DFRobot exhibited a variety of imaginative and innovative products at Bett 2023, which took place at ExCeL London from March 29-31, 2023. The company showcased their popular BOSON series and micro:maqueen production line, along with new products such as the SCI DAQ module, the Lark Weather Station, and the UNIHIKER, a easy-to-use development board designed for Python learning.
The IoT Smart City project introduces the concept of Internet of Things (IoT) by combining knowledge and skills from programming, hardware control, data acquisition, networking knowledge and IoT platform, making it an excellent tool to promote IoT education in schools.
The perception layer in the IoT architecture of the city is divided into four areas: Housing Area, Farm, Weather Station, and Lake. Each area has sensors and physical devices that collect data from the environment and interact with the physical world.
The collected data is transmitted to the cloud through the network layer, which is facilitated by an IoT platform set up on a UNIHIKER. A local network is created using a router to connect all devices in the system, allowing for wireless communication and data exchange.
The data processing layer is responsible for analyzing and processing the data. In this system, the IoT platform processes the data in the cloud. The Mind+ Dashboard accesses the data to create a user-friendly interface that displays the data in real-time.
The Housing Area
The Housing Area monitors living conditions such as temperature, humidity, and air quality (AQI, TVOC, eCO2). The sensors are connected to an SCI module for data display. The data is collected using a UNIHIKER, which sends it to the cloud for processing. Additionally, the UNIHIKER is programmed to automatically control a fan when the temperature rises above a certain threshold.
The Farm
The farm is equipped with cameras and agricultural sensors that can monitor the growth of plants in real-time. One interesting fact is that we use barley tea to create the effect of soil.
The Weather Station
In this area, we utilize the Lark Weather Station, a new product that enables students to understand the atmospheric conditions by measuring wind speed, direction, temperature, humidity, and pressure.
The Lake
Water quality sensors such as PH and TDS are installed in the lake to facilitate a timely understanding of water quality and the living environment of fish.
The Server
UNIHIKER is a versatile development board that comes equipped with Wi-Fi and an SIoT (Simple IoT) platform, allowing users to easily create a local network without internet. By setting up an IoT server on the UNIHIKER, users can connect and exchange data with other devices, including other UNIHIKERs in the same network, and then send it to the cloud for further analysis.
The Dashboard
The data display for the IoT Smart City project is created using Mind+ (mindplus.cc). Mind+ Dashboard provides an intuitive and user-friendly interface for managing and controlling IoT devices, making it easy to create custom dashboards, set up alerts and notifications, and automate various tasks.
(Note: The Dashboard function of Mind+ is currently in internal testing and will be released soon.)
