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Application for Integrating Microcontrollers to Internet of Things

Conference Paper · December 2017

DOI: 10.1109/ICCITECHN.2017.8281837

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 2017 20th International Conference on Computer and Information Technology (ICCIT), 22-24 December, 2017

Application for Integrating Microcontrollers to

Internet of Things

Syed Maruful Huq M. Ashikur Rahman, Sabbir M. Saleh

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Presidency University University of South Asia
Dhaka, Bangladesh Dhaka, Bangladesh
[email protected] [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract— Internet was introduced to the common people improve system performance or monitor the status of various
over two decades ago and over the years we have witnessed its parts of the engine. Embedded systems would work in
massive growth into the mass population through personal conjunction with sensors allowing engine problems to be
computers, laptops and cell phones. Until recently, the Internet uniquely identified without manually checking all the parts of
was a commodity of the people, i.e. end users of the Internet were an engine. Embedded systems contemporarily gained
primarily humans. In the past few years we have witnessed that popularity among other electrical and mechanical
the end users of the Internet are no longer only people but manufacturers resulting in introduction of embedded systems
devices as well. With the advent of IPv6 addressing, it is possible to household appliances. Vehicle manufacturers, however, took
to connect countless devices to the Internet with unique IP
it to the next level and equipped their embedded systems with
addresses. Thus scientists and engineers have been able to hook-
GPS and SIM based cellular net connectivity [4] so that
up all kinds of devices to the Internet, a concept known as
Internet of Things (IoT). Another domain of recent interest is the malfunctioning or stolen vehicles could automatically notify
use of microcontrollers to build various home and laboratory authorized centers about the status and location of the vehicle.
projects. In this paper we propose a model that will allow home The popularity of this concept led to the development of
grown engineers as well as professional engineers to easily patents [5], [6], such that vehicles could be legally tracked. The
control their microcontroller based devices globally via Internet. idea of having vehicles connected to the cellular network
eventually gave birth to the concept that any device could be
Keywords— IoT; Microcontrollers; Microprocessors; Internet connected to a cellular network. This concept evolved to the
IPv6; Arduino; Raspberry pi idea that any device could be connected to the Internet and
eventually termed as IoT.
I. INTRODUCTION Over the past two decades we have witnessed a complete
The arrival of IPv6 with its enormous addressing capability revolution of computer systems and their effect on our daily
has completely revolutionized the thinking of engineers by lives. Computers and Internet are being used in every corner to
allowing them to be able to virtually hook-up any devices to make our lives easier and more efficient. This revolution
the Internet. Each device having its own unique IP address will allowed information sharing to be at the fingertips of people
make routing very easy as it would not require any form of who have access to a computer or a smart phone with Internet
NAT (Network Address Translation) [1]. The choices of connection, allowing people to self-teach almost everything.
devices range from absolutely anything that we can think of, This resulted in the development of countless self-taught
from household and office appliances to vehicles and homegrown engineers.
wearables, leading this concept to be termed as Internet of Another area of research of recent interest is the use of
Things (IoT). Having all these devices connected to the microcontrollers to develop various projects at home or
Internet will allow us to control them remotely from anywhere schools. Two of the most popular microcontroller based
in the world, using a computer or a cell phone. Exemplifying, systems are Arduino and Raspberry Pi. Microcontroller based
we will be able turn on the air conditioning or turn off the stove systems (MBS) are also very popular among engineering
at home from office. We may very well be able to locate a lost students at college level. In addition to college students, we are
pair of spectacles. The prospect of this technology is enormous. seeing a new era of engineers who have self-taught engineering
Having control of all devices at our fingertips will remove the using various online resources, some of them have never even
need to travel and contribute enormously to global energy been to college. Young engineers like these are constantly
conservation. developing new projects based on these microcontroller
IoT was not only driven by the advancement of the Internet systems. Their project descriptions are uploaded in the form of
but also the introduction of embedded systems into various videos or in blogs. We are witnessing projects like these being
devices such as vehicles, refrigerators, televisions, etc. [2], uploaded by countless young engineers.
[18]. In the early 90’s, microcontrollers or microprocessors, i.e. One of the problems these young engineers face is the
embedded systems, were widely installed in vehicles [3] to inability to remotely control these MBS. Most of them would

978-1-5386-1150-0/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE

 2017 20th International Conference on Computer and Information Technology (ICCIT), 22-24 December, 2017

use some sort of a personal server-client set up to remotely Input / Micro- Networking Monitoring /
access their MBS. In this era of IoT, it has become essential Output controller Controlling
that these young engineers have the facility to remotely access Router
(with Public
their MBS. In this paper we are proposing a design that would Arduino IP)
allow these engineers to control their MBS over the Internet.

II. RELATED STUDY

There have been quite an in depth research on Internet of
Things and how various devices can be connected to the
Internet via applications [7]. An adaptable and low cost set-up
Internet
was proposed in [8] for the development of a home automation
system that would be accessible using the Internet. Its wireless
design also allowed devices to relocate easily or even have the
provision for it to be mobile and constantly moving.
Another flexible low cost smart living system was
described in [9]. Here the users can access and control their
household devices using android phones with specially
designed apps. The connection between the home appliances Fig. 2. Control Microcontroller over Internet
and the android devices can be made using Bluetooth or
Internet Connectivity. The devices are equipped with Arduino The study that is similar to our area of research was
that runs a secured micro web-server. The system is equipped developed in [13]. Here they showed the process of reading
with email alerts and notification facilities. from an input port connected to a sensor and also writing to an
output port that would control some actuators. The design
The IoT revolution in [10], [11] describes the process of mandates the clients to be the sensors and the servers control
connecting numerous objects worldwide, using devices such as the actuators based on the sensor data. The sensors and data are
RFID chips and sensors, over the Internet. Objects may be always in real time.
communicating with other objects. The IoT has provided a
platform to developers to easily develop remote medical We have seen that there have been some researches on how
systems, autonomous vehicles, smart cities, etc. to control a microcontroller over the Internet however till date
there has been no universal platform that allows
An interesting approach was introduced in [12]. A design microcontrollers to be controlled over the Internet. In this paper
was implemented that would allow a user to control the we propose a design that will act as a universal interface to all
movements of a DC motor remotely via the Internet. The microcontroller (Arduino & Raspberry Pi) users.
design consists of microcontroller that has a server built into it.
A client machine sends and receives UDP packets to and from
the microcontroller. The application between the client and
server is a Java Applet that works as a GUI. The GUI allows a
user to control the microcontroller visually using a slider. The
GUI also provides simulation of the controlled device, i.e. it
shows the real time position of the motor.
Input / Micro- Networking Monitoring /
Output controller Controlling

Arduino Ethernet

Fig. 3. Typical Microcontroller Based System

Wireless III. EXISTING INFRASTRUCTURE

Router
Currently there is no available software or web application
that can provide an interface for developers or users to control
their microcontrollers remotely. We have identified numerous
cases where engineers have developed their own server-client
model to remotely control their microcontroller devices. In
some models, the engineers simply control their devices over a
LAN [14], [15] and this can be done quite easily as shown in
Fig. 1. In other models the engineers control their devices
remotely across the Internet as shown in Fig. 2. The latter
Fig. 1. Control Microcontroller over Ethernet (LAN) model is however complex because it requires public IP to be
 2017 20th International Conference on Computer and Information Technology (ICCIT), 22-24 December, 2017

Monitoring / End System

Controlling / (Output Mode)
(Input Mode) Web Server
(hosting our web Router
application that (Local ISP)
provides a user
interface and
generates control
signal)

P2M cable
Internet carrying input
signal from PC to
Microcontroller

Fig. 4. Proposed Architectural Design.

incorporated in the microcontroller server and a server ii. After registration, he/she will have the option of
application also needs to be running [16], [19] in the designing his/her interfaces.
microcontroller.
iii. The user will have to design a user interface for
The limitation of the Internet model described in Fig. 2. is controlling the microcontroller. The user will be able to pick a
that it can only be accessed in those particular computers where virtual keyboard, virtual keypad, virtual joystick or any other
the software resides. Moreover, the software allows only a input system from a list of available inputs systems that is
particular type of interface to be used. Thus an application offered by the web application.
developed for one microcontroller cannot be used for another
microcontroller. iv. Once the choice of input has been decided and
selected, the user will be able to configure which button
Typical MBS model includes an input directly interfaced to corresponds to which output wire in the PC to Microcontroller
a microcontroller as show in Fig. 3. The microcontroller is (P2M) Cable in Fig. 4. That is, the user must choose which
powered using a power supply. Inputs include keypads, virtual keypad button enables which wire in the P2M cable. In
touchscreens or other input devices. The inputs are connected case a virtual joystick is chosen, he/she will have to configure
to the microcontroller board and so are the outputs. Whenever the virtual joystick in the same procedure.
an input is provided through the input device, we can see some
action in the output (actuator) device. v. Our web application works in two modes – Input
Mode and Output Mode, under the same login.
The limitation of this model is that both the input system
and the output must be at one location. Our model offers a vi. When the user sets himself/herself to the Input Mode,
design such that the input can be in one area and output can be he/she will be able to choose an Input method (virtual
in some other area, maybe across the globe. keyboard, virtual joystick, virtual keypad, etc.). Only one
instance of the Input Mode can be selected which means under
one particular login only one person can set himself/herself as
IV. PROPOSED ARCHITECTURE the provider of inputs in the entire world.
In our model we are proposing the development of a web
application that would allow users to control their vii. When a user sets himself/herself to the Output Mode,
microcontrollers remotely. We have designed a generic system our web application would access the microcontroller via the
that can be compatible with any microcontroller and the user P2M cable and control the output devices connected to it.
can design his/her own user interface (Input method). This Multiple instances of the Output Mode can be selected which
would also give the benefit of not using a hardware interface means under one particular login numerous End Systems can
because it will be totally replaced by the interface on the act as controller of output devices simultaneously across the
computer screen. Not only computers but mobile phones can globe.
also be used to control devices. This would mean users will be viii. For the entire setup to work a User (who wants to
able to control their microcontroller from anywhere in the control the devices) must log into to our web application from
world if they have access to a smart phone with Internet access. one location of the world and set himself/herself to Input
Our web application would work in the following way: Mode. The End System that has the microcontroller attached
must also log into our website, under the same login and set to
i. The user will have to register (open an account) in the Output Mode. After this the user can control the devices across
website. the Internet via our web application.
 2017 20th International Conference on Computer and Information Technology (ICCIT), 22-24 December, 2017

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