Internet of Things

Design Principles
(DET1205)
Week 03
 Contents
IoT Hardware and Sensors

• Types of sensors
• IoT Ecosystem
• Sensor calibration
• Sensor Network

Polytechnics Mauritius Ltd (2023) 2

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What is a sensor?

• Device that detects and responds to

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What is an actuator?
• An actuator operates in the reverse direction of a sensor.
• It takes an electrical input and turns it into physical action.
• For instance, an electric motor, a hydraulic system, and a pneumatic
system are all different types of actuators.

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What is a controller?
• In a typical IoT system, a sensor may collect information and route
to a control center.
• There, previously defined logic dictates the decision. As a result, a
corresponding command controls an actuator in response to that
sensed input.
• Thus, sensors and actuators in IoT work together from opposite
ends.
• Later, we will discuss where the control center resides in the greater
IoT system.

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Sensors and Actuators

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Variety of Sensors
• There are many different types of sensors in an IoT system.
• Flow sensors, temperature sensors, voltage sensors, humidity
sensors, and the list goes on.
• In addition, there are multiple ways to measure the same thing.
• For instance, a small propeller like the one you see on a weather
station can measure airflow.
• However, this method would not work in a moving vehicle.
• As an alternative, vehicles can measure airflow by heating a small
element and measuring the rate at which it cools.

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Variety of Sensors
• Different applications call for different ways of measuring the same
thing.
• At the same time, a single variable could trigger multiple actions.
• As a result, sensors and actuators in IoT must work together
reliably.

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Variety of Sensors
• You want to measure the amount of water coming out of one of your
taps.
• One way you might do this is to install a sensor in line with the line
that runs from the mains supply to the tap.
• This sensor would most likely have a small impeller inside of it.
• When the water ran through the sensor, it would cause the impeller
to spin, just like the propeller on a weather station.
• When the impeller spins, it will send a stream of electrical impulses
to a computer.
• The computer will interpret the impulses to determine how much
water is flowing through. Sounds simple, right?

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Variety of Sensors
• Brainstorm:
• How does the water supply provider measure the volume of water
which has been consumed for a particular subscriber?

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Variety of Sensors
• This is where sensors get interesting.
• If you look back at our description, you’ll see that we never directly
measured the amount of water flowing through the sensor; we
interpreted it from a stream of electrical impulses.
• That means that we must first figure out how to interpret it.

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Sensor Calibration
• Continuing from the example of the water supply, we need to
calibrate the sensor.
• To calibrate the sensor, we’d have to take a container with a known
carrying capacity, say, a container with a 1L mark.
• Then we’d have to fill that container under a variety of conditions to
determine what the electrical pulse signal looked like.
• Then, monitor the actuator that is responsible to turn on and off the
flow on the other end.

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Sensor Calibration
• It’s only through repeated trials and a lot of data that we gain
confidence that we can interpret the data.
• Sensors and actuators in IoT can work together to automate processes,
such as filling bottles.

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Sensor Network
• A sensor network is a group of sensors where each sensor monitors
data in a different location and sends that data to a central location for
storage, viewing, and analysis.
• There are many applications for sensor networks, from monitoring a
single home, to the surveillance of a large city, to earthquake detection
for the whole world.

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Sensor Network
• Sensor networks typically include sensor nodes, actuator nodes,
gateways, and clients.
• Sensor nodes group inside the sensor field and form networks of
different topologies.
• The following process describes how sensor networks operate:
• A sensor node monitors the data collected by the sensor and transmits this to
other sensor nodes.
• During the transmission process, data may be handled by multiple nodes as it
reaches a gateway node.
• The data is then transferred to the management node.
• The management node is managed by the user and determines the
monitoring required and collects the monitored data.

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Sensor Network

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Sensor Network
• Sensor networks typically include sensor nodes, actuator nodes,
gateways, and clients.
• Sensor nodes group inside the sensor field and form networks of
different topologies.
• The following process describes how sensor networks operate:
• A sensor node monitors the data collected by the sensor and transmits this to
other sensor nodes.
• During the transmission process, data may be handled by multiple nodes as it
reaches a gateway node.
• The data is then transferred to the management node.
• The management node is managed by the user and determines the
monitoring required and collects the monitored data.

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Sensor Network Example
Home Security
• The primary goal of a home
security sensor network is to
detect an intruder.
• Many different types of sensors
can help collect data towards that
goal, such as magnetic open
sensors on doors and windows,
acoustic-based glass break
sensors, security cameras, and
motion detectors.
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Sensor Network Example
Environmental Monitoring
• Researchers, farmers, and governments need to monitor aspects of
the natural environment such as air pollution, water quality, soil
conditions, and weather metrics.
• The traditional approach to monitoring is to collect a sample, bring it
back to a lab, analyze it, and record the results.
• Needless to say, that approach is slow and dependent on human labor,
so traditional monitoring doesn't produce a lot of data.

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Sensor Network Example
Environmental Monitoring
• A more automated and scalable
approach is to use a sensor
network.
• Sensors can be distributed across
an area, collect the environmental
data, and send it back to a central
server for processing.

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Application of Sensors
Smart Buildings
• Occupancy sensors use infrared radiation or ultrasonic waves to
detect the movement of humans in a room.
• Light level sensors measure photons to detect ambient light.
• A network of occupancy and light level sensors can decide when to
dim lights or turn them on or off entirely.

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Application of Sensors
Smart Buildings

The lights are on in this office,

• Occupancy sensors alone can reduce a building's energy usage for lighting
by 50%, especially when used in rooms with intermittent use, such as
classrooms, conference rooms, and bathrooms
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Application of Sensors
Smart Buildings
• Smart buildings can use similar sensor-based technologies for new
approaches to security, making it easier for occupants to enter the
building while harder for intruders to sneak in.
• A parking lot can sense when a car is approaching, snap a photo,
identify the license plate number with recognition algorithms, and lift
the gate only if the plate belongs to an employee.
• Inside the building, a robot with infrared vision can wander around
and record any suspicious activity.

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Application of Sensors

Smart Robot. Image Source: Fumiaki Yoshimatsu

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The Edge Building
(Amsterdam)

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The Edge Building
(Amsterdam)
Smart Buildings
• The Edge is a 15-story office building in Amsterdam that's covered
in 28,000 sensors.
• That sounds like a lot of technology to keep powered, but The Edge
actually produces more power than it consumes thanks to its data-
driven energy efficiency and a roof covered in solar panels.

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 ? Thank You.
Questions