Wireless sensor network for internet of things facility management (IoT-FM) environment sensing

Abstract

Environmental Quality (EQ) has always played an important role in the health of humans, with detrimental effects arising from elevated levels of pollutants. Regular monitoring of environmental parameters will help to mitigate and reduce such harmful effects on the health and wellbeing of humans. With recent advancements in wireless communications and Internet of Things (IoT) approach, it is possible to create and develop an IoT system for the purpose of monitoring EQ. IoT microcontrollers can be integrated with multiple environmental sensors that can be deployed at multiple indoor locations to form a low-cost, power efficient sensor module.

During the course of this project, research was done to select a proper IoT microcontroller as well as suitable environmental sensors to develop a sensor node. Some of the evaluation criteria included cost, support for different wireless communications, size and power consumption. These components were integrated closely via C++. Subsequently, the sensor node was tested and the reading out of data from the sensor node was evaluated. The output of data from the sensor node should be convenient and easily accessible in order to fulfil the IoT approach. Next, the architecture of the entire Wireless Sensor Network was developed. This required the capability of the Argon microcontroller to communicate between multiple Argon devices, thus allowing the formation of a Master-Slave system for mass deployment in a building. All in all, the Argon microcontroller is the selected microcontroller of choice for future IoT applications with its wide compatibility of wireless communication protocols as well as low power consumptions. This project details the various steps in developing an IoT sensor module for environment sensing.