “My devices” and choose the IoT device.
  8. In the code editor window click on the “Select Files” and under “Example Files” choose “IoT_DHT_Example.cpp” and “IoT_Relay_Example.cpp”.
  9. Start coding.

Running your code:

  1. While having the code you want to run open click on “Compile”.
  2. Wait for the compiler to finish and check for errors.
  3. If the compiler was successful, then click on “Execute”.

Saving your code:

  1. While having the code you want to save open click on “Save file as..”.
  2. Enter a name for your code and press “Ok”.
  3. To open your code, you can choose it from under “User files”.

Steps to solve the problem

  1. Study temperature and humidity sensor working principles and the output signal
  2. Study control hardware and messaging logic
  3. Develop a distributed sensor network concept
  4. Connect hardware and interface them with remote programming lab
  5. Make a software code for all nodes in the system
  6. Run the code and validate the results