Real-time Display for Machine Status
Team Member: LIU, Xinzhu (EEGBM) DUAN, Yangyang (BCB) LIU, Yuchen (ECE) CHEN, Zhiyu (QFIN) KAO, I-hsuan (PHYS) CUI, Yunpeng (ECOF) LI, Mengyuan (CIVIL)
Supervisor: Prof. David Rossiter (CSE)
Participant of President’s Cup 2015 in HKUST & GCE Student Initiated & Organized Projects (SIOP) Fund Awardee
Vibration
signal
Laundry machine
Digital
data
Digital
data
Vibration sensor SW 1801Pihome server: ihome.ust.hk/~ikao Raspberry Pi B+
Detect vibrating
No Is the machine Yes vibrating?
1 0
Output data
GPIO port:
Read data from hardware
Python Program A:
Take the summation of most recent 100 sample
And generate a TXT file of “Yes” and “No”
Python Program B:
Extract the data of the txt file And upload it to the Internet
Digital data
TXT file
Data analysis
PHP program C
generates new TXT file And saves in sever
PHP program D
translates numerical data to displayable sentence
JavaScript & HTML/CSS program displays laundry machine states
Sentences TXT file
Data Display
Methodology and related information
Overview
Our project provides the real time availability status of the laundry machines in residential halls through online platform. Two main parts, electronics and website building, are considered in this pro-ject. The basic mechanism of the electronics part is the signal tran-sition and forwarding. Vibration sensors’ inputs are stick to the laundry machines to collect the signals of the machines. Subse-quently, the signals are forwarded from the sensors to Raspberry Pi. A database is programmed in Raspberry Pi with Python to col-lect and record the ecol-lectronic signals and translate in text form. After that, the data in Raspberry Pi are transmitted to the ihome server through Wi-Fi. We use html, CSS and JavaScript to design, and frame the website. PHP animates the website and acts as the medium between the database and website to transit the signal. For residents, they just need to check the website to get the availability status for the particular machine and then decide whether to go to wash their clothing . Similar sensor system may be applied to other public areas like parking lots and communal bathrooms etc.
Vibration sensor
We choose vibration sensors based on three concerns. Firstly, vi-bration sensors are relatively cheap. Because the status of each washing machine needs to be collected independently, it is very important to control the cost of sensors so that the total price will be acceptable and attractive to be widely used. Secondly, vibration sensors are mechanically easy to understand so they are user friendly. Users can adjust and repair vibration sensors on their own
and little technical knowledge will be needed. Third, vibration sen-sors can avoid one significant concern of users: privacy. Because no video or photos are collected, the information of each user will be protected.
Raspberry Pi
We chose Raspberry Pi because it’s both functional satisfying and efficient. Raspberry Pi contains a reasonable CPU and both Ether-net and USB ports. Raspberry Pi is also relatively cheap, around 250 HKD, so it will be cost-efficient, with each hall laundry room share a same Pi.
Python
The output of the vibration sensor is either 1 when still or 0 when vibration. However, when implementing in real life, for the occa-sional cases that someone may accidentally kick the machine or the adjacent machine is vibrating fiercely, the output of the vibra-tion sensor may not be what we desired it to be. Therefore, a Py-thon program, which is called program A is written to take the summation S(t) of the most recent 100 sample n which is taken every 0.3 seconds.
A threshold T is set beforehand according to real situation. The Py-thon program will record “Yes” to a txt file when the sample sum-mation is less than the threshold (S(t) <= T refers to vibrating) and record “No” when the sample summation is larger than the thresh-old (S(t) > T refers to still).
This txt file will be uploaded to Internet by text format by another Python program, program B.
Data Flow
Internet related programWe used different languages for different parts in this project. For data collection and uploading, we used python and run it on Raspberry Pi. And we used html, CSS and JavaScript to build the website. Besides these, we also used PHP to construct the data-base on the website.
PHP
As Python program B upload the data from the TXT file that Py-thon A has generated. One PHP file what we called Program C receive the data and generate a TXT file on the Internet, serving
as a server. Another PHP file, program D read the TXT file that’s on the Internet and display it on the browser.
List of items used in this project:
◇ Raspberry Pi B+
◇ Vibration sensor: SW 1801P
◇ Display Screen (TFT color monitor
17.4cm*11.4cm*3.3cm)
◇ Breadboard ◇ DuPont Wire
◇ Multimeter (UT33D)
Possible future implementation
Online booking function
We have considered to add online booking system on the website. However, this function may need to access users’ personal infor-mation, such as student name or ITSC account. This may draw pri-vacy concerns and may lead to problems. So the team decided to postpone this plan until get proper solutions regarding the issues.
Potential market
Only by changing the way data collected, this device will be suita-ble for various potential costumers. Take parking lot for example, we can use ambient light sensors to collect the parking status and upload to website, offering drivers and managers a direct view. Re-strooms will be another potential and privacy will be protected since we use none-camera sensors. For all these markets, we pro-vides a cheap upgrade service without complex modification and reassembling and no privacy or safety concern will be included.
Conclusion
Many residents have been complaining the insufficiency of campus laundry machines. So we initiated this project “Real-time display for machine status” to solve this problem. Our team use vibration sensors, Raspberry Pi and multiple programs and succeed to detect the washing status of machines accurately and upload online for on
-time display. This whole system is cheap in cost and is easy for administrators’ operation and fixing. No reassembling of machines will be needed and this system offers protection of users’ privacy. This product can also be put into market and widely used in public restroom, parking lots and other public zones.
Figure 1
Figure 3
Figure 2
Project Photographs
Methodology and related information (continued)
Onsite installation-Raspberry Pi Onsite installation-vibration sensor
Onsite installation-wire Demonstration for hall office
Introduction
Overview
Quite a number of HKUST hall residents have complained that there are not enough washing machines on campus. During the busy hours, they may carry heavy laundry baskets up and down stairs serval times to find all the machines occupied. We believe the root cause is the inefficient allocation and use of the washing machines rather than the quantity. So we initiated this project, in-spired by the concept of IOT “Internet of Things”, hoping to create a free information disclosing and accessing platform to increase the efficiency of public facilities.
Objectives
◇ Improve the efficiency of usage of washing facilities
◇ Help students find available machines and manage their
washing schedule
◇ Improve the Hall living satisfaction level
◇ Develop a pilot project for potential future business
The need for such a project
To investigate the need for this system, we made a draft version of website and researched the students’ needs. We found that this function is highly appreciated (Figure 1 and Figure 2),.And this is also a common need for residents of each hall (Figure 3).
Financial Support
This Project is GCE Student Initiated & Organized Projects (SIOP) Fund Awardee.
