A Project Example: An Alarm System

An Alarm System Based on Compact “Smart” Sensors

A Project Example

Using a mobile or web application the user can see on the map the position of the object to which a sensor is attached.

Industry: Safety and security

Customer: An IT startup company (USA)

Project scope:

A project to create an "Internet of Things" system that contains:

Sensors with a stand-alone power system that are connected to an object under control (a car, weapon, piece of art, vending machine, etc.)
A server needed to exchange data with the sensor .
A Web app that allows you to track the status and location of the protected object.
A server that monitors the object’s location .
An Android app that also allows you to track the status and location of the protected object.

In case there are any changes in the location of the watched object, the sensor will send its new coordinates to the server. These coordinates are identified via GPS data when outdoors, or via a base station identifier using Google GeoAPI when indoors.

The device is based on the Microchip PIC16LF1938 controller, a Telit modem is used. It is supplied with a GPS/GPRS module, accelerometer and battery level sensor.

Project scope:

ProWide Labs implemented the following tasks:

The ability to control the device via the MQTT protocol was added to the device firmware. The built-in TCP stack is used for this.
Energy-saving modes were implemented, allowing the device to work for up to a month on a small 300 mAh battery and at the same time react to movement (based on an accelerometer signal) and optionally “wake up” and send its coordinates.
The firmware was completely refactored to fit all new functionality into the limited microcontroller memory .
Server side processing was rewritten in Java (Spring Framework) as a set of microservices, processing MQTT messages is implemented via RabbitMQ, Heroku was used for deployment, and the remaining C# code (Website backend) was transferred to Microsoft Azure.
Support of an OneM2M-based protocol is implemented. This protocol integrates the server with HPE IoT Platform.
By the customer’s mock-up a native Android application was implemented for device control (JSON/ REST data exchange with the server is used) .

The project results were presented to AT&T Mexico; this solution was also presented at Mobile World Congress 2017 in Barcelona.

Technologies:

Microsoft Azure, Heroku
С, Java (Spring Framework), C#
Microchip PIC16LF1938, a Telit modem.
RabbitMQ / MQTT
HPE IoT Platform / oneM2M

Project size:

1 year, 2-4 developers