2020 IEEE Students Conference on Engineering & Systems (SCES)

July 10-12, 2020

Prayagraj, India

Design and Development of E-Sense: IoT based

Environment Monitoring System
Deep Pujara Praveen Kukreja Sachin Gajjar
Dept. of Electronics and Dept. of Electronics and Dept. of Electronics and
Communication Engg. Communication Engg. Communication Engg.
Nirma University Nirma University Nirma University
Ahmedabad, India Ahmedabad, India Ahmedabad, India
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Abstract— Environment monitoring and control has become a efficient. This paper describes the design and development of
vital part of present-day to control air pollution and help in E-Sense, an Internet of Things (IoT) based environment
agriculture, fishery, shipping and military operations. monitoring system. E-sense measures ambient temperature,
Environment monitoring using traditional manually operated humidity, AQI (Air Quality Index), CO concentration along
Weather Monitoring Stations requires skilled technicians for
with rain and light intensity. Further, the sensor data collected
operation, is not scalable, and demands human intervention,
which increases the cost of the Weather Monitoring Station. To are transmitted to ThingSpeak, an open IoT platform with
address these issues, authors have attempted to design and MATLAB analytics [3].
develop E-Sense, an Internet of Things based environment
monitoring system. E-Sense measures important environment The sensor data can be made available on the Internet for
parameters like temperature, humidity, air quality index, CO worldwide usage. It can be analyzed using MATLAB for
concentrations, rain and light. The data collected from the weather forecasting and alarming of extreme environmental
sensors is transmitted to ThingSpeak using the ESP8266 Wi-Fi conditions. The sensor data can also be viewed using the
module. The ThingSpeak helps in analyzing the data and Blynk mobile application when connected to a local Wi-Fi
present it in graphical and tabular forms. Additionally, E-Sense
network. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. The
creates a heat map of the monitored area. A testbed
implementation and experimentation show that the system hardware and software design of E-Sense is discussed in
works without human intervention, is user friendly, compact, Section II and III respectively. System implementation and the
and is cost-efficient. related results are presented in Section IV. Finally, the paper is
concluded in Section VI.
Index Terms—IoT, environment monitoring, gas sensors, heat
map II. LITERATURE SURVEY
I. INTRODUCTION Meijuan et. al. [4] propose a wireless sensor network-based
environment monitoring system which monitors the
The Government of India is focusing on the Smart City temperature, pressure and concentrations of gases such as
project, where one of the motives is to monitor and control SO2, NO2, NO in real-time. The use of ARM9 S3C2410 as a
vital environmental parameters digitally [1]. Air pollution in central processing unit along with the wireless sensor
India is a serious health issue especially in dense cities like network makes the design robust and scalable design.
Delhi [2]. For environment monitoring, parameters like
ambient temperature, humidity, air quality index, CO Duisebekova et. al. [5] have an information system that
concentrations, rain and light are to be monitored monitors the air quality of the atmosphere by calculating
continuously, stored electronically and analyzed. Such a concentrations of air pollutant and the Air Quality Index
system may help in taking necessary measures in case any (AQI). The values of AQI are represented in the form of a
parameter exceeds the prescribed level. The system can also map which is accessed via a mobile application. The system
be used for weather forecasting. uses “LoRaWAN” gateway for long-range communication
and firebase to store and sync data in real-time.
To fulfil this requirement, an effective environment
monitoring system is to be developed which works without Oluleke et. al. [6] developed an indoor monitoring system
human intervention, is user friendly, compact and cost- using Arduino and XBee transceivers to measure temperature

978-1-7281-9339-7/20/$31.00 ©2020 IEEE

Authorized licensed use limited to: Auckland University of Technology. Downloaded on December 21,2020 at 17:24:40 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
and relative humidity of a room. These parameters can be
used for optimizing the HVAC (Heating Ventilation and Air
Conditioning) system to minimize energy consumption.

Hardeep et al. [7] proposed a system for measuring weather

parameters such as temperature, atmospheric pressure, wind
speed, relative humidity, etc. It uses Arduino microcontroller
and ZigBee technology and the sensor data is transferred to a
Personal Computer and sensor data is displayed in the form
of Graphical User Interface. The system provides alerts
related to adverse environmental conditions.

All the above-mentioned approaches do not provide multiple Figure 2 Circuit Diagram of E-Sense
needs of the environment monitoring system like detection of
ambient temperature, humidity, AQI (Air Quality Index), CO It has an accuracy of ±1°C for temperature and ±1% for
concentration along with rain and light intensity and transmit humidity measurement. It also contains an 8-bit
it to cloud for data analytics. To this end, this paper microcontroller. For rain detection, Rain Sensor-FC 37 is
introduces an environmental monitoring system that used [10]. The module (LM 393) is sensitive to the light and
encompasses all of the above needs of the system. Above all, is used for detecting the presence of ambient brightness and
the system works without human intervention, is user light intensity at a particular location [11]. For detection of air
friendly, compact and cost-efficient. quality and CO concentration, MQ series sensors, i.e. MQ
135 and MQ 9 [12] [13] are used. Since ESP 8266 has only
III. HARDWARE DETAILS one analogue pin, all the analogue values were multiplexed
using the CD 4051 Multiplexer [14] and later the output
This section describes the block diagram, circuit diagram and multiplexed signal is sent to the analogue pin of ESP 8266.
the hardware components of E-Sense.
TABLE I OPERATING VOLTAGE AND CURRENT DETAILS OF THE HARDWARE
A. Block Diagram of the System Sr. No. Component Operating Operating
The block diagram of E-Sense is shown in Figure 1. The Voltage Current
hardware consists of Arduino as the microcontroller of E- 1. Arduino 5V 20 mA
Sense. The microcontroller collects the data from Rain, 2. ESP 8266 3-3.6 V 15 mA
Humidity, Temperature, Light, AQI and CO concentration 3. DHT 11 3.5-5.5 V 0.3 mA
sensors. The sensor data is displayed on a 16x2 LCD and 4. FC-37 5V 15 mA
transmitted to ThingSpeak, an open IoT platform. 5. LM 393 3.3 V-5V 15 mA
6. MQx Sensors 3.3 V-5V 15mA
7. CD 4051 Mux. 3.3-5 V 100 nA
B. Circuit Diagram of the System
The circuit diagram shown in Figure 2 was created using the
Fritzing. The major hardware components and their operating voltage
and the operating current are shown in Table I. It can see that
The ESP8266 from Espressif Systems is a low-cost Wi-Fi the operating voltage of all the hardware components is in
module with a full TCP/IP stack and microcontroller between 3-5 Volts making them power efficient. Technical
capability [8]. Its operating voltage is 3 to 3.6 Volts and has specifications of E-Sense are shown in Table II.
17 GPIO pins. The temperature and humidity sensor (DHT-
11) contains a resistive element and a sensor for temperature IV. SOFTWARE DETAILS
measurement [9]. To monitor sensor data remotely and control the hardware,
Blynk application [15] is used in E-sense.

The Blynk provides a user-friendly GUI. It can display data

of sensors in the form of widgets. The major components of
Blynk are Blynk app, Blynk server and Blynk libraries. With
the help of these components, a user can control the hardware
over the Internet. It can also connect with Ethernet, Wi-Fi,
Bluetooth or serial USB. In Blynk, widgets like Button,
Slider, Timer or Joystick are available to monitor and control
the hardware of the system. For data Display, LED, Graph,
LCD or Gauge can be used. It can also send a notification to
the user through Gmail or Twitter.
Figure 1 Block Diagram of E-Sense

Authorized licensed use limited to: Auckland University of Technology. Downloaded on December 21,2020 at 17:24:40 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 TABLE II TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS OF E-SENSE used to find the average humidity of each day as shown in
Sr. Parameters Values Figure 5. It is also used to estimate the correlation between
No. temperature and humidity as shown in Figure 6. This analysis
1 Operating Voltage 5V is useful to predict the rainfall. MATLAB Visualizations in
2 Recommended Input Voltage 7-12 V ThingSpeak can be used for plotting sensor data. Plugins
allow users to create Application Program Interface using
3 Temperature Measurement 0-50◦ C JavaScript and HTML.
Range
4 Accuracy in Temperature ± 2◦ C
Using plugins, a calendar heat map is generated as shown in
5 Humidity Measurement 0-100 %
Range
Figure 7 [18]. The heat map shows the sensor values of MQ
6 Accuracy in Humidity ±2% 135, i.e. Air Quality Index over a long period. The lighter
7 Air Quality Measurement 100-500 ppm
shades represent low values of AQI, whereas the darker
Range shades denote higher AQI.
8 Accuracy in Air Quality 20-30 ppm
9 CO Concentration 100-1000 ppm
Measurement Range
10 Accuracy in CO 20-30 ppm
Concentration
11 Range of ESP-8266 479 m
12 Working Temperature 0-35◦ C (Above 35◦
C, Fan can be used
for heat dissipation)
12 Response Time of the Circuit 15 sec

13 Size (17×13×11) cm

ThingSpeak [16] is an open Internet of Things (IoT) platform

that allows collection of real-time data in the cloud and Figure 3 Email alerts from IFTT
provides the ability to visualize the collected data in the form
of charts, to create plugins and apps for collaborating with
web services, social network and other APIs. For this, a
channel is created to transmit and store data on the
ThinkSpeak server. The channel includes different fields
where the data of sensors is displayed. ThingSpeak makes it
easier to communicate with the hardware even from a distant
place, as long as the hardware is connected to the internet via a
Wi-fi module. The ThingSpeak platform provides various
applications for the analysis of data. For
example, ThingHTTP application supports GET, PUT, POST
and DELETE methods of HTTP and allows the user to
connect to the web services. ThingHTTP can be triggered
using React, Time Control or GET and POST HTTP request.
Figure 4 Time Control Request using ThingSpeak
For the proposed system, the REACT App is used to trigger an
HTTP request to IFTTT [17]. The IFTTT will send a mail to
the user in case of the value of the environmental parameter is
above the prescribed threshold. Email from IFTTT for E-
Sense is shown in Figure 3. Similarly, a message can be sent
using the Twilio messaging service.

Time Control allows automatic execution of HTTP GET and

POST requests at a scheduled time in a day. It is used to
execute an HTTP request to calculate average humidity at a
prescribed time during the day. One such control is shown in
Figure 4.

ThingSpeak also has an inbuilt facility called ‘MATLAB

Figure 5 Average Humidity display using MATLAB Analysis
Analysis’ to carry out sensor data analysis. In E-Sense it is

Authorized licensed use limited to: Auckland University of Technology. Downloaded on December 21,2020 at 17:24:40 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 Figure 6 Correlation between Temperature and Humidity Figure 9 Temperature and Humidity display using BLYNK

Figure 7 Calendar Heat Map for Air Quality Index Figure 10 AQI Data on ThingSpeak

V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

E-Sense system is tested in an open environment for 12
hours. The environmental data is displayed in the form of
digital values and bar graphs on a 16x2 LDC as shown in
Figure 8.

The Blynk App also provides results in the form of various

predefined widgets to display the sensor values. The widget
gauge was used to show temperature and humidity as shown
in Figure 9.

The sensor values are also displayed on a private channel of Figure 11 CO Concentration Data on ThingSpeak
ThingSpeak in graphical form. AQI and CO concentration
graphs are shown in Figure 10 and 11. As shown in Figure 12
Twilio sends a message to the registered mobile number in
the case when the value of the environmental parameter is
above the prescribed threshold.

Figure 12 Sample Message from ThingSpeak

Figure 13 shows the testbed implementation of E-Sense. E-

Sense can be boxed in a package with dimensions 17 cm ×13
cm ×11 cm leading to a compact design that can be placed
anywhere without acquiring much space. The cost of the
Figure 8 Display Unit of E-Sense prototype is INR 10,000.

Authorized licensed use limited to: Auckland University of Technology. Downloaded on December 21,2020 at 17:24:40 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 REFERENCES

[1] M. o. H. a. U. affairs, "Smart Cities Mission," Government of India, 15

8 2019. [Online]. Available: http://smartcities.gov.in/content/.
[Accessed April 5, 2020].
[2] "Air Pollution in Delhi (An Analysis)," CPCB ENVIS Center, Delhi,
2016.
[3] "Thingspeak Based Sensing and Monitoring System for IoT with
Matlab Analysis," International Journal of New Technology and
Research, pp. 19-23, 2016.
[4] F. Z. J. T. Meijuan Gao, "Environmental Monitoring System with
Wireless Mesh Network Based on Embedded System," IEEE, pp. 174-
179, 2008.
[5] U. F. A. M. R. S. U. F. A. M. Z. Rakhmetulayeva S.B., "Development
of an information-analytical system for the analysis and monitoring of
climatic and ecological changes in the environment," ScienceDirect,
vol. 170, no. 11, pp. 578-583, 2020.
Figure 13 Testbed Setup of E-Sense [6] L. X. L. T. Oluleke Bamodu, "An Indoor Monitoring System using
Low-Cost Sensor Network," ScienceDirect, vol. 141, no. 4, pp. 660-
VI. CONCLUSION 666, 2017.
[7] A. T. S. A. N. K. Hardeep Saini, "Arduino Based Automatic Wireless
The paper discusses design, development and testing of E- Weather Station with Remote Graphical Application and Alerts," IEEE,
Sense, an IoT based environment monitoring system. A no. 3, pp. 605-609, 2016.
[8] "ESP8266EX Datasheet," Espressif Systems, 2 2018. [Online].
testbed implementation and experimentation of E-Sense
Available: https://www.espressif.com/sites/default/files/ documenta
shows that the system works without human intervention, is tion/0a-esp8266ex_datasheet_en.pdf. [Accessed April 5, 2020].
user friendly, compact and is cost-efficient. E-Sense provides [9] "DHT11 Humidity and Temperature Sensor," Mouser Electronics,
easy access to weather parameters anytime and anywhere via [Online]. Available: https://www.mouser.com/datasheet/2/758/DHT11-
Technical-Data-Sheet-Translated-Version-1143054.pdf. [Accessed
the Internet. Further, the facility to send alert messages and April 5, 2020].
visual representation of AQI via heat map makes the system [10] "Androiderode," 8-9-2018. [Online]. Available:
much more convenient. E-Sense can be used in smart city https://www.androiderode.com/rain-sensor-fc-37-or-yl-83/ [Accessed
projects for environmental monitoring. It can also be used in April 5, 2020].
[11] "IM393 Data Sheet," Texas Instruments, [Online]. Available:
agricultural fields to monitor weather, guide farmers and http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/lm393-n.pdf. [Accessed April 5,
protect crops from extreme weathers. Design of E-Sense is 2020].
compact and can be easily installed in college campuses, [12] "MQ-135 Gas Sensor," Olimex, [Online]. Available:
public places like airports, railway stations, bus-stops, to https://www.olimex.com/Products/Components/Sensors/Gas/SNS-
MQ135/resources/SNS-MQ135.pdf. [Accessed April 5, 2020].
monitor and display prevailing environmental conditions and [13] "MQ-9 Semiconductor Sensor for CO/Combustible Gas," Henan
weather forecasts. Hanwei Electronics Co., Ltd, [Online]. Available:
http://www.haoyuelectronics.com/Attachment/MQ-9/MQ9.pdf.
[Accessed April 5, 2020].
[14] "CD 4051 Data Sheet," Texas Instruments, [Online]. Available:
VII. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/cd4051b.pdf. [Accessed 25 9 2019].
[15] "BLYNK," [Online]. Available: https://blynk.io/ . [Accessed April 5,
2020].
Authors thank Nirma University management for providing [16] "ThingsPeak Community," 2011. [Online]. Available: .
funds for the hardware of E-Sense and Prof. Dhaval Pujara, https://community.thingspeak.com/tutorials/twilio/make-calls-with-
Head of the Department, Electronics and Communication twilio-using-the-thinghttp-app/. [Accessed April 5, 2020].
Engineering, for his constant technical support and [17] MATLAB, "Mathworks," 2016. [Online]. Available: . https://in.
encouragement. mathworks.com/help/thingspeak/use-ifttt-to-send-text-message-
notification.html [Accessed April 5, 2020].
[18] M. Huszarik, "Tutorial: Building a D3.js Calendar Heatmap (to
visualize StackOverflow Usage Data)," Rising Stack, [Online].
Available: https://blog.risingstack.com/tutorial-d3-js-calendar-heatmap/
[Accessed April 5, 2020].

Authorized licensed use limited to: Auckland University of Technology. Downloaded on December 21,2020 at 17:24:40 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.