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Development of an Educational Kit for Learning IoT

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International Conference on Computer Simulation in Physics and Beyond IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 1163 (2019) 012015 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1163/1/012015

Development of an Educational Kit for Learning IoT

Ilia Lyzhin, Sergey Efremov, Alexey Rolich, Leonid Voskov, Dmitrii Abrameshin

National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow 123458, Russia

E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. The primary purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of existing education
solutions for IoT and develop proposals for their improvement. The study draws analysis of
current conditions of the educational IoT sphere, a comparative analysis of educational products
used for teaching of undergraduate students. With that the article describes the architecture of
our own software and hardware platform for learning IOT. Moreover, this paper reviews methods
and technical instruments employed to design software and hardware appliances.

1. Introduction
Today more and more electronic devices are designed with a built-in access to a global network, this
concept is widely known as the Internet of Things (IoT). With many isolated infrastructures of such
devices, there is a growing need in integration of these smart things into a single network, development
of rules for their interconnection and determination of interaction scenarios [1].
The educational side of the Internet of Things is still very much in development. With existing courses
at the university level related to electrical, electronic engineering, programming, microcontroller
architectures, robotics, data storage and analysis and others it is very much an open question of whether
teaching IoT requires something in addition. Having analyzed the related works we have concluded that
the general approach to teaching IoT is to design extensible educational constructors for carrying out
multidisciplinary practice sessions. Hence the main goal of this paper is to provide an overview of the
work that has been done in this direction so far and to present our own proposals.
This paper is based on the results of a project carried out by our research group, which aims at designing
a hardware-software appliance (IoT constructor) that would provide an improved way of teaching
embedded solutions and Internet of Things.
The following tasks are solved sequentially to achieve the stated goal:
 Systematic review and comparison of existing technical solutions
 Development of a physical architecture for the hardware-software appliance
 Design of hardware components
 Development of software components
The key novelty of the study is a complex approach to the already created educational constructors and
development of a device, being both optimal in economic and technical terms and capable of direct
interactions with a network as compared to those emulating this process.

2. Related works

The problem of choosing efficient instruments for IoT education has already been extensively studied
by different authors. Specifically, it has been addressed by researchers from the University of Novi Sad,
Serbia [2] who suggested a package created for university education. This pack is based upon

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International Conference on Computer Simulation in Physics and Beyond IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 1163 (2019) 012015 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1163/1/012015

Arduino/Genuino UNO Rev3 and Ethernet Shield, in addition, a set of breadboards and jumper wires
are used for attachment of sensors. In accordance with the information provided by the authors, the cost
of the kit without sensors varies from 11.89 to 57.5 euros. The prospects of further advancement are
seen in integration of Wi-Fi, ZigBee, RS-232 modules and other communication technologies.

At the same time, staff members of the College of Engineering and Technology, Hubballi, Karnataka,
India have created a multidisciplinary IoT course for their educational establishment [3]. From the
technical point of view, the course is based on the Intel Galileo board, Arduino-Uno, Raspberry Pi-2.
For data transmission GSM, Wi-fi and Ethernet are used. During the course students are suggested to
solve cases using the backend tools and equipment enumerated above. The possible versions of tasks
are the creation of prototype of IoT device or the development of user interface including Django
framework and integration with outside cloud-hosted services.

Research results show that during the course 75% of student groups have applied cloud services, while
25% have used notification function for mobile devices. Authors point out that during the studies
mentioned learners have attained basic knowledge of developing systems in IoT sphere.

In addition to that, the educational programme contains both hardware and software learning practices
including the integration of devices into an existing cloud infrastructure. In particular, students designed
the following applications: smart lighting, smart irrigation, weather reporting bot and other projects in
the IoT sphere.

This example illustrates the fact that, taking part in multidisciplinary course in specialized secondary
education institution may contribute to the creation of notable and practically oriented projects in case
the course programme is thoroughly designed and suitable technical means of learning are available.

Another notable study has been conducted by P. Plaza et al [4]. Their work includes the comparative
analysis of PCBs, such as Arduino WiFi Shield, Arduino Yún Shield, Arduino MKR1000, Node MCU
ESP8266 and Onion Omega. The following features have been revealed:

 The higher amount of memory (both volatile and non-volatile) is associated with the Genuino
Yún Shield and the Onion Omega, while lower amount is incorporated in the Genuino
MKR1000.

 The majority of programming languages are supported by the Node MCU ESP8266 and the
Onion Omega.

 The least expensive board is the NodeMCU ESP8266, while the costliest one is the Arduino
WiFi Shield.

Researchers have concluded that any of enumerated devices are appropriate in the context of IoT
education. Specifically, it should be noted that the NodeMCU ESP8266 is 2.25 times less expensive
than the Onion Omega and 5 times less expensive than the Genuino Yún Shield.

The Maze game [5] has been created in the context of a student project called «Connection systems»
and may be useful for education in both IoT and robotic systems spheres. The basic idea of the activity
is a competition of different robotic devices in finding an exit from a labyrinth. The programmers aimed
to make the system able to work with ESP-12E, ESPDuino, D1, NodeMCU, ESP8266-01, Wee,
Arduino, C.H.I.P.

Authors claim that their product may be employed for educational purposes. The equipment used in
project is of low cost and can be easily modified; moreover, there are open libraries of functions. The
noteworthy aspect is that 5 out of 8 applied devices are based on the ESP8266 microcontroller.

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International Conference on Computer Simulation in Physics and Beyond IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 1163 (2019) 012015 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1163/1/012015

Overall, these studies consistently indicate that the popularity of technologies application in education
in IoT sphere is widespread. Furthermore, the reviewed works suggest that the development of
educational projects and learning kits is mainly done with a help of Arduino or PCBs based on the
ESP8266. Single-board computers (such as, Raspberry Pi-2 and Onion Omega) are employed a bit less
frequently.

As a result of the analysis of current technical solutions and their strengths and weaknesses, the
requirement for considered product has been elaborated. The major point is that our device is going to
be different from the current analogues in a way that it will have wireless connection to the Internet,
larger embedded memory and a built-in support for cloud integration. A detailed table of comparative
analysis can be found in A.1. [6]

3. Proposal of a new IoT constructor

3.1. Hardware

The literature review has revealed that in the context of IoT DIY constructors the most widely used
boards are Arduino or PCBs based on ESP8266. We plan to extend this list by using the Wemos D1 to
develop a new constructor as it supports the Arduino IDE, sensors and partly supports libraries for
Arduino projects.

At the same time, the Wemos D1 provides a Wi-Fi connection and costs less than a similar Arduino
PCB. The more in-depth results of boards comparison are given in Appendices, Table 2. Consequently,
Wemos D1 having both cost-effectiveness and optimal technical characteristics was considered as
appropriate for the new product.

The constructor would include the Wemos D1 PCB, a board for module’s fastening, a PCB case,
specially created magnetic contacts, sensors (collecting data on lighting, temperature and vibration),
actuating devices (ordinary and addressable RGB LEDs, relay for switching high-voltage appliances).

The capacity of our university’s Laboratory for 3D modelling and visualization is planned to be used
for development of terminals and bodies of device.

3.2. Software

Data collected by sensors will be transmitted through the wireless IEEE 802.11 network to the cloud
platform. The platform will accumulate data and send back commands for actuators based on the
programmable interconnection scenarios.

For the development of the cloud platform the Separate template engine [7] has been chosen as it has
the following advantages: relatively insignificant size, concise syntax, provided with extensive
documentation and produced under of free license of MIT. Twitter Bootstrap has been selected for the
visual web design because of its wide recognition and compatibility with all existing browsers.

As for data storage we plan to use two database types – a relational database for storing device
descriptors and user data and a NoSQL database for storing unstructured sensor data. We have chosen
MySQL as a relational database as it is supported by the majority of hosting services and it has proven
itself efficient in the web development sphere. The unstructured data storage is still at the stage of
comparison of existing solutions and testing.

It is further anticipated that the new platform will involve a preconfigured server and web-application
with user interface. Moreover, there would be functions of registration and authorization, addition and
configuration of devices, device sharing, scenario editor and interactive tutorials provided.

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International Conference on Computer Simulation in Physics and Beyond IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 1163 (2019) 012015 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1163/1/012015

Pic. 1. Architecture of the software and

hardware appliance

4. Conclusions

In this paper we have made an attempt to bring together existing approaches to developing IoT solutions
that can be used for educational purposes. Motivated by the greatly increasing demand from the
educational sphere related to teaching IoT, we have reviewed the work done so far and presented an
architecture of a novel IoT constructor and built its first prototype.

Acknowledgments. The article was prepared within the framework of the Academic Fund Program at
the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE) in 2017 — 2018 (grant № 17-05-
0017) and by the Russian Academic Excellence Project «5-100».

5. Appendices

Table 1. Comparison of the existing educational kits

Obrazovatel'naja
Skart-LAB LAZY SMART IoT Smart
Skretchduino.La laboratorija JS
Criteria\Product "Umnyj Jodo[10] LS Agricultur
boratorija[9] "Internet
dom"[8] Monitoring[11] e[12]
veshhej"[13]
Cortex- ATmega3
Сontroller ATmega2560 ATmega328 ATmega1280 Atmega
M4 28
Internet +(Ethernet
- - - +(GSM/GPRS) -
connection )
Number of
9 2 4 1 4 9
sensors
Number of
supported
1 4 1 1 1 1
programming
languages

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International Conference on Computer Simulation in Physics and Beyond IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 1163 (2019) 012015 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1163/1/012015

Availability of
- - - + - -
cloud platform
Possibility to
connect actuating + - + + + +
devices
Сonfigurator
- - - + - -
manager
Price (EUR) 274 124 65 47 72 871

Table 2. Results of PCB comparison

Arduino Leonardo IFLAT-32

Criteria\P-c board Arduino Uno Arduino M0 Iskra JS PSoC 4200 WeMos D1
ETH v2.0
Сontroller ATmega328p ATmega32U4 Cortex M0 Cortex-M4 Cortex M0 ARM 7 ESP8266EX
Frequency 16 MHz 16 MHz 48 MHz 168 MHz 48 MHz 72 MHz 80 Hz
RAM 2 kB 2.5 kB 32 kB 192 kB 4 kB 96 kB 80 kB
Memory 32 kB 32 kB 256 kB 1 mB 32 kB 12 kB 4 mB
Digital pins 14 8 14 14 36 54 11
Analog pins 6 12 6 12 0 6 1
I2C + + + + + + +
Ethernet - + - - - - -
Wi-fi - - - - - - +
Price (EUR) 13 48 26 22 19 30 6,50

6. References
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of Things, in: Procedia Engineering Vol. 100: 25th DAAAM International Symposium on
Intelligent Manufacturing and Automation, 2014. Switzerland : Elsevier, 2015. P. 1215-1223.
[2] Dobrilovic D., Zeljko S. Design of open-source platform for introducing Internet of Things in
university curriculum. C. IEEE 11th Int. Symp. on SACI Timisoara, Romania, 2016, p. 273-6
[3] Raikar M. M., Desai P., Naragund J. G.. Active Learning Explored in Open Elective Course:
Internet of Things (IoT). C. IEEE T4E Mumbai, India, 2016, pp. 15-18
[4] Plaza, Pedro, et al. Wireless Development Boards to Connect the World. Online Engineering &
Internet of Things. J. Lec. Notes in Net. and Sys., Springer Int. Pub. 2018, vol. 22, pp.19-27
[5] Dobrilovic D. et al. Building ESP8266 Wi-Fi module network based on open-source hardware
and single-board computers. C MECHEDU 2017. Serbia, 2017, pp.101-6
[6] Lyzhin I.G. Obrazovatel'nye konstruktory v sfere internet veshhej (IoT). C Innovacionnoe razvitie
rossijskoj jekonomiki Moscow, 2017, vol.5, pp. 397-9
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[10] Amperka. Jodo. Available at: http://amperka.ru/product/yodo / (accessed 28 February 2018)
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