Design of embedded system for wireless control of AC voltage in Physics experiments

This paper describes the construction, programming and implementation of an embedded system based on free educational software and an embedded control of sinusoidal alternating voltage (AC) for electricity practices in Physics laboratory. Software can be considered educational when properly contextualized in a relationship of teaching and learning. Thus, this work presents educational software developed and applied to digital control, wirelessly via Bluetooth, to change the AC voltage of the grid using Android smartphones or tablets, making the experiment more interactive and playful. The application of educational software in experiments also allows to verify, in real time, the influence of programs change on the physical phenomena and stimulates the logical reasoning development and consequently the autonomy of the students, to the measure that can raise hypotheses, make interferences in the programming and take off conclusions from the practical results obtained

Construction of soil moisture and irrigation IoT monitoring system using Project Based Learning

This article describes a project developed using principles of Project Based Learning (PBL) and aims to use an embedded system for soil monitoring, thus measuring soil moisture and implementing automatic irrigation, as well as, the temperature and humidity of the environment. The configuration data for irrigation time control and the lower and upper limits of soil moisture percentage can be adjusted through a PHP page, where also the monitoring of the variation of soil moisture through a graph can be done in real time. The proposed project is divided into two steps using PBL. Phase one focuses on developing a circuit with sensors capable of doing measurement of ambient parameters and soil moisture, and phase two, on developing an irrigation system to control soil moisture, both using Internet of Things (IoT) concepts

Optimization of Teaching through the ebook ProjetAR: Architectural Project Aided by Augmented Reality

O presente artigo aborda o desenvolvimento de um sistema de Realidade Aumentada (RA) como ferramenta para o ensino e aprendizagem de projeto arquitetônico. A pesquisa traz reflexão sobre um trabalho de avaliação teórica e prática, produto da investigação de mestrado em Educação Profissional e Tecnológica (PROFEPT) ofertado pelo Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Ceará (IFCE), proposta por Silva [1], onde docentes e discentes do curso Técnico em Edificações avaliaram a eficácia da proposta. Como produto educacional da pesquisa, foi desenvolvido um ebook, onde estão presentes os recursos da RA aliados ao projeto. Este produto representa uma ferramenta de apoio aos professores e alunos para superar as dificuldades encontradas na disciplina de projeto arquitetônico. Além disso, o ebook assume grande eficiência e aplicabilidade também para as aulas remotas. Assim, o presente artigo descreve o estudo e os resultados da pesquisa realizada utilizandoRA, além de propor novas possibilidades de integração da RA em processos de ensino e aprendizagem.This article addresses the development of an Augmented Reality (AR) system as a tool for teaching and learning architectural design. The research brings reflection on a work of theoretical and practical assessment, product of the investigation of a Masters in Professional and Technological Education (PROFEPT) offered by the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Ceará (IFCE), proposed by Silva [1], where professors and students of the Technical in Buildings course evaluated the effectiveness of the proposal. As an educational product of the research, an ebook was developed, where AR resources allied to the project are present. This product represents a support tool for teachers and students to overcome the difficulties encountered in the discipline of architectural design. In addition, the ebook assumes great efficiency and applicability for remote classes as well. Thus, this article describes the study and the results of research carried out using AR, in addition to proposing new possibilities for integrating AR into teaching and learning processes.Facultad de Informátic

Low cost Device for Online Monitoring of Noise in Libraries using Internet of Things

The present paper describes the development and practical application of an embedded system that performs the online monitoring of sound noises in a library of an educational institution using Internet of Things. The main objective of the proposed project is to record sound levels in closed areas and to alert users when allowed limits were exceeded. Thus, it was used a set of cost-effective tools, like free software and low-cost technologies. Raspberry Pi, PIC microcontroller and a sound sensor module were applied in the first phase. In the second phase, only ESP8266 microcontroller with sound sensor were used. Results of these two implemented phases are discussed. It was observed that both developed embedded systems, which use Internet of Things concept, contributed satisfactorily offering a better space for concentration

Free and customizable web application for Internet of Things devices monitoring

This paper presents the design and implementation of the free and customizable web application for Internet of Things (IoT) named Wireless Monitor. Wireless Monitor main objective is to provide a solution for online and real-time secure data visualization. The user can create a personalized web ambient using Wireless Monitor to monitor IoT sensor devices. The data collected is stored on a cloud server databank and can be viewed as real-time charts. The proposed Wireless Monitor has been developed to be extensible and can be adapted to different types of sensors, thanks to the system of plugins. Its minimal set of endpoints for exchanging information between the IoT device and the server makes the development simplified, without being limited, thanks to the JSON information exchange protocol. Two different practical experiments were carried out and the obtained results are shown. The first one uses Raspberry Pi, Arduino and a LM35 temperature sensor; and the second one replaces both embedded systems with one ESP 8266 development board

A Performance Evaluation of Raspberry Pi Zero W Based Gateway Running MQTT Broker for IoT

The Internet of Things (IoT) has become widely used in recent years in a wide range of applications, such as, weather condition monitoring, transportation, smart homes, smart cities, smart farm, etc. The ecosystem of the IoT is also vast, including from sensor and hardware devices up to cloud-computing. An approach that is getting more and more attention in the IoT ecosystem is the edge-computing and one of its fundamental pieces of equipment is the edge-computing gateway (GTW), which can working as a data-processing device nearer to the things and as a bridge to the Internet, as well. The most important features for these GTWs must be robustness and efficiency and a very popular solution is to use low-cost Raspberry Pi card-size computers. Considering protocol solution, Message Queue Telemetry Transport (MQTT) communication protocol has been considered one of the most applicable to IoT because of its low-power capability. In this context, this paper describes a study about the performance evaluation of a low-power member of the Raspberry Pi family, the Raspberry Pi Zero W, working as an IoT gateway and running MQTT. The experimental results show its performance using as metrics: the processor temperature, the CPU usage level, and rate of MQTT received messages under different Quality of Services (QoS)

An Evaluation of LoRa Communication Range in Urban and Forest Areas: A Case Study in Brazil and Portugal

Due to its particular features, LoRa is gaining more and more attention from industry and academia because it tries to combine long communication range, low-power consumption, and low-data rate application. A very important feature observed on LoRa is that it is highly robust and reliable. Due to this, LoRa is being applied in many IoT solutions in urban environment, but on hard natural environments like dense forest, near river sides, lakes and mangroves, more studies need to be carried out in order to evaluate the its quality. This paper describes experimental studies carried out to measure LoRa communication range and Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), both in natural and urban environments. The experiments took place in two different places of the world, one in the northern hemisphere and another in the southern hemisphere: on the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores (in SãoMiguel Island) and in the city of João Pessoa in Northeast of Brazil, respectively. As a result, we observed that LoRa is very robust in dense urban environments, where it was possible to established long distance connections (approximately 2.1 km). However, the results were inconclusive in forest environments, because in the Azores, the LoRa connection ranged about 800 m thought the forest/lake, while in Brazil it was about 230 m