Components in IoT System Design :

IoT Devices
Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
IIIT Allahabad
IoT Devices

Sensors – Types, Use and Calibration

Actuators – Types and Use
Embedded Devices - Hardware
Arduino Prototype Development Platform
Raspberry Pi Prototype Development Platform

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 Things

Physical things exist in the physical world and are

capable of being sensed, actuated and connected.
Examples of physical things include the surrounding
environment, industrial robots, goods and electrical
equipment.

Virtual things exist in the information world and are capable

of being stored, processed and accessed. Examples of virtual
things include multimedia content and application software.
Source: Recommendation ITU-T Y.2060

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Physical and Virtual World

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IoT Device – ITU Definition

IoT device is a piece of equipment with the

capabilities of communication and optional
capabilities of sensing, actuation, data capture, data
storage and data processing. The devices collect
various kinds of information and provide it to the
information and communication networks for further
processing.
Some devices also execute operations based on information
received from the information and communication networks.
Source: Recommendation ITU-T Y.2060

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 Fundamental characteristics
• Interconnectivity: With regard to the IoT, anything can be
interconnected with the global information and communication
Infrastructure.
• Heterogeneity: The devices in the IoT are heterogeneous as
based on different hardware platforms and networks. They can
interact with other devices or service platforms through
different networks.

•Dynamic changes: The state of devices change dynamically,

e.g., sleeping and waking up, connected and/or disconnected
as well as the context of devices including location and speed.
Moreover, the number of devices can change dynamically.
Source: Recommendation ITU-T Y.2060

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IoT System Design Cycle
Connected Devices

Information Flux
Statistics

Sensor

Service Third Party

Companies

Cloud

Companies

HUB / Gateway

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IoT Architecture

Node Gateway Services

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IoT Architecture : Node

Sensor

Wireless link+ Protocol

Protocol

Controller, Memory and Power Management

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IoT Architecture : Gateway

Ethernet

BT
SMS

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IoT Architecture : Services

Graphing
Machine Learning
Alerting

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Sensors

● Sensors measure or identify a particular quantity

Convert physical quantities to electrical signals understood by
●

machines

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Type of Sensors

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Sensors in IoT

Sensors

Health Buildings Automation Transport

Light, Temp Pressure Gyroscope Gyroscope

Accelerometer Temp. Accelerometer Accelerometer

Chemical Chemical

Industrial, Environment, Security and Public Safety,

Retail and Logistics

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Mobile Phone : A Sensor Hub

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Sensing Technology : Role of VLSI Design

Technology node ≡ Min Feature Size

Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS)

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 VLSI Technology applied for Sensing
Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS)
• Miniaturized mechanical and electro-mechanical elements
• Moving structures fabricated on a Silicon substrate
• Made using techniques of micro-fabrication

Micro motor Gyroscope Accelerometer

MEMS fabrication is same as IC (CMOS) fabrication, except

• Mechanical Properties • Feature Size • Unconventional Materials

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Sensors - Physical parameter Sensing

Senses change in physical parameters :

Temp, Pressure, Light Intensity, Smoke in proximity
Acceleration, orientation, vibration, gases, organic vapour
Transducer - Converts physical quantities such as heat ,
sound, strain, pressure into electrical energy

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Calibration of Sensors
Randomness in mother nature gets manifested in the sensors during fabrication
and packaging which lead to random errors in sensors
Some errors may come after prolonged use. Further, there are some errors that occur based on
the environment/operating conditions.
These errors are corrected by calibrating the sensors.
Sensor parameters are compared with any standard reference to find the error.
Pcalibrated = Pmeasured * k + b ; k = Gain and b = Bias
The process of correcting sensors output with gain and bias known as calibration compensation.

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Sensing Circuit
Circuit input receives output of sensor/transducer
Circuit output variation is according to the variation in
physical condition
The circuit receives energy in the form of variation in
currents, voltages, their phase angle or frequencies.

Serial port interface

Sensor Microcontroller
And sub circuits

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Type of Sensors : Analog and Digital

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 Analog Sensors

Uses the sensor and associated electronic analog circuit

Generate analog output as per environment conditions
Temperature, strain, pressure, force, flex,vapours,magnetic field or proximity changes
Resistance of sensing component changes with pressure, strain, magnetic field or
humidity causing strain on the sensor

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 Analog Sensor Circuit –
Conditioning, Sampling, ADC
Uses Analog to Digital Circuit (ADC) - Internal in
microcontroller or in the circuit between sensor and
microcontroller
ADC converts input signal to a digital number

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Digital Sensor

Senses ON and OFF states : Output 0’s and 1’s

1/0 : Certain Range of Voltage, Current or Frequency or
other electronic parameter

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Digital Sensor Circuit

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Smart Sensor

Sensors with integrated electronics that can perform Data conversion, Bidirectional
communication, take decisions and perform logical operations
A sensor with built-in integrated circuit ( microcontroller, and sensor) which provides the
physical parameter as output on connecting it to a supply voltage and programming it.

A smart sensor for temperature gives output as hex-digit - 10 UART serial bits according
to the degree celsius. For ex. 01100100 is obtained for 100 degree Celsius considering the
sensor has been calibrated

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Smart Sensor Node

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Smart Sensor Network

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 Wireless Sensor Network (WSN)
Network of sensor nodes which connect wirelessly
Nodes have capability of computation, data compaction, aggregation and analysis,
communication and networking. Each node has independent computing power and
capability to send and receive responses, data forward and routing capabilities

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 Actuator
A device that takes the actions as per the input command, pulse, state (1/0), set of 1s
and 0s or control signal. An attached motor, speaker, LED or an output device converts
electrical energy into physical action
Piezoelectric vibrator : Piezoelectric crystals when applied varying electric voltages at
input generate vibrations
Motor : can be dc/ac; I/O modules available to receive control digital inputs of 1/0
deliver high currents. A cam converts rotator motion into linear motion when motor
rotates.
Relay Switch : An electronic switch can be controlled by 1/0 from the port pin of
microcontroller. A relay switch makes mechanical contact when input magnetizes with a
control circuit and pulls a lever to make the contact

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 Control Unit
Single VLSI Chip ; A core in an application specific instruction set processor, called
microcontroller
Commonly used control unit in IoT - Microcontroller unit; A core in System-on-Chip (SoC)
with SD card for embedded software and OS software
Ex : ARM Cortex, ATmega328
Microcontroller components : Processor, Internal RAM, Internal Flash and
Firmware, Timers, Programmable I/O Ports, General purpose I/Os, Serial I/O Ports, PWM,
ADC, Communication Network Interfaces

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 System on Chip
A circuit on a single silicon chip, consisting of multiple processors, hardware units and the embedded
software
A VLSI chip that has multiple processors, software and all the needed digital as well as analog
circuits’ on-chip; A SD card stores external programs and OS and enables use of the chip distinctly for
a particular purpose
A SoC can be of different platforms : Raspberry Pi

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Arduino

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Raspberry Pi
Low cost mini computer, allows interfacing sensors
though GPIOs, runs Raspbian OS ( a Liux variant),
supports Python

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Programming Raspberry Pi

from time import sleep

import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)

#Switch Pin
GPIO.setup(25, GPIO.IN) #LED Pin
GPIO.setup(18, GPIO.OUT) state=false

def toggleLED(pin):
state = not state
GPIO.output(pin, state)

while True:
try:
if (GPIO.input(25) == True):

toggleLED(pin)
sleep(.01)
except KeyboardInterrupt:
exit()

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 Node MCU
NodeMCU is a low-cost open source IoT platform. It initially included firmware which runs on the
ESP8266 Wi-Fi SoC from Espressif Systems, and hardware which was based on the ESP-12 module.
Later, support for the ESP32 32-bit MCU was added.
Memory: 128kBytes
Developer: ESP8266 Opensource Community
CPU: ESP8266(LX106)
Storage: 4MBytes

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RFID ( Radio Frequency ID) Technology in IoT

Identification System – Tagging and Labelling

Tiny chips : Passive/Active; battery powered when reader near wireless
Communication range : 10cm to 200m
Standard frequency : 120-150KHz, 13.56MHz,433MHz and higher in UHF
regions
Applications : Tracking, inventory control

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