SMat is a Smart Floor mat with which you will be able to enter/exit your room without having to bother about switching basic appliances of that room like fan, lights etc. SMat makes Switching Simplified, Just keep it at the entrance of your room.
This project was done as part of my design project. My team consisted of Athul, Akshadha and Jopaul.
Ever thought of a convenient scenario where you walk into a room and the lights turn ON automatically? Ever worried about wasting electricity by leaving your room without turning OFF that fan? SMat does this all for you without you having to do anything manually.
It can be placed even in public places like classes too where non-contact switching is preferred these days.
Highlights:
- Convenience
- Completely customisable via APP
- Counts the number of occupants
- Saves Electricity
- Easy to implement
Things used:
1)NodeMCU ESP8266
2)Arduino Nano
3)Piezo Electric sensors
4)Single channel relay module
5)Floormat
6)Blynk
About:
SMat basically consists of 2 modules namely Floor module and Switch module. The Floor module does the sensing works and the Switch module does the switching work. When the user walks in/out of a room they're expected to step on SMat which is the key to its function.
The main component of this project is piezoelectric sensor. It's a special sensor which produces a voltage when pressure is applied on it. Piezoelectric sensors are kept below the floor mat so that whenever we step on the mat a voltage is produced by the piezoelectric sensors. This voltage can be measured/detected by microcontrollers like Arduino. This allows it to know if a person has entered/exited a room and thus can take necessary actions. The communication between Floor and Switch modules occurs via Wi-Fi through Blynk.
Features:
>)Take complete control of SMat via APP and customize it to your needs.
- You can select the number of occupants via the slider, for which the appliance connected to SMat should Turn ON
- You can also turn off the triggering feature if you wish
- The current number of occupants in the room is displayed in APP which can also be reset to 0 by the Reset count button
- You may turn ON/OFF the appliance via APP
- The current status of the appliance is shown via in-app LED
>)Receive notification when appliances turns ON/ when occupants have left the room
Working video:
Some interesting facts:
While making SMat I encountered some problems. I was unaware that Piezo sensors would give AC voltages. I used more than 1 sensor. But NODEMCU had only 1 analog pin due to which I had to use a multiplexer. But due to this AC voltage, the readings of one sensor interfered with the readings of other sensors. Thus I had to remove multiplexer from my list of components. With my limited availability of components, I came with an idea of using Arduino nano as my sensor reader. It had 8 analog pins which helped me complete my project.
Initially, I used 4 Piezo sensors. But 2 of it got damaged while testing with the multiplexer. So I had to settle with 2 sensors. 1 for Entering and 1 for Exiting.
This project model has some known issues like:
- You'll have to stamp on the exact areas where enter/exit sensors were located.
- The Microcontrollers were kept inside a box near the mat which could get damaged due to water or due to other physical damages.
- You'll have to pass the mat in less than 2 seconds or else it'll lead to miscalculations.
Excellent work 👌👌
ReplyDelete