Green Smart Campus Monitoring and Detection Using LoRa

Monitoring of a Productive Blue-Green Roof Using Low-Cost Sensors

Considering the rising concern over climate change and the need for local food security, productive blue-green roofs (PBGR) can be an effective solution to mitigate many relevant environmental issues. However, their cost of operation is high because they are intensive, and an economical operation and maintenance approach will render them as more viable alternative. Low-cost sensors with the Internet of Things can provide reliable solutions to the real-time management and distributed monitoring of such roofs through monitoring the plant as well soil conditions. This research assesses the extent to which a low-cost image sensor can be deployed to perform continuous, automated monitoring of a urban rooftop farm as a PBGR and evaluates the thermal performance of the roof for additional crops. An RGB-depth image sensor was used in this study to monitor crop growth. Images collected from weekly scans were processed by segmentation to estimate the plant heights of three crops species. The devised technique performed well for leafy and tall stem plants like okra, and the correlation between the estimated and observed growth characteristics was acceptable. For smaller plants, bright light and shadow considerably influenced the image quality, decreasing the precision. Six other crop species were monitored using a wireless sensor network to investigate how different crop varieties respond in terms of thermal performance. Celery, snow peas, and potato were measured with maximum daily cooling records, while beet and zucchini showed sound cooling effects in terms of mean daily cooling.

Wireless Temperature, Relative Humidity and Occupancy Monitoring System for Investigating Overheating in Buildings

With the climate change we are experiencing today, the number and intensity of heatwaves are increasing dramatically, significantly impacting our buildings' overheating. The majority of the prefabricated concrete panel buildings in Hungary are considered outdated from an energy point of view. These buildings may be at greater risk from extreme weather events. To examine this, long-term monitoring measurements are needed. Therefore, we developed a unique, reliable, and cost-effective wireless monitoring system, which can track in real time the indoor air quality data (temperature, relative humidity, CO₂) of the investigated apartment building, as well as users' habits, such as resident presence, window opening, and blind movement. The data were used to analyse and quantify the summer overheating of the dwelling and user habits. The measurements showed that the average temperature in all rooms was above 26 °C, and there were several occasions when the temperature exceeded 30 °C. Overheating in apartment buildings in summer is a significant problem that needs to be addressed. Further investigation of ventilation habits will help develop favourable ventilation strategies, and using these measurements in dynamic simulations will also help improve the models' validity for further studies.

Design and Realization of Seeding Quality Monitoring System for Air-Suction Vibrating Disc Type Seed Meter

To improve the seeding qualification rate and stability of the air-suction vibrating disc type seed meter on the rice seedling raising line, in this paper, an improved wireless sensor network node layout optimization algorithm was proposed, and the operation monitoring system of the seed meter was designed using the Internet of Things and configuration software. In the system, the upper computer software adopted the Kingview software, the lower computer took the STM32F429IGT and CC2530 as the core controllers, and ZigBee was selected for data transmission to build the wireless sensor network. The acquisition of field status information and the sending of control instructions were realized through the sensor nodes constructed by the CC2530 core controller. The data was sent to the coordinator node in real-time through the wireless sensor network. The coordinator node realized the bidirectional transmission of data with Kingview and the upper computer control instructions forwarding using the ASCII protocol The host computer monitoring and management software was developed based on configuration software to realize real-time data monitoring, access database storage, fault alarm, control command sending and other functions. The experimental results showed that the detection accuracy of the system for the seeding amount and missed seeding amount was 94.3% and 95.6%, respectively, which could realize the monitoring of the primary working status of the seed meter. The system realized effective data transmission and data remote wireless transmission function, which provided sufficient theoretical and data support for the performance optimization of the seed meter, and laid a good foundation for the visualization and intelligence of information data.

Applying an Integrated System of Cloud Management and Wireless Sensing Network to Green Smart Environments-Green Energy Monitoring on Campus

With increasing urbanization, the application of Internet of things (IoT) technology to city governance has become a trend in architecture, transportation, and healthcare management, making IoT applicable in various domains. This study used IoT to inspect green construction and adopted a front-end sensing system, middle-end wireless transmission, and a back-end multifunctional system structure with cloud management. It integrated civil and electrical engineering to develop environmental monitoring technology and proposed a management information system for the implementation of green engineering. This study collected physical “measurements” of the greening environment on a campus. Ambient temperature and humidity were analyzed to explore the greening and energy-saving benefits of a green roof, a pervious road, and a photovoltaic roof. When the ambient temperature was below 25 °C, the solar panels had an insulation effect on the roof of the building during both 4:00−5:00 and 12:00−13:00, with an optimal insulation effect of 2.45 °C. When the ambient temperature was above 25 °C, the panels had a cooling effect on the roof of the building, whether during 4:00−5:00 or 12:00−13:00, with an optimal cooling effect of 5.77 °C. During the lower temperature period (4:00−5:00), the ecological terrace had an insulation effect on the space beneath, with an effect of approximately 1−3 °C and a mean insulation of 1.95 °C. During the higher temperature period (12:00−13:00), it presented a cooling effect on the space beneath, with an effect of approximately 0.5−9 °C and a mean cooling temperature of 5.16 °C. The cooling effect of the three greening areas on air and ground temperature decreased in the following order: pervious road > photovoltaic roof > ecological terrace.

Community- and Data-Driven Services for Multi-Policy Pedestrian Routing

Pedestrian routing is important in a multitude of public spaces, especially those characterized by a large number of newcomers. Their needs may be diverse, with priority for the shortest path, the less crowded or the less polluted one, the accessibility for reduced mobility, or the sheltering from unfavorable weather conditions. Hence, typical graph-based routing must be enriched to support multiple policies, at the choice of each person. The paper proposes a systemic approach and a set of services for orientation and accessibility, which are both community-driven and data-driven, for correctly perceiving the routing necessities and the surrounding situation. The response time to a pathfinding query depends on the types of policies applied and not only on their number, because each of them contributes to the customization of the weighted graph, although it refers to the same physical space traversed by pedestrians. The paper also presents results of loading tests for up to 5000 Virtual Users, inspired from real-life requirements and executed on a graph that models a real building in our university; different policies are applied to assess performance metrics, with simulated community feedback and sensor data.

A Communication Framework for Image Transmission through LPWAN Technology

Analyzing the conditions of use and selecting which technology is more efficient to apply is required when transmitting information through wireless networks.The Internet of Things (IoT) has gained traction in industry and academia as a paradigm in which information and communication technologies merge to deliver unique solutions by detecting, actuating, calculating, and sharing massive volumes of data via embedded systems. In this scenario, Low-Power Wide-Area Networks (LPWAN) appear to be an attractive solution for node connectivity. Typical IoT solutions demand flexible restrictions for wireless communication networks in terms of data rates and latency in exchange for having larger communication ranges and low energy consumption. Nonetheless, as the amount of data and data speeds demanded for particular applications increase, such as image transmissions, IoT network connectivity deteriorates. This paper proposes a communication architecture for image transmission across LPWAN networks utilizing LoRa modulation. The framework combines image processing techniques (classification, compressive sensing (CS), and reconstruction) with an investigation of LoRa modulation parameters using a Software-Defined Radio (SDR) environment. The results show that is possible to communicate an image of 128×128 pixels with four packets and one frequency channel in 2.51 s.

A Novel Strategy for Monitoring a PV Junction Box Based on LoRa in a 3 kW Residential PV System

Recently, 3 kW residential PV (Photovoltaic) junction boxes have mainly been installed on the roof or outer wall of building. Wired and wireless monitoring systems are being implemented by RS-485 and WIFI/IoT. However, conventional monitoring systems have a communication limitation according to the distance and environment. It cannot receive any information when a failure of the PV junction box occurs. Therefore, there is a need for a strategy to determine whether the fuse and diode in the PV junction box are faulty through voltage and current sensors. In this paper, we propose a novel strategy for monitoring PV junction boxes, based on LoRa (Long Range). The TTGO LoRa32 V2.0 module with LoRa and various input and output ports is utilized. The wireless TX module transmits various data collected from the PV junction box to the RX module in real time. In addition, the RX module displays the received data on an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) screen so that the user can intuitively identify it, and the data is recorded on the internal storage device or database in the web server. The manufactured PV junction box monitoring system was tested under a 3 kW PV system. Additionally, communication reception has stable signal intensity overall, both indoors and outdoors. In particular, it shows excellent characteristics in maintaining RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) > −99 dBm and PER (Packet Error Rate) < 2.7%, up to a radius of 200 m, even in NLOS (Non Line-Of-Sight) environments. Although some packet loss occurred, it was confirmed that invisible communication was possible up to 300 m.

Channel Occupancy Measurements in 868 MHz ISM Band in Residential Areas

The rapid development of Internet of Things (IoT) has led to more and more devices using ISM frequency bands. Because they are not time synchronized, medium access collisions are unavoidable. The probability of such a collision is usually reasonably low; however, it increases with the number of transmitters competing for the same frequency channel. For this reason, ISM bands' occupancy is regularly monitored by researchers. This paper presents the results of the measurement campaign during which a selected part of the 868 MHz ISM frequency band was monitored for the presence of transmissions in six locations in various residential areas in Warsaw, Poland. For the purpose of the campaign, a dedicated measurement set-up comprising a software-defined radio (SDR) module was assembled. The measurements results showed that the channel occupancy is in most cases lower than 1% with a maximum observed value of 2%. The paper presents selected characteristics of the detected signals. Additionally, distribution over time of the detected signals was used together with the Monte Carlo simulations to analyze how long idle time blocks are available for new transmitters that could be deployed in the band under testing.