A cost effective smart trough monitoring alert system

Emil Salib

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: CIT Division Technical Session #6
Page Count: 17
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--41723
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/41723
Download Count: 378

Paper Authors

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Emil Salib James Madison University

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Abstract

As farmers embrace environmental stewardship, many plan to improve surface water quality by excluding cattle and establishing riparian buffers along streams and rivers. This requires establishment of mechanical watering systems for the cattle. In this senior capstone project, we developed a monitoring alert system that notifies the farmer in the event of a watering system failure. We recognized from the outset of the project the importance and high value of having to actively and professionally interact with our client. We have also realized the significant opportunity and risk we were presented with when the client offered us his farm as a platform to exercise our ideas and test our system prototypes.

To meet our client’s requirements, two senior students, under the guidance of their senior capstone project advisor, designed a system that included the integrating of three (3) different wireless technologies (Cellular, Wi-Fi and Zigbee), the integrating data from multiple sources through a wireless gateway, and powering the system computing components (e.g., Arduino and wireless Xbee) using a solar panel at each trough. The water level at the troughs, which are located in the pasture field, are wirelessly collected and sent to a Raspberry Pi (RPi is a small mobile computer) in a designated water pump house. Additional data, water pressure, and ambient temperature at the pump house are also collected in the pump house. The RPi unit aggregates all of the data from all locations and stores it for further processing. If any measurement falls outside of a preset range, an text notification message is sent to the farmer's cell phone alerting him to the type of malfunction.

Our phased, incremental, and keep it simple approach in tackling the implementation and testing of the system design paid off handsomely when at the end, we were able to successfully test and evaluate the system in the field (that is, on our sponsor’s farm). Our assessment of the system was very impressive. In it, we included detailed cost of the system, potential future cost savings, a comparison of our system against potential competitors, and a thoughtful list of what should be done next to commercialize the monitoring alert system.

Citation
Format

Salib, E. (2022, August), A cost effective smart trough monitoring alert system Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41723

TY - CPAPER
AB - As farmers embrace environmental stewardship, many plan to improve surface water quality by excluding cattle and establishing riparian buffers along streams and rivers. This requires establishment of mechanical watering systems for the cattle. In this senior capstone project, we developed a monitoring alert system that notifies the farmer in the event of a watering system failure. We recognized from the outset of the project the importance and high value of having to actively and professionally interact with our client. We have also realized the significant opportunity and risk we were presented with when the client offered us his farm as a platform to exercise our ideas and test our system prototypes.

To meet our client’s requirements, two senior students, under the guidance of their senior capstone project advisor, designed a system that included the integrating of three (3) different wireless technologies (Cellular, Wi-Fi and Zigbee), the integrating data from multiple sources through a wireless gateway, and powering the system computing components (e.g., Arduino and wireless Xbee) using a solar panel at each trough. The water level at the troughs, which are located in the pasture field, are wirelessly collected and sent to a Raspberry Pi (RPi is a small mobile computer) in a designated water pump house. Additional data, water pressure, and ambient temperature at the pump house are also collected in the pump house. The RPi unit aggregates all of the data from all locations and stores it for further processing. If any measurement falls outside of a preset range, an text notification message is sent to the farmer's cell phone alerting him to the type of malfunction.

Our phased, incremental, and keep it simple approach in tackling the implementation and testing of the system design paid off handsomely when at the end, we were able to successfully test and evaluate the system in the field (that is, on our sponsor’s farm). Our assessment of the system was very impressive. In it, we included detailed cost of the system, potential future cost savings, a comparison of our system against potential competitors, and a thoughtful list of what should be done next to commercialize the monitoring alert system.
AU - Emil Salib
CY - Minneapolis, MN
DA - 2022/08/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - A cost effective smart trough monitoring alert system
UR - https://peer.asee.org/41723
DO - 10.18260/1-2--41723
ER -