The objective of this project is to use IoT technologies to develop a system of sensors and microcontrollers networked to persist data in a database, so that users can view the occupancy status using a GUI over the internet on any standard browser.
Sponsored By: Penn State Service Enterprise Engineering (SEE 360) 1: Amol Kulkarni & Dr. Vittaldas Prabhu
Team Members
Ali Malik | Keri Nicolich | Ameya Hampihallikar | Mostafa Rahmy | Agha Arib Hyder | | | | | | |
Project Poster
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Project Summary
Overview
There are a variety of situations where people need to know the occupancy or availability of a spatial resource such as a lab room, cubicles in a library, or restrooms in a stadium. Due to extenuating circumstances created by the COVID-19 pandemic, implementing social distancing throughout campus facilities has become crucial to ensure the safety of faculty and students, while not impeding on productivity. To accomplish this, the solution includes a system of sensors and microcontrollers networked to transfer data into a database, so that users can view the occupancy status over the Internet.
Objectives
– To use IoT technologies to develop a system of sensors and microcontrollers networked to save data to a database.
– Allow users to view the room occupancy status on a website.
– To provide documentation of the team’s design consisting of PIR sensors, Raspberry Pi Zero W connected to an SQL database.
– To create a design that costs $20 in Bill of Materials at each lab table.
Approach
– Develop a connection between the PIR sensor and the Raspberry Pi Zero W.
– Develop a Python script for the Raspberry Pi Zero W and PIR sensor to detect when a person is occupying a lab table or not.
– Create a MySQL database hosted on Microsoft Azure to store sensor readings.
– Wrote a Python script for the Raspberry Pi Zero W to write sensor readings into the database.
– Built a user-friendly website that uses the Azure MySQL database to display key occupancy metrics.
– Create a SolidWorks CAD model to house all hardware components- consisting of a PIR sensor, Raspberry Pi Zero W, Wires, and Power Supply.
– Communicate on a weekly basis with our sponsor and professor to ensure project progress.
– Compile all results in a final report, presentation, and showcase poster to summarize our integrated occupancy solution.
Outcomes
– In the end, the goal of developing a prototype solution with hardware and software components fully integrated in order to display occupancy information in a usable format was successful.
– By gathering data with the PIR sensor, sending that data to the database, and displaying that data on the website, the occupancy analytics was displayed online for students and faculty to interact with.
– For future work, it is recommended that our sponsor study various scenarios of lab spaces using cameras to learn how to most effectively program the PIR sensors to capture when students typically leave and enter the space.
– In doing so, this will optimize the design to the real-world experiences of students.
– In recognition of this, we have taken steps to hand off our data, setup instructions, and code to our sponsor for future development and expansion to other shared spaces.