Maria Leonora Guico

Design of a tropical rain - Disaster alarm system: A new approach based on wireless sensor networks and acoustic rain rate measurements

This paper discusses the design of a broadband wireless network infrastructure which itself is a rain measurement platform for applications such as disaster alarm and sudden hazard decision management systems. A sensor testbed is setup which consists of a hybrid broadband wireless network in conjunction with real-time acoustic rain rate point sensors and complementary rain gauges. The testbed simulates the commercial deployment of a line-of-sight wireless backbone (implemented via a 26 GHz line of sight link) and broadband wireless access network at 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz. Combined wireless signal fade, acoustic power and tipping bucket rain rate measurements over a several month span indicate the feasibility of using rain-induced attenuation and fade durations to trigger imminent-hazard alerts.

Deployment of a wireless sensor network for aquaculture and lake resource management

We describe the ongoing deployment of a wireless network system for monitoring aquaculture applications and managing a lake resource in one of the Seven Lakes in San Pablo, Laguna, Philippines. Field servers are deployed to measure water quality parameters such as dissolved oxygen and temperature. In addition, a novel floating platform field server is developed to gather data in the middle parts of the lake. Cameras are also deployed to monitor different aspects of the area. A knowledge management system allows dissemination of these data and other information that would be of interest to stakeholders and the local community.

Rainfall monitoring using acoustic sensors

This study is about the design, development, and field testing of acoustic sensors for rain measurements. An Android-based acoustic sensor is designed and tested. The sensor can upload data files to a web server, and can trigger an SMS alarm when rainfall data exceeds safety thresholds. An Arduino-based acoustic sensor is also designed and tested, which is an alternative, low-cost acoustic sensor for rainfall. Rainfall data from the sensors are graphed, analyzed, and compared vis-à-vis to data from tipping bucket rain gauges. We report, for the first time, the performance of an acoustic rain sensor and a tipping bucket in the same device integrated with an Android phone. This new configuration shows the difference between a real-time acoustic rain sensor and a tipping bucket, which is an accumulation sensor. The analysis features and performance of the acoustic sensors directs to the development of low-cost devices for gathering rain data, which can supplement standard rain measurement devices.

Nationwide 5GHz-fixed wireless network for prototype rain alarm system

We present the first results of a nationwide experiment that uses 5GHz fixed wireless network as a rain alarm system through monitoring the changes in received signal levels. This paper proposes an alternative framework and correlation approach for rain sensing, which rely mainly on the attenuation from broadband wireless systems. Unique to this system is an automatic reporting of received signal levels coming from a central location that gathers data of one-minute resolution from SmartBro subscribers. The SmartBro wireless system is one of the largest deployments in the world composed of 5 GHz links, which may help in reinforcing rain data collection due to their ubiquity of deployment in the Philippines, with nearly 20,000 land-based antennas. To demonstrate this capability, we selected eastern seaboard cities near the Pacific Ocean with fixed wireless subscribers virtually at random, and studied the changes from baseline attenuation during strong rain events. The reckoning method comprises of (1) baselining method to determine signal loss in normal weather condition, (2) sigma scheme technique that uses the variation of the signal in order to determine rain presence. Lastly, we also made a visualization tool for highly intense precipitation events. Time series videos of signal loss in the Philippines, with plotted location-specific signal loss data were developed for key meteorological events in the past two years: of which include the Southwest Monsoon season in 2012 and the devastation of Typhoon Haiyan in 2013.

Towards building a predictive model for remote river quality monitoring for mining sites

Most, if not all, mining sites in the Philippines are not equipped with expensive or modern monitoring tools to check for quality of soil, water and air elements which are relevant to ensure safety and wellness of miners. This study focused on the development of low cost mobile electronic sensors to monitor quality of water from rivers near mining sites. Low cost electronic sensors connected to a smart phone were developed to capture dissolved oxygen (DO2), pH, Turbidity, Temperature, and Salinity. The data for mercury (Hg) and arsenic (As) were obtained through AAS analyses to form baseline data for the model. Data was collected for over a period of one year, with site visits once every two months. A conditional inference tree (ctree) using recursive binary partitioning was used to generate the prediction model using 70 - 30 split on the training and test data set. The multi-feature model returns Good, Not Good or Unknown based on the scores of each element. The results showed a possible three feature model with significant results for site, salinity and pH balance.

Design and Development of a Wireless Sensor Network Framework for Water Quality Remote Monitoring

This study involves the design and development of a wireless sensor network (WSN) that integrates several sensing modules into a fully-functional system. The overall system is composed of a remote server, a controller node, and several sensing modules. The controller node is implemented using an Android mobile phone with Bluetooth and 3G capabilities. Bluetooth is used to communicate with the various sensing modules; while 3G is used to relay data to the remote server. The sensing modules utilize an Arduino Mega 2560 (with the sensor circuits) and a Bluetooth shield. Test results show that this framework is a viable design for WSN systems and can be used for remote installations that can be continuously upgraded over time.

Patient-Centric Medical Database with Remote Urinalysis Test

The patient-centric medical database called ECMED (EleCtronic MEdical Database) is a patient owned repository for medical records which is made accessible via the Internet and/or the GSM network (using low cost mobile phones). The database stores important patient information as well as laboratory test scores and reports for electrocardiogram (ECG) and urine analysis (UA). Using an automated urinalysis test, the database receives multi-media messaging service (MMS) images of urinalysis strips and automatically processes the images to get urinalysis scores. The patient can also use short messaging service (SMS), more commonly known as text messaging, to report urinalysis scores. In addition, urinalysis testing and record updating can also be done on-line.

Design of autonomous sensor nodes for remote soil monitoring in tropical banana plantation

Determining the effect of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense Tropical Race 4 on various soil parameters is essential in modeling and predicting its occurrence in banana plantations. One way to fulfill this is through a sensor network that will continuously and automatically monitor environmental conditions at suspect locations for an extended period of time. A wireless sensor network was developed specifically for this purpose. This sensor network is capable of measuring soil acidity, moisture, temperature, and conductivity. The designed prototype made use of off-the-shelf Parrot Flower Power soil sensor, pH sensor, Bluno Beetle, battery, and 3D-printed materials, catering specifically to the conditions of tropical banana plantations with consideration for sensor node size, communication, and power. Sensor nodes were tested on both simulated tropical environments and on an actual banana plantation in San Jose, General Santos City, Philippines. Challenges were resolved through iterative design and development of prototypes. Several tests including temperature and weather resilience, and structural stress tests were done to validate the design. Findings showed that the WSN nodes developed for this purpose are resilient to high tropical temperatures for up to 12 hours of continuous exposure, are able to withstand compressive forces of up to 8880.6 N, and can reliably collect data automatically from the area 47.96% of the time at an hourly frequency under actual field conditions.