Portable prototype for air quality monitoring with IoT

Carlos Martin Mezén Pérez

Ingeniería
MecatrónicaUNITECSan Pedro
Sula ,
Hondurascarlosmezen77@unitec.
edu

Abstract— This research presents the design and manufacture sources of environmental pollution that exist in large
of a portable prototype for the monitoring and control of indoor
and outdoor air quality using IOT technology for the prediction
cities such as automobiles, factories, constructions,
of ambient air quality in cities. The development of a database among others, cause a tremendous number of
capable of analyzing the behavior of particulate matter through polluting particles that affect in one way or another
subsequent records is implemented, all this with the Node Red our health environment and our respiratory
development environment and an MQTT broker server. This
project was designed so that through sensors and adapting to
system[3].
today's emerging technologies, it is possible to have a broad
panorama of the environmental pollution of particulate matter
A. Particulate Matter
and Carbon Dioxide that may exist especially in the city of San The tests that have been performed for particulate
Pedro Sula. Through a web page and an application, the status of matter (MP) coincide with the adverse effects that
the portable device can be viewed, as well as the values delivered
by the sensors. For the development of this prototype, the
have been proven based on the studies that have
variables that can influence the operation of the portable system been conducted and found. There is a set of
were taken into account. possibilities that these can cause in terms of human
health, but the systems that are most likely to be
Keywords— IOT, database, particulate matter, air quality.
affected in a great way are the respiratory and
I. INTRODUCTION cardiovascular systems[4].
It is premised that air quality problems are due to
volatile chemicals and small particles being
transported in the environment. One of the effects
caused by these particles can seriously affect
people's lungs. However, through other studies it has
been shown that water vapour can also carry heavier
substances that cause adverse health effects and, in
general, it is assumed that they cannot be transported
by air, such as non-volatile cleaningagents. [1]. Fine Table 1 Index of air quality levels values.
particles are those with diameters less than 3 μm.
Particles with diameters greater than 50 μm settle III. SOLUTION
relatively quickly and do not remain in ambient A. Sensors
air[2]. The control of air quality in the environment
has total repercussions in times of COVID-19, based Based on what was discussed in the theoretical
on the studies of a group of scientists affirm that the framework, the particle sensor is one of those that is
particles of COVID-19 virus can be transported available in the market and given its low price
through the air, so it is an important point that this presents the best conditions for this project.
research project has to be able to measure and
monitor the effects of these particles in the air.
II.PROBLEM
On such an industrialised planet in which we live,
there is such a colossal problem affecting the world's
major cities, and that is air pollution. The different
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 Fig.1 SDS011 sensor connection diagram
Using the BMP280 sensor represents 3 important
values to analyze, such as temperature, humidity and
atmospheric pressure. With this low-cost sensor
provides magnitudes that are measured in the
instant, based on the methodology the connections
of each of the components result in an effective
reading of signals.
Fig.3 Final schematic with air quality sensors.
As shown in the previous figure, the different
sensors capable of measuring air quality in different
parts based on an internet connection are displayed.
B. Dashboards
To visualize the different values of our sensors
were made different dashboard for our sensors, in
the following illustration you can visualize the
dashboard for the measurement of particulate matter
always made by Node Red integrating it through a
web page.

Fig. 2 Analogy of BMP280 sensor operation

As the last connection diagram we have the final

part of this methodological part, so thanks to the
functions and tests that were carried out to obtain a
functional prototype to measure the quality of the
air in the environment, a functional design of
connection and tested in different circumstances is
obtained.

Fig. 4 Display of gauge and chart for particulate

matter.
For the visualization of the temperature is
basically the same principle and design of the
dashboard, however for this case the sensor had to
be declassified since each of the readings was made
based on a single interpretation message, however, it
could be integrated into the dashboard of the control
website.
Fig. 5 Display of the gauge and temperature chart
For the visualization of humidity you have a
dashboard with the same flow created from the
previous ones, however, this has a representation of
the percentage of humidity within your sensor, in
turn you had to divide in your programming the way
in which your message is displayed that will be
explained in your programming principle in the
sensor.
Fig. 6 Display of gauge and chart for humidity
atmospheric pressure can be very important for
predicting sudden changes in the environment, so
many can be variable in your reading, so like the
physical magnitudes shown above you have the
same design of your dashboard, but specifically to
atmospheric pressure.
Fig. 7 Display of gauge and chart for
Atmospheric Pressure
The portable device for measuring air quality also
evaluate different gases for a greater scope of their
objectives, as part of it we have a dashboard apart
from our web server, where you can always
remotely visualize our our environment in symbolic
representation of the gases. A simple but effective
interface for the purpose of the project.
Fig. 8 Display of gauge and chart for different air
quality gases
C. Detection and visual sensor
For the visualization of the camera a pi camera is
used that connects remotely to the website, where it
is hosted the connection API code is created where it
can be integrated into our IoT application and thus
achieve that our webcam can be viewed from the
cloud, all this controlled from the main processor of
our microcomputer. In the following illustration you
can visualize how it can be viewed.
Fig 9 View of the Camera on the Web

D. Tests to the portable prototype
to check that the sensors react to the different
chemical reactions that happen in the environment,
they can be visualized by generating combustion
with phosphorus and you can observe the change of
the sensors in those magnitudes that were affected
by it. As shown in the following illustration you can
see the change of the values of the sensors which
consequently proves the correct functioning of the
different sensors.
Fig. 10 Portable Prototype Performance Tests
Consequently, the abrupt change can be
observed, especially in particulate matter, where it is
demonstrated that the sensor is highly sensitive to
the capture of particulate matter, as well as other
sensors that suffered a sudden change in their
readings.
Fig.11 Instantaneous changes when using fire
near portable prototype
E. Integration with social networks
An important point of this project is the
integration not only in addition to the dashboard in
our web server, but the use of allowing you to
consult the values of the same portable device
through social networks. There are different
mechanisms of how to send these values to our web
server, however, one of the most common and that
has taken a lot of boom nowadays is by telegram. 
The use of bots created from telegram to automate
messages, give important notifications about the
most relevant sensors, as well as the sending of
good definition images through telegram commands
in which it communicates with our server on the
raspberry pi, makes it very practical and effective to
be able to consult the values of the sensors in this
way.
Fig. 12 Integration with Telegram
F. Integration with social networks
As a way to visualize the state of our
central processor, which in this case is
the raspberry pi 4, we can monitor
equally in an automated way in the
cloud the current state of the processor,
a very practical way also to know if
there is any memory problem, or the
RAM consumption that is carried out
with the applications to be carried out
as finally see the temperature at which
our raspberry pi works. Thanks to
Cayenne that has a mobile application
becomes more versatile when
prototyping with raspberry pi.
 Fig 14 Programming Algorithm PRototype Final
FINAL PROTOTYPE
Fig. 13 Cayenne for central processor
display

Operating algorithms
To develop prototypes that are complex, or with
many uses of sensors within a single network, at the
same time to implement it using IoT, makes it a
considerable challenge to be able to perform.
However,IMB,creator of the open code project
Node JS,makes the realization of these prototypes
very interesting and at the same time very
didactic,since the considerable use that can be given
to it and the combination of these
57processes,cause that there are development
environments exclusive to them,thanks to that you
can create highly competitive systems and that
moves away from the normal way in which these
algorithms are written

Fig 15 Open Final Prototype


CONCLUSIONES
1.) The use of different sensors to measure and
control air quality was implemented by means of
the infrared capture sensors SDS011, MH-Z19 and
BMP20 and the MQ family through the Node Red
programming environment with which the entire
sensor system is joined within the portable
prototype while saving each of the data for later
analysis and by means of an operating algorithm to
be able to consult its values through text commands
with the social network Telegram.
2.) A database was created and implemented with
its web server hosted on the raspberry pi for the
Fig 16 Final Prototype Closed
analysis of air capture, in values of ppm and ug / m3
respectively, as well as a camera within the same
server that helps us to better understand the
environment of the environment capturing
movement and saving it inside the central processor.
2.) A friendly interface was developed through the
integrated Node Network environment for use in the
cloud, as well as the integration of the Telegram
Social Network and the database hosted within our
server, achieving desired results in the consultation
of important values anywhere in the world.
REFERENCES
[1]J. Luukkaa, A. Visala, P. Harmo, and M. Salkinoja-
Salonen, “Internet of Things for Indoor Air Quality
Measurements,” in 2019 IEEE 17th International
Conference on Industrial Informatics (INDIN), Helsinki,
Finland, Jul. 2019, pp. 1596–1600. doi:
10.1109/INDIN41052.2019.8972276.
[2]L. K. Wang, N. C. Pereira, and Y.-T. Hung, Eds., Air
Pollution Control Engineering. Totowa, NJ: Humana
Press, 2004. doi: 10.1007/978-1-59259-778-9.
[3]D. Ivanova and A. Elenkov, “Intelligent System for Air
Quality Monitoring Assessment using the Raspberry Pi
Platform,” in 2019 International Conference on
Information Technologies (InfoTech), St. St. Constantine
and Elena resort (near the city of Varna), Bulgaria, Sep.
2019, pp. 1–4. doi: 10.1109/InfoTech.2019.8860883.
[4]"Air quality - PAHO/WHO | Pan American Health
Organization." https://www.paho.org/es/temas/calidad-
aire (accessed Jul. 20, 2021).