REMOTE MONITORING AND CONTROL OF A REFRIGERATOR USING GSM INTERFACE
Abstract
Today, many user-machine interacted devices are tailored at the service of people. This project presents a new low cost smart fridge in which GSM is used as the media of communication between the machine and humans. The proposed solution demonstrates remote monitoring of the fridge (its temperature and food and beverage contents) as well as power cut and return alarms through text messages that are sent to stored number in response to a call or a message request or initiated by the system in case of power cuts. The software is utilizing a conditional looping using C and standard AT commands are used for communication between the micro- controller and the modem.
CHAPTER ONE/INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
House automation or smart home technologies aim to make our daily life more comfortable. These systems serve some periodic and non-periodic tasks using electronic sensors, switches, machines, and some special purpose devices. In addition to this, communication between people and machines is extremely important today. There is a significant potential of demand for the remote control and monitoring of any system A. Alheraish (2004). Hence, a rapid expansion in the usage of GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) enabled devices has been witnessed C. Felix (2011) Mobile devices have a wide application in many areas for remote control and monitoring such as in homes and offices for security and device control; in industry for getting informed about machine situations, temperature, gas and humidity control; in agriculture for getting weather forecasts, status of silos, to control irrigation systems; in health for patient care, etc. A. W. Ahmad, (22011) et al
A GSM modem is a specialized type of a mobile phone. The dedicated GSM modem is usually preferable to a GSM mobile phone, due to some compatibility issues that can exist with mobile phones when developing a GSM enabled device . GSM modems are most frequently used to provide mobile internet connectivity, many of them can also be used for sending and receiving SMS and MMS messages
This research was funded by a grant (No. 2209-A within 2012) from the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey.
SMS (Short Message Service), which is one of the common communication protocols allowing the interchange of short messages between mobile devices was developed as part of the GSM L. T. Ching (2002).
Dedicated GSM modems have been transferred to some devices previously. Aranguren et al. G. Aranguren (2002) conducted a study, which provided wireless communication between machines using the GSM module to prove that mobile phones are effective in a wide range. Yüksekkaya et al. developed a wireless home automation system with speech recognition by using GSM networks. Wu and Jin (2000) utilized SMS protocols to control smart homes. Bekiro÷lu and Daldal managed a remote alarm system by a mobile phone. Mohanta and Khanaa introduce a friendly system to control home appliances remotely by the use of mobile phones. Salman and Vrindavanam have developed an interactive control system based on GSM. The system allows remote control of different appliances through text messages.
This paper presents a new fridge connected to GSM network. It allows the user to gain information about the product quantities and cooler temperatures inside, whenever the user requires by sending a text message or a phone call. In addition to allowing users to control the home appliance from remote places, it notifies them about any electricity faults in the system with an instant text message.
The system is suitable for widespread use due to its compatibility with all mobile phones, not only smart phone systems such as Android, iOS, Windows Phone but also older ones. Although the real target area of the project are especially farm or village houses, which are often in the status of second homes and are located away from the actual living area, it can provide the same benefits for ordinary people in everyday life. This GSM-based home automation system has significant benefits. For instance, individuals can learn about required products any time while away. Furthermore, this project also aims to demonstrate that in practice smart home systems may not require much expense, as opposed to common belief.
1.2 Problem Statement
It has been observed that at certain temperature which is not favorable, food items which are being kept in the refrigerator can get spoilt. This actually means that even keeping food items in the refrigerator is not just enough to stop them from deteriorating. It means certain food items must be kept at some specific temperatures for them not get spoilt. The refrigerator alone cannot guarantee household that it can keep food items and food at a specific temperature. This has called the need to device a refrigerator that its inner temperature can be regulated.
The project which monitors refrigerator temperature remotely brings the solution to these problems stated. It allows user to control the temperature of the refrigerator from the comfort of their offices, shops, business meetings and any place regardless of the distance just by sending a code.
1.3 Aim and Objectives of Project
The aim of the project is to remotely monitor and control the temperature of a refrigerator using Arduino and GSM interface for the purpose of reducing food spoilage. In other to effectively carryout this aim, the specific objectives are as follows:
- To design a system capable of determining the temperature chambers using LM35 temperature sensor.
- To design a switching system capable of switching ON and OFF the refrigerator based on the received temperature value remotely at ease.
- To develop an algorithm for the remote monitoring and control of the refrigerator.
- To design a system that will show the various temperature reading of the refrigerator chambers on the LCD at various intervals.
1.4 Significance of Project
The project is constructed to tackle the problem of food spoilage in the community and today’s environment at large. It also help household in saving time and extra cooking gas use defrosting food items that has exceeded the normal freezing temperature. This is possible because the project allows the user to set the refrigerator to a particular range of that temperature that is convenient for food items.
1.5 Scope of the Project
This project focuses on the design and implementation of remote controlled refrigerator temperature with the use of arduino and GSM interface. It is capable of regulating refrigerator temperature; setting it to a desired range and also switching it off at anytime at will. Its control action is based on data collected from the temperature sensors installed in the freezer and the other compartment of the fridge being used by control program to effect the action of the controlled device.
The major limitation the project is when the Internet Service Providers do not have enough coverage or if there is a network failure on their part; sending SMS to the interface module is not possible thereby hampering the work.
On the other hand, the issue of unsteady power supply poses another limitation to the project. Although in a case of power outage, the project has been equipped with a non-volatile memory to keep record of last tracked temperature so as not to introduce some run time errors in the control program.
1.6 Project Outline
- This project will be broken down into five chapters;
- Chapter one: it explains the introductory part of the project work to be done, problem statement, objective, significant, and the scope of the project.
- Chapter two: it solely deals on the theory of Arduino software; the theory of remote monitoring and control system, literature review and the summary of the reviewed literature.
- Chapter three: it covers the method and software adopted for the project and system design analysis, mathematical equation and modeling of the circuit diagram of the project, and the simulation of the work
- Chapter four: it covers the system implementation, testing, simulation and result analysis. This includes the step by step procedures undergone to achieve the project work. It also covers the testing done after the designed to ensure that the result gotten is the expected output.
- Chapter five: it is about the conclusion and recommendation and problems encountered. After this chapter comes the references and Bill of Engineering Materials.
