B. Palaniappan

Embedded System for Automatic Irrigation of Cardamom Field using Xbee-PRO Technology

This project proposed an embedded system for automatic mist irrigation for cardamom field, which has a wireless sensor network for real time infield sensing and control of an irrigation system. This wireless system supports the cardamom field which has both plain and slope areas. Too much watering causes diseases to cardamom. This system provides uniform and required level of water for both plain and slope areas and therefore it avoids the water overflow at the slope areas which saves the plant and also water. This system has software for real-time in-field sensing and control of an irrigation system. Field conditions were site-specifically monitored by in-field sensor stations distributed across the field and then wirelessly transmitted to a base station. This irrigation system updates solenoid valves for specified location of mist emitters automatically according to the set point of temperature, humidity and soil moisture. This system also senses the water level of the tank and whenever the water level is too low then the system immediately provides a visual and sound alarm and then it automatically switches ON the motor. When the water level reaches 90% of the tank then the motor is switched OFF through the remote system. Communication signals from the sensor network and irrigation controller to the base station interfaced using XbeePRO communication and this technology is a low-cost, lowpower wireless sensor network. The modules operate within the 2.4 GHz frequency band and outdoor RF line-of-sight range up to 4000 ft. (1200 m) and RF Data Rate 250,000 bps.

Embedded Controller for Radar based Robotic Security Monitoring and Alerting System

In the mobile robot navigation, the ultrasonic sensors have been widely used for the obstacles detection and map building because of its cost and efficiency. Generally sensors are used to increase the accuracy of the obstacles position and decrease the time. In this paper an ultrasonic sensor is interfaced on to a stepper motor which will be constantly revolving and detecting the values of any obstacle in its path in all the 360°. In Stepper motors, on the other hand, effectively have multiple toothed electromagnets arranged around a central gear-shaped piece of iron. The electromagnets are energized by an external control circuit, such as a Microcontroller. To make the motor shaft turn, first, one electromagnet is given power, which makes the gears teeth magnetically attracted to the electromagnets teeth. When the gears teeth are aligned to the first electromagnet, they are slightly offset from the next electromagnet. In each angle the position of the stepper motor is sent to the monitoring end along with ultrasonic values serially so that we are able to track the object coming from various distances. At the monitoring end, the values of step position for each rotation is received along with the ultrasonic values indicating the user the exact position of intruder or object in the exact direction. And also video is delivered to the monitoring end to know the situation of current scenario. If the value of the ultrasonic sensors increased to its range then the SMS gateway is activated and a security SMS is sent to the authorized person. This project can be utilized for security purposes in extreme weather conditions which replace human surveillance and thereby save the human lives.

Remote Patient Monitoring and Logging System using ZigBee

Remote Patient Monitoring is an alternative to regular home check-ups of patients with special medical conditions, physically challenged and the elderly who are unable to regularly visit a healthcare facility. Remote Patient Monitoring system allows the patient to be monitored remotely from their home itself. The system described here allows data acquisition from the fixed sensors. It is cheaper to monitor the elderly and infirm about patient physical states to the remote system. The doctor can directly monitor the patients information. This paper also includes the web part; the patient’s database is monitored through embedded web server. The monitoring center receives the information from the patient and maintains the database, based on it the doctor can judge the patient status and then diagnose. The system uses the IEEE 802.15.4 standard and low cost Zig-Bee technology for wireless communication between the patient data acquisition system and the patient monitoring system and it supports the distance from 30m to 100m depends upon the power and output. Zig-Bee uses frequency bands of 2.4 GHz, and its transmission rate is 20 kbps to 250 kbps. The proposed system uses the high end processer ARM (Advanced RISC Machine).

Embedded Home Automation for Visually Impaired

This paper aims to develop an embedded system which is used to control the home appliances through voice and mobile for the visually impaired people and also for the physically challenged people. Though various techniques have been proposed and are available currently, most of them are not user friendly for the visually impaired people and thus a friendly system has been developed for them. As speech is the preferred mode of operation for these people, this project intends to make use of voice oriented command words for controlling purposes. Further the hand-held unit has a microphone to receive the voice input and is a wireless module which uses the Radio Frequency (RF) technology. This project uses the DTMF technique in the mobile device so as to avoid any scenario involving visual interaction for the benefit of the user. Also in this module there is a voice feedback as an acknowledgement both for the voice controlled automation and automation through mobile.