International Conference on Communication and Signal Processing, April 6-8, 2016, India

Automated Water Usage Monitoring System

Sajith Saseendran, V.Nithya

Abstract—Advances in wireless communication devices and at homes and industries by allowing the user to continuously
systems have a significant impact on various fields like monitor and control the usage of water. The user is able to
agriculture, healthcare, smart homes etc. One of its important monitor his water usage at every taps from time to time
applications is the development of monitoring system for various through his smartphones or laptops and also unnecessary water
purposes. Automated water usage monitoring system proposes an wastage is also prevented. This water monitoring system
effective way of controlling the wastage of water at consists of three modules: wireless sensor module; Central
home/Industries by means of Wireless sensor nodes and module; Server module. Wireless sensor module collects the
LabVIEW software. At many places water is luxuriously wasted data from every water outlets , at the server all the
while many areas don’t have enough. Sensor nodes are placed at
computation are done and control signals are generated and
every water outlet pointes sensing the flow of water. The concept
of internet of things (IOT) is used to continuously monitor and
central module acts as an interface between the sever and the
track water usage via the wireless sensor nodes. Server collects sensor module.
the data through Wi-Fi/LAN to process and track usage and Wireless sensor networks (WSN) are spatially distributed
wastage of water at every outlet. When water is used at excess it autonomous sensors to monitor physical or environmental
is indicated and an alert is sent to the user. The user can conditions, such as temperature, sound, pressure, etc. Internet
continuously keep a track of the water usage or wastage through of things (IoT) is a developing concept which can be integrated
a mobile or laptop with an internet connection. This proposed along with wireless sensor networks for efficient monitoring
water monitoring system helps the individuals to keep a track on from a remote location. The papers which discusses about the
their water bills and helps the government to manage the water related papers are listed out in Section II, the methodology is
supply and modify billing scheme based on the water usage. discussed in Section III and the proposed work is explained in
detailed in Section IV. Section V and VI discusses about the
Keywords—Water monitoring system; LabVIEW; Wireless results obtained and conclusion.
sensor networks; IOT.

I. INTRODUCTION II. RELATED WORKS

At present traditional water metres are used to calculate the A mechanism for estimation of elderly well-being
amount of water used at homes for billing purpose. This condition based on usage of house-hold appliances connected
doesn’t provide an efficient method of monitoring the water through various sensing units is proposed in [3]. This system
usage. The water is wasted at each and every outlet knowingly is a wireless-sensor-network-based home monitoring system
or unknowingly which adds up to huge amount in the end. for elderly activity behaviour which involves functional
Efficient management of the water used at homes is very much assessment of daily activities.
necessary as, about 50% of water supplied to the cities gets Paper [4] discusses the design of a sensor network for
wasted through its improper usage [1]. Water management is monitoring and control of the water distribution system. The
only possible, if the user is aware of the quantity of water he application of this system lies in detecting leakage or some
uses and the quantity available to him. Hence there is a need other structural problems in underground pipelines. It has
for modifying the traditional water meters for the users to various sensors for this purpose integrated with GPS and a 3G
continuously monitor their water usage. modem. The sensor nodes are costly and replacement of it
In an Agricultural country like India, news about increased may is difficult as it is deployed underground.
farmer suicides (about 26% in 2014) cannot be ignored, where The author of paper [5] discusses about the development of
one of the main reasons for it is unavailability of water [2]. At
a prototype for monitoring and content management system
many places water is luxuriously wasted while our farm lands
for agricultural. It is a ZigBee based monitoring system
don’t have enough. Automated water usage monitoring system
proposes an effective way of controlling the wastage of water employing wireless sensor nodes. The sensors are connected
to LAN which is used to monitor the information in the server.
A wireless sensor network based water environmental
monitoring system is proposed in [6]. The system
automatically monitors the water temperature and pH value
environment of a water body. This water monitoring system is
suitable for the complex and large-scale water environment
Sajith Saseendran, SRM University, (e.mail:[email protected]) monitoring, such as for reservoirs, lakes, rivers, swamps, and
shallow or deep ground waters
Dr. V.Nithya, SRM University, (e.mail: [email protected])
The work for developing a wireless body sensor networks
based energy-efficient application-specific integrated circuit

978-1-5090-0396-9/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE

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featured with a work-on-demand protocol is designed for Central module consists of an arduino board which is
medical applications has been undergone in paper [7]. It’s a connected to various modules such as (1) RF module (2)
system for ultra-low-power wireless sensor nodes where the Solenoid valve (3)WiFi/Ethernet Shield (4)Water flow meter
ASIC consists of a low-power microcontroller unit (MCU), a (5)Indicators (6)Power source as shown in Fig. 3.
power-management unit (PMU), reconfigurable sensor Server collects the raw data over the internet for monitoring
interfaces, and communication ports controlling a wireless the water usage. For this purpose it contains (1) Computational
transceiver, and an integrated passive radio-frequency (RF) block (2) Monitoring/Display block (4) Feedback/Control
receiver with energy harvesting ability. block as shown in Fig. 4. The computational block computes
the required parameters based on various algorithms. These
In [8] the author has developed “Smart Coast” that has
parameters are displayed using monitor/display block. These
been proposed for water quality management which is
parameters are used to create feedback or control signals.
designed based on wireless sensor network concept It’s a
wireless sensor based system for sensing and calculating the
quality of water. It is a miniaturized and intelligent monitoring
RF
system.
III. METHODOLOGY
Automated water usage monitoring system consists of two
main modules, (1) Wireless sensor module (2) Server Module.
Wireless sensor module as shown in Fig. 1 collects the real
time data at respective homes.

Wireless
Central Server Fig, 3. Block diagram of Central module
Sensor
Module Module
Module

Fig. 1. Block diagram of an Automated water usage monitoring

system
Fig. 4. Block diagram of Server module
This data is send to LabVIEW module via Wi-Fi or LAN.
The LabVIEW module can be accessed from any remote
location from with an internet connection. The basic block of IV. PROPOSED SYSTEM
Automated water usage monitoring system consists of mainly The concept of automated water usage monitoring system
three components, (i) Wireless sensor module (ii) Central lies in alerting the user of excess usage of water at every outlet,
Module (iii) Server Module. Wireless sensor module connects also providing the user a way to monitor his water bills time to
the various sensor nodes wirelessly to a central node. Then it is time.
connected to Server via a communication link
Sensor module consists of (1) Sensor (2) Sensor Circuitry A. Wireless sensor module
(3)RF Transceiver module (4)Indicators and (5)Power source
as shown in Fig. 2. Sensor senses the flow of water and sends Wireless sensor node is placed at each water outlet to sense
the data to the sensor circuitry. The received signal is amplified the water flow; (i) In Fig. 5 represent the wireless sensor nodes
at the sensor circuitry. RF module is used as a transceiver to placed at the water outlet. An apartment of seven water outlets
transmit the sensed data and receive the control signals. Power is considered. These sensor nodes are wirelessly connected to a
source is used to power up the sensor circuitry, RF module and central module by a single hop
indicators. Central module is represented by (ii) in Fig. 4.Indiactors at
the central module indicates the average amount of water that
can be used by user. The indicator is also used display the
RF water outlet which is currently used.

Fig. 2. Block diagram of Wireless Sensor module

Fig. 5. System concept design

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 Centralized node which consists of arduino board is method provides an effective way of controlling wastage of
connected to water flow meter and solenoid valve which is water when it is left unattended. There are many instances
connected to main water inlet. Reset button is represented by where the user forgets to close the tap and goes out for work
(a) in Fig. 6. When a water outlet is opened for more than a and when he returns he can find huge amount of water wasted
certain amount of time specified at the Server module, an alert leading to huge increase water bill for the respective month due
is given at the indicator and via mail. to unwanted wastage.
TABLE I
CONDITIONS FOR WARNING AND ALERT SYSTEM

Fig. 6. Central module design

Start
If the user doesn’t respond within a prescribed time limit
the solenoid valve shuts the supply to the house. When the user
Tap status A
recognizes the alert and closes the particular water outlet he
can press reset button to restore the water supply. Water flow
meter gives an efficient way of determining the total amount of
water used. No Continuously
A Used amount >
Specified value
B. Server module
LabVIEW module acts as a server to control and monitor
the data to and from the wireless sensor nodes. The labVIEW Yes
processes the data received from the central module to display Warning
the processed information and also create appropriate control
signals.
. Off Tap
A On/Off
The data from the central module is used to check the status
of each water outlet or taps. It is used to decide the amount of On
time the water outlet is kept open. The usage time is displayed B
in seconds.
Based on the usage time and information from the water
flow meter, an efficient algorithm is used to calculate the Fig. 7. Warning system flowchart
amount of water used. The present usage is displayed from the
calculated value. Each time the status turns off the present Fig. 7 shows the flowchart of warning system at the server.
usage resets. The cumulative data from the present usage is The system starts the process by checking the status of the tap.
used to calculate the total usage and it’s displayed. A time If the tap continuously uses water greater than the specified
stamp is inserted with it to reset it every month value then the warning signal is activated. Then the system
The information from the usage time and present usage is checks weather the tap is on or off. If the tap is off then the
used to formulate the alert and warning system. The conditions system again checks the status of the tap.
for warning and alert system are shown in Table I. These The flowchart of alert system at the server is shown in Fig.
conditions are formulated to minimize the wastage of water. Its 8. The system checks if the tap continuously on for greater time
main purpose is to alert the user of the over usage at each water than the threshold time limit then the alert signal is activated.
outlet. Then the system checks weather the tap is on or off. If the tap
To resume the water supply to the house the user can close the is off then the system again checks the status of the tap.
appropriate water outlet and can press the reset button. This

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 Automated water usage monitoring system gives the user
the facility of viewing the water usage data in the server
through any device at any time using an internet connection.
B The water usage parameters in the LabVIEW module such as
usage time, present usage, total usage, warning and alert status
of each water outlet the present bill amount can be accessed by
No Continuously ON the user through his PDA, smartphones, laptops or desktops
A time > Specified using internet in any standard browser. Figure 10 shows the
time
LabVIEW data viewed from many devices.
Yes
V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Alert
LabVIEW is an integral part of water management system
which acts as a server. The developed server system simulates
Wait for 1 Min
the various water outlets using on and off buttons. The on/off
status from the buttons is used for further computation for
Off developing warning, alert signal and control signals. Mail
Tap
A On/Off services are also included in the server module for alerting the
user through mail after the alert signals are activated and
On before the water is shut down signals are generated.
C

Fig. 8. Alert system flowchart

Mail / SMS sent

to the user
Fig. 11. Graphical representation of water usage at server

Wait for 1 min

The developed server system with the functions integrated
together for Automated water usage monitoring system to
provide an effective way of controlling the over usage and
unnecessary wastage are shown Fig. 11
Tap
A On/Off Fig. 12 shows the front panel view of water usage through
manual simulation. The status of the switching on and off is
water outlet is manually simulated using a switch. When the
wash basin tap uses 10 liters of water continuously, which is
Shut the supply definitely an over usage then the warning is activated. The
warning activates the LED at the respective wireless sensor
node. This indicates the user to close the tap.
Stop

Fig. 9. Supply control system flowchart

The flowchart of supply control system at the server is shown

in Fig. 9. The system checks if the tap continuously on for
greater time than the threshold time limit then the alert signal is
activated. Then the system checks weather the tap is on or off. Fig. 12. Manual stimulation of Water usage
If it is off then the system again checks the status of the tap. If a particular water outlet is kept open for more than 15
minutes i.e. when the user ignores the warning signal or the
water source is left unattended then an alert signal is generated.
Fig. 13 shows the Alert and warning system display at the
server. The alert signal generates a beep sound at the central
module indicator and also flashes the LED indicating which
Fig. 10. Integration of LabVIEW to web water outlet is open.

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 If the user doesn’t responds to the alert signal within one The server module has been designed with all the
minute the server sends a mail to the user informing the details mentioned functions such as status of each tap in an apartment,
about the over usage at the particular outlet. The system waits the present usage of water at each taps and the total amount of
for two minutes for the user to close the water outlet. Even water used at each taps respectively. The present amount of
after two minutes if the water outlet is left unattended the then water bill is displayed with the total amount of water used. The
the server informs the central module to shut down the main alert and warning signals to control the water flow to the
water supply. Solenoid valve shuts the supply and the water apartment are displayed along with mail service to inform the
outlet kept open is displayed at the indicator. user about the water usage based of above mentioned
conditions. The switching of tap is simulated using manual
controls. The hardware section consisting of wireless sensor
module and central module have to be developed, it has to be
synchronized to the server module and has to be tested in
various real time environment.

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ecological balance and making the life of our future generation
easier. In this paper I have developed a prototype of
Automated water usage monitoring system which helps in
reducing the depletion of the water resources.

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