International Conference on Communication and Signal Processing, April 6-8, 2016, India
Automated Water Usage Monitoring System
Sajith Saseendran, V.Nithya
Abstract—Advances in wireless communication devices and
systems have a significant impact on various fields like
agriculture, healthcare, smart homes etc. One of its important
applications is the development of monitoring system for various
purposes. Automated water usage monitoring system proposes an
effective way of controlling the wastage of water at
home/Industries by means of Wireless sensor nodes and
LabVIEW software. At many places water is luxuriously wasted
while many areas don’t have enough. Sensor nodes are placed at
every water outlet pointes sensing the flow of water. The concept
of internet of things (IOT) is used to continuously monitor and
track water usage via the wireless sensor nodes. Server collects
the data through Wi-Fi/LAN to process and track usage and
wastage of water at every outlet. When water is used at excess it
is indicated and an alert is sent to the user. The user can
continuously keep a track of the water usage or wastage through
a mobile or laptop with an internet connection. This proposed
water monitoring system helps the individuals to keep a track on
their water bills and helps the government to manage the water
supply and modify billing scheme based on the water usage.
Keywords—Water monitoring system; LabVIEW; Wireless
sensor networks; IOT.
I. INTRODUCTION
At present traditional water metres are used to calculate the
amount of water used at homes for billing purpose. This
doesn’t provide an efficient method of monitoring the water
usage. The water is wasted at each and every outlet knowingly
or unknowingly which adds up to huge amount in the end.
Efficient management of the water used at homes is very much
necessary as, about 50% of water supplied to the cities gets
wasted through its improper usage [1]. Water management is
only possible, if the user is aware of the quantity of water he
uses and the quantity available to him. Hence there is a need
for modifying the traditional water meters for the users to
continuously monitor their water usage.
In an Agricultural country like India, news about increased
farmer suicides (about 26% in 2014) cannot be ignored, where
one of the main reasons for it is unavailability of water [2]. At
many places water is luxuriously wasted while our farm lands
don’t have enough. Automated water usage monitoring system
proposes an effective way of controlling the wastage of water
Sajith Saseendran, SRM University, (e.mail:saseendransajith@gmail.com)
Dr. V.Nithya, SRM University, (e.mail: nithya.v@ktr.srmuniv.ac.in)
978-1-5090-0396-9/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE
0099
at homes and industries by allowing the user to continuously
monitor and control the usage of water. The user is able to
monitor his water usage at every taps from time to time
through his smartphones or laptops and also unnecessary water
wastage is also prevented. This water monitoring system
consists of three modules: wireless sensor module; Central
module; Server module. Wireless sensor module collects the
data from every water outlets , at the server all the
computation are done and control signals are generated and
central module acts as an interface between the sever and the
sensor module.
Wireless sensor networks (WSN) are spatially distributed
autonomous sensors to monitor physical or environmental
conditions, such as temperature, sound, pressure, etc. Internet
of things (IoT) is a developing concept which can be integrated
along with wireless sensor networks for efficient monitoring
from a remote location. The papers which discusses about the
related papers are listed out in Section II, the methodology is
discussed in Section III and the proposed work is explained in
detailed in Section IV. Section V and VI discusses about the
results obtained and conclusion.
II. RELATED WORKS
A mechanism for estimation of elderly well-being
condition based on usage of house-hold appliances connected
through various sensing units is proposed in [3]. This system
is a wireless-sensor-network-based home monitoring system
for elderly activity behaviour which involves functional
assessment of daily activities.
Paper [4] discusses the design of a sensor network for
monitoring and control of the water distribution system. The
application of this system lies in detecting leakage or some
other structural problems in underground pipelines. It has
various sensors for this purpose integrated with GPS and a 3G
modem. The sensor nodes are costly and replacement of it
may is difficult as it is deployed underground.
The author of paper [5] discusses about the development of
a prototype for monitoring and content management system
for agricultural. It is a ZigBee based monitoring system
employing wireless sensor nodes. The sensors are connected
to LAN which is used to monitor the information in the server.
A wireless sensor network based water environmental
monitoring system is proposed in [6]. The system
automatically monitors the water temperature and pH value
environment of a water body. This water monitoring system is
suitable for the complex and large-scale water environment
monitoring, such as for reservoirs, lakes, rivers, swamps, and
shallow or deep ground waters
The work for developing a wireless body sensor networks
based energy-efficient application-specific integrated circuit
featured with a work-on-demand protocol is designed for Central module consists of an arduino board which is
medical applications has been undergone in paper [7]. It’s a connected to various modules such as (1) RF module (2)
system for ultra-low-power wireless sensor nodes where the Solenoid valve (3)WiFi/Ethernet Shield (4)Water flow meter
ASIC consists of a low-power microcontroller unit (MCU), a (5)Indicators (6)Power source as shown in Fig. 3.
power-management unit (PMU), reconfigurable sensor Server collects the raw data over the internet for monitoring
interfaces, and communication ports controlling a wireless the water usage. For this purpose it contains (1) Computational
transceiver, and an integrated passive radio-frequency (RF) block (2) Monitoring/Display block (4) Feedback/Control
receiver with energy harvesting ability. block as shown in Fig. 4. The computational block computes
the required parameters based on various algorithms. These
In [8] the author has developed “Smart Coast” that has
parameters are displayed using monitor/display block. These
been proposed for water quality management which is
parameters are used to create feedback or control signals.
designed based on wireless sensor network concept It’s a
wireless sensor based system for sensing and calculating the
quality of water. It is a miniaturized and intelligent monitoring
RF
system.
III. METHODOLOGY
Automated water usage monitoring system consists of two
main modules, (1) Wireless sensor module (2) Server Module.
Wireless sensor module as shown in Fig. 1 collects the real
time data at respective homes.

Wireless
Central Server Fig, 3. Block diagram of Central module
Sensor
Module Module
Module

Fig. 1. Block diagram of an Automated water usage monitoring

system
This data is send to LabVIEW module via Wi-Fi or LAN.
The LabVIEW module can be accessed from any remote
location from with an internet connection. The basic block of
Automated water usage monitoring system consists of mainly
three components, (i) Wireless sensor module (ii) Central
Module (iii) Server Module. Wireless sensor module connects
the various sensor nodes wirelessly to a central node. Then it is
connected to Server via a communication link
Sensor module consists of (1) Sensor (2) Sensor Circuitry
(3)RF Transceiver module (4)Indicators and (5)Power source
as shown in Fig. 2. Sensor senses the flow of water and sends
the data to the sensor circuitry. The received signal is amplified
at the sensor circuitry. RF module is used as a transceiver to
transmit the sensed data and receive the control signals. Power
source is used to power up the sensor circuitry, RF module and
indicators.
RF
Fig. 4. Block diagram of Server module
IV. PROPOSED SYSTEM
The concept of automated water usage monitoring system
lies in alerting the user of excess usage of water at every outlet,
also providing the user a way to monitor his water bills time to
time.
A. Wireless sensor module
Wireless sensor node is placed at each water outlet to sense
the water flow; (i) In Fig. 5 represent the wireless sensor nodes
placed at the water outlet. An apartment of seven water outlets
is considered. These sensor nodes are wirelessly connected to a
central module by a single hop
Central module is represented by (ii) in Fig. 4.Indiactors at
the central module indicates the average amount of water that
can be used by user. The indicator is also used display the
water outlet which is currently used.

Fig. 2. Block diagram of Wireless Sensor module

Fig. 5. System concept design

0100
 Centralized node which consists of arduino board is
connected to water flow meter and solenoid valve which is
connected to main water inlet. Reset button is represented by
(a) in Fig. 6. When a water outlet is opened for more than a
certain amount of time specified at the Server module, an alert
is given at the indicator and via mail.
Fig. 6. Central module design
If the user doesn’t respond within a prescribed time limit
the solenoid valve shuts the supply to the house. When the user
recognizes the alert and closes the particular water outlet he
can press reset button to restore the water supply. Water flow
meter gives an efficient way of determining the total amount of
water used.
B. Server module
LabVIEW module acts as a server to control and monitor
the data to and from the wireless sensor nodes. The labVIEW
processes the data received from the central module to display
the processed information and also create appropriate control
signals.
. Off
The data from the central module is used to check the status
of each water outlet or taps. It is used to decide the amount of
time the water outlet is kept open. The usage time is displayed
in seconds.
Based on the usage time and information from the water
flow meter, an efficient algorithm is used to calculate the
amount of water used. The present usage is displayed from the
calculated value. Each time the status turns off the present
usage resets. The cumulative data from the present usage is
used to calculate the total usage and it’s displayed. A time
stamp is inserted with it to reset it every month
The information from the usage time and present usage is
used to formulate the alert and warning system. The conditions
for warning and alert system are shown in Table I. These
conditions are formulated to minimize the wastage of water. Its
main purpose is to alert the user of the over usage at each water
outlet.
To resume the water supply to the house the user can close the
appropriate water outlet and can press the reset button. This
0101
method provides an effective way of controlling wastage of
water when it is left unattended. There are many instances
where the user forgets to close the tap and goes out for work
and when he returns he can find huge amount of water wasted
leading to huge increase water bill for the respective month due
to unwanted wastage.
TABLE I
CONDITIONS FOR WARNING AND ALERT SYSTEM
Start
Tap status A
No Continuously
A Used amount >
Specified value
Yes
Warning
Tap
A On/Off
On
B
Fig. 7. Warning system flowchart
Fig. 7 shows the flowchart of warning system at the server.
The system starts the process by checking the status of the tap.
If the tap continuously uses water greater than the specified
value then the warning signal is activated. Then the system
checks weather the tap is on or off. If the tap is off then the
system again checks the status of the tap.
The flowchart of alert system at the server is shown in Fig.
8. The system checks if the tap continuously on for greater time
than the threshold time limit then the alert signal is activated.
Then the system checks weather the tap is on or off. If the tap
is off then the system again checks the status of the tap.
 Automated water usage monitoring system gives the user
the facility of viewing the water usage data in the server
through any device at any time using an internet connection.
B The water usage parameters in the LabVIEW module such as
usage time, present usage, total usage, warning and alert status
of each water outlet the present bill amount can be accessed by
No Continuously ON the user through his PDA, smartphones, laptops or desktops
A time > Specified using internet in any standard browser. Figure 10 shows the
time
LabVIEW data viewed from many devices.
Yes
V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Alert
LabVIEW is an integral part of water management system
which acts as a server. The developed server system simulates
Wait for 1 Min
the various water outlets using on and off buttons. The on/off
status from the buttons is used for further computation for
Off developing warning, alert signal and control signals. Mail
Tap
A On/Off services are also included in the server module for alerting the
user through mail after the alert signals are activated and
On before the water is shut down signals are generated.
C

Fig. 8. Alert system flowchart

Mail / SMS sent

to the user
Fig. 11. Graphical representation of water usage at server

Wait for 1 min

The developed server system with the functions integrated
together for Automated water usage monitoring system to
provide an effective way of controlling the over usage and
unnecessary wastage are shown Fig. 11
Tap
A On/Off Fig. 12 shows the front panel view of water usage through
manual simulation. The status of the switching on and off is
water outlet is manually simulated using a switch. When the
wash basin tap uses 10 liters of water continuously, which is
Shut the supply definitely an over usage then the warning is activated. The
warning activates the LED at the respective wireless sensor
node. This indicates the user to close the tap.
Stop

Fig. 9. Supply control system flowchart

The flowchart of supply control system at the server is shown

in Fig. 9. The system checks if the tap continuously on for
greater time than the threshold time limit then the alert signal is
activated. Then the system checks weather the tap is on or off.
If it is off then the system again checks the status of the tap.
Fig. 10. Integration of LabVIEW to web
Fig. 12. Manual stimulation of Water usage
If a particular water outlet is kept open for more than 15
minutes i.e. when the user ignores the warning signal or the
water source is left unattended then an alert signal is generated.
Fig. 13 shows the Alert and warning system display at the
server. The alert signal generates a beep sound at the central
module indicator and also flashes the LED indicating which
water outlet is open.

0102
 If the user doesn’t responds to the alert signal within one
minute the server sends a mail to the user informing the details
about the over usage at the particular outlet. The system waits
for two minutes for the user to close the water outlet. Even
after two minutes if the water outlet is left unattended the then
the server informs the central module to shut down the main
water supply. Solenoid valve shuts the supply and the water
outlet kept open is displayed at the indicator.
Fig. 13. Alert and warning system display at server
The user gets a weekly notification about the status of his
water bills. He can also request for a notification when the
water bill exceeds a particular limit. Thereby the user can keep
a check on the water bill and its usage. The usage at each water
outlet is displayed graphically in the Server module using a bar
graph as shown in Fig. 14.
Fig. 14. Graphical representation of water usage at server
VI. CONCLUSION
There has been rapid increase in the development of
technology leading to advance concepts like WSN, IoT, 5G
etc. There are some basic resources on the earth that are
necessary to sustain life, but with the advancement in
technology most of these resources are being depleted or
destroyed in one way or the other. These advance technologies
are mostly exploited to make our life easier. But there are
several applications of these technologies that are not yet
exploited or given importance, which can be exploited to
reduce the depletion of the natural resources maintaining the
ecological balance and making the life of our future generation
easier. In this paper I have developed a prototype of
Automated water usage monitoring system which helps in
reducing the depletion of the water resources.
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The server module has been designed with all the
mentioned functions such as status of each tap in an apartment,
the present usage of water at each taps and the total amount of
water used at each taps respectively. The present amount of
water bill is displayed with the total amount of water used. The
alert and warning signals to control the water flow to the
apartment are displayed along with mail service to inform the
user about the water usage based of above mentioned
conditions. The switching of tap is simulated using manual
controls. The hardware section consisting of wireless sensor
module and central module have to be developed, it has to be
synchronized to the server module and has to be tested in
various real time environment.
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