ROBOTIC ARM BASED ON INTERNET OF THINGS (IOT)

A Project report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award
of the Degree of

BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY

In

ELECTRONICS & COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING

Submitted by
GLADYS SHARON. T (14KT1A0459)
JAYA MADHURI. D (14KT1A0422)
MOUNIKA. K (14KT1A0437)
SUNITHA. B (14KT1A0409)

Under the guidance of

Mr. R. VIJAY SHASHANKA
ASSISTANT PROFFESOR

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING

POTTI SRIRAMULU CHALAVADI MALLIKHARJUNA RAO COLLEGE OF
ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY, KOTHAPET, VIJAYAWADA-520 001
Affiliated to JNTU, Kakinada, Approved by AICTE, New Delhi, 2017-18.
 ABSTRACT

Robots are playing a vital role in today’s industrial automation and monitoring system. As
technology developed these robots have increased their applications and functionality. Working
robots will cooperate to the people and makes the work more effortless and uncomplicated.The
ongoing revolution of Internet together with the growing robotics in many activities of day to day
life. Internet of things has taken over all the heavy loads from human to itself. Internet of Things
(IOT) is basically a connection of many devices to interconnect themselves. As Robots are used to
help mankind in various environments if we combine the Robots and Internet of things we can
achieve more than we can think of. So, this project discusses technological implications, open
issues, and target applications in the IOT-aided robotics domain.
 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Nowadays, robots are increasingly being integrated into working tasks to replace humans
especially to perform the repetitive task. In general, robotics can be divided into two areas, Industrial
and service robotics. International Federation of Robotics (IFR) defines a service robot as a robot
which operates semi- or fully autonomously to perform services useful to the wellbeing of humans
and equipment, excluding manufacturing operations. These robots are currently used in many fields
of applications including office, military tasks, hospital operations, dangerous environment and
agriculture. Besides, it might be difficult or dangerous for humans to do some specific tasks like
picking up explosive chemicals, defusing bombs or in worst case scenario to pick and place the
bomb somewhere for containment and for repeated pick and place action in industries. Working
robots will cooperate to the people and makes the work more effortless and uncomplicated.The
ongoing revolution of Internet together with the growing robotics in many activities of day to day
life. Internet of things has taken over all the heavy loads from human to itself. Internet of Things
(IOT) is basically a connection of many devices to interconnect themselves. As Robots are used to
help mankind in various environments if we combine the Robots and Internet of things we can
achieve more than we can think of. So, this project discusses technological implications, open
issues, and target applications in the IOT-aided robotics domain. Therefore a robot can be replaced
human to do work.

1.2 ROBOTIC ARM

A robotic arm is a robot manipulator, usually programmable, with similar functions to a

human arm. The links of such a manipulator are connected by joints allowing either rotational
motion (such as in an articulated robot) or translational (linear) displacement. The links of the
manipulator can be considered to form a kinematic chain. The business end of the kinematic chain of
the manipulator is called the end effectors and it is analogous to the human hand. The end effectors
can be designed to perform any desired task such as welding, gripping, spinning etc.

Depending on the application. The robot arms can be autonomous or controlled manually and
can be used to perform a variety of tasks with great accuracy. The robotic arm can be fixed or mobile
(i.e. wheeled) and can be designed for industrial or home applications. This report deals with a
robotic arm whose objective is to imitate the movements of a human arm using accelerometers as
sensors for the data acquisition of the natural arm movements.
 This method of control allows greater flexibility in controlling the robotic arm rather than
using a controller where each actuator is controlled separately. The processing unit takes care of each
actuator’s control signal according to the inputs from accelerometer, in order to replicate the
movements of the human arm. Figure 1 shows the block diagram representation of the system to be
designed and implemented.

Fig1: Block Diagram Representation of the Proposed Robotic Arm System

1.3 Literature Review

There are various ways in which a robotic arm may be controlled. In the past there have been
many researchers working to control robotic arm through computer terminals, Joysticks, even
interfacing them with the internet so they can be controlled from anywhere in the world. Usually
most of the robotic arms are controlled by a central controller which makes uses of values taken in
from the terminal that are entered by the user at the terminal to move the arm to a particular
coordinates in space. This makes the control very difficult as the control values of the motors are
very difficult to predict to achieve a particular movement. This is easily achieved by our project. This
Project represents a simple accelerometer controlled robotic arm using Atmeg a32/640 powered
embedded system as the core of this robot and also a Computer to interface the robot with the
sensors. The robot does not require training because the robotic arm is fully controlled by the user.
This interfacing is done using wired communication but it can easily be switched to wireless with
ease.

1.4 IOT (Internet of Things)

 The internet of things (IoT) is the network of physical devices, vehicles, buildings and other
items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and network connectivity that enable
these objects to collect and exchange data. The IoT allows objects to be sensed and controlled
remotely across existing network infrastructure, creating opportunities for more direct integration of
the physical world into computer-based systems, and resulting in improved efficiency, accuracy and
economic benefit. When IoT is augmented with sensors and actuators, the technology becomes an
instance of the more general class of cyber physical systems, which also encompasses technologies
such as smart grids, smart homes, intelligent transportation and smart cities. Each thing is uniquely
identifiable through its embedded computing system but is able to interoperate within the existing
Internet infrastructure.

The concept was simple but powerful. If all objects in daily life were equipped with identifiers and
wireless connectivity, these objects could be communicating with each other and be managed by
computers.

The Three Cs of IOT:

Communication -It is the interconnection between the user and system/device.

Control and Automation - It is programmed once as if any changes in output parameter it will alert
the uses and hence it can be control or it can be automated for any particular work.

Cost Savings - Many companies will adopt IOT to save money. As when a machine loses to fulfill a
company product on time the company will lose its money. With new sensor information, IOT can
help a company to save money by reducing equipment failure and allowing the business to perform
perfectly.

1.5 Project Description

This has a robot arm attached to it for the purpose of pick and place operation. Arm has two degrees
of freedom project involves kinematic and dynamic analysis of the robot arm having two degrees of
freedom. robot that covers the following points:

a) Mobility: It should be able to run on different terrain without any and climb stair.

b) Tele-operation: It should be able to be remotely operated via wireless communication using R.F.
Module

c) Payloads: It should be able to lift a load at least 2 kg.

 d) Analysis: It involves kinematic analysis and dynamic analysis of the system, finding
specifications of different parameters.

The control is given via the internet to the Wi-Fi module (ESP8266). This acts as the receiver
and gives the received signal to the microcontroller. The signal which is given to the robotic arm is
actually sent through the internet and hence we can access the robot from any place. However the
web page or the app must require a login ID and a password for security reasons, for a particular
person to control the robotic arm. The movements which are made by the robotic arm can be
recorded and saved. In this way the arm can do the same movements repeatedly whenever needed.
 CHAPTER-2

Hardware Description

The main part of the project is the robotic arm, which can pick and place things from one place to
another. To control this action we can move the robotic arm by giving specific commands. The
robotic arm is equipped with DC motors. These motors help to move the arm in desired direction.
The motors are controlled with the help of a Wi-Fi micro controller (ESP8266). The user interface
which is used to control the robotic arm is made on a web page or an app. The control is given via
the internet to the Wi-Fi module (ESP8266). This acts as the receiver and gives the received signal to
the microcontroller. The signal which is given to the robotic arm is actually sent through the internet

ESP8266:

Fig -2.1: ESP8266 Module

The ESP8266 WiFi Module is a self contained SOC with integrated TCP/IP protocol stack that can
give any microcontroller access to your WiFi network. The ESP8266 is capable of either hosting an
application or offloading all Wi-Fi networking functions from another application processor. Each
ESP8266 module comes pre-programmed with an AT command set firmware, meaning, you can
simply hook this up to your Arduino device and get about as much WiFi-ability as a WiFi Shield
offers (and that’s just out of the box)! The ESP8266 module is an extremely cost effective board with
a huge, and ever growing, community.

This module has a powerful enough on-board processing and storage capability that allows it to be
integrated with the sensors and other application specific devices through its GPIOs with minimal
development up-front and minimal loading during runtime. Its high degree of on-chip integration
allows for minimal external circuitry, including the front-end module, is designed to occupy minimal
PCB area. The ESP8266 supports APSD for VoIP applications and Bluetooth co-existance interfaces,
it contains a self-calibrated RF allowing it to work under all operating conditions, and requires no
external RF parts. There is an almost limitless fountain of information available for the ESP8266, all
of which has been provided by amazing community support. In the Documents section below you
will find many resources to aid you in using the ESP8266, even instructions on how to transforming
this module into an IoT (Internet of Things) solution!

Features:

 802.11 b/g/n Open-Source, Interactive, Programmable.

 Low cost, Simple, Smart, Wi-Fi enable.

 Low cost Wi-Fi MCU ESP8266 integrated and easy to prototyping development kit.

 Wi-Fi Direct (P2P), soft-AP

 Integrated TCP/IP protocol stack

 Integrated TR switch, LNA, power amplifier and matching network

 Integrated PLLs, regulators, DCXO and power management units

 +19.5dBm output power in 802.11b mode

 SDIO 1.1 / 2.0, SPI, UART

 STBC, 1×1 MIMO, 2×1 MIMO

 A-MPDU & A-MSDU aggregation & 0.4ms guard interval

 Wake up and transmit packets in < 2ms

 Standby power consumption of < 1.0mW (DTIM3)

Pins of NodeMCU:

GPIO MODULE: This module provides access to the GPIO (General Purpose Input/Output)
subsystem. All access is based on the I/O index number on the NodeMCU dev kits, not the
internal GPIO pin. For example, the D0 pin on the dev kit is mapped to the internal GPIO pin
16.If not using a NodeMCU dev kit, please refer to the below GPIO pin maps for the
index↔gpio mapping.

Table2.1: Pins of NodeMCU

 D0 = GPIO16;

 D1 = GPIO5;

 D2 = GPIO4;

 D3 = GPIO0;

 D4 = GPIO2;

 D5 = GPIO14;

 D6 = GPIO12;

 D7 = GPIO13;

 D8 = GPIO15;

 D9 = GPIO3;

 D10 = GPIO1;

 LED_BUILTIN = GPIO16 (auxiliary constant for the board LED, not a board pin);
 Fig2.2: Pin Configuration of NodeMCU

Initialize pin to GPIO mode, set the pin in/out direction, and optional internal weak
gpio.mode()
pull-up.

gpio.read() Read digital GPIO pin value.

gpio.serout() Serialize output based on a sequence of delay-times in µs.

gpio.trig() Establish or clear a callback function to run on interrupt for a pin.

gpio.write() Set digital GPIO pin value.

gpio.mode ()

Initialize pin to GPIO mode, set the pin in/out direction, and optional internal weak pull-up.

Syntax

gpio.mode (pin, mode [, pullup])

Parameters

 pin pin to configure, IO index

 mode one of gpio.OUTPUT, gpio.OPENDRAIN, gpio.INPUT, or gpio.INT (interrupt mode)

 pullup gpio.PULLUP enables the weak pull-up resistor; default is gpio.FLOAT

Returns: nil

gpio.read ()
Read digital GPIO pin value.

Syntax: gpio.read(pin)

Parameters: pin pin to read, IO index

Returns: It returns a number, 0 = low, 1 = high.

gpio.serout ():
Serialize output based on a sequence of delay-times in µs. After each delay, the pin is toggled. After
the last cycle and last delay the pin is not toggled.

The function works in two modes: synchronous - for sub-50 µs resolution, restricted to max. overall
duration, asynchronous - synchronous operation with less granularity but virtually unrestricted
duration.

Whether the asynchronous mode is chosen is defined by presence of the callback parameter. If
present and is of function type the function goes asynchronous and the callback function is invoked
when sequence finishes. If the parameter is numeric the function still goes asynchronous but no
callback is invoked when done.

For the asynchronous version, the minimum delay time should not be shorter than 50 μs and
maximum delay time is 0x7fffff μs (~8.3 seconds). In this mode the function does not block the stack
and returns immediately before the output sequence is finalized. HW timer FRC1_SOURCE mode is
used to change the states. As there is only a single hardware timer, there are restrictions on which
modules can be used at the same time. An error will be raised if the timer is already in use.

Note that the synchronous variant (no or nil callback parameter) function blocks the stack and as
such any use of it must adhere to the SDK guidelines (also explained here). Failure to do so may lead
to WiFi issues or outright to crashes/reboots. In short it means that the sum of all delay times
multiplied by the number of cycles should not exceed 15 ms.

Syntax

gpio.serout (pin, start_level, delay_times [, cycle_num[, callback]])

Parameters

 pin pin to use, IO index

 start_level level to start on, either gpio.HIGH or gpio.LOW

 delay_times an array of delay times in µs between each toggle of the gpio pin.

 cycle_num an optional number of times to run through the sequence. (default is 1)

  callback an optional callback function or number, if present the function returns immediately
and goes asynchronous.

Returns: nil

gpio.trig ()
Establish or clear a callback function to run on interrupt for a pin.

This function is not available if GPIO_INTERRUPT_ENABLE was undefined at compile time.

Syntax

gpio.trig (pin, [type [, callback_function]])

Parameters

 pin 1-12, pin to trigger on, IO index. Note that pin 0 does not support interrupts.

 type "up", "down", "both", "low", "high", which represent rising edge, falling edge, both
edges, low level, and high level trigger modes respectivey. If the type is "none" or omitted
then the callback function is removed and the interrupt is disabled.

 callback_function (level, when) callback function when trigger occurs. The level of the
specified pin at the interrupt passed as the first parameter to the callback. The timestamp of
the event is passed as the second parameter. This is in microseconds and has the same base as
for tmr.now (). This timestamp is grabbed at interrupt level and is more consistent than
getting the time in the callback function. The previous callback function will be used if the
function is omitted.
Returns: nil

gpio.write()
Set digital GPIO pin value.

Syntax

gpio.write(pin, level)

Parameters

 pin pin to write, IO index

 level gpio.HIGH or gpio.LOW

Returns

nil

Function Description

The functional diagram of ESP8266EX is shown as in Figure 3.

Figure 2. 3. Functional Block Diagram of Esp8266

2.1. CPU, Memory, and Flash

2.1.1. CPU

The ESP8266EX integrates a Tensilica L106 32-bit RISC processor, which achieves extralow
power consumption and reaches a maximum clock speed of 160 MHz. The Real-Time Operating
System (RTOS) and Wi-Fi stack allow 80% of the processing power to be available for user
application programming and development. The CPU includes the interfaces as below.

• Programmable RAM/ROM interfaces (iBus), which can be connected with memory controller, and
can also be used to visit flash.

• Data RAM interface (dBus), which can connected with memory controller.

• AHB interface which can be used to visit the register.

2.1.2. Memory

ESP8266EX Wi-Fi SoC integrates memory controller and memory units including SRAM
and ROM. MCU can access the memory units through iBus, dBus, and AHB interfaces. All memory
units can be accessed upon request, while a memory arbiter will decide the running sequence
according to the time when these requests are received by the processor. According to our current
version of SDK, SRAM space available to users is assigned as

• RAM size < 50 kB, that is, when ESP8266EX is working under the Station mode and connects to
the router, programmable space accessible in heap + data section is around 50 kB.

• There is no programmable ROM in the SoC, therefore, user program must be stored in an external
SPI flash. External Flash ESP8266EX uses external SPI flash to store user programs, and supports up
to 16 MB memory capacity theoretically. The minimum flash memory of ESP8266EX is shown in
Table 1.

Table 1. Minimum Flash Memory

AHB and AHB Blocks

The AHB block performs as an arbiter. It controls the AHB interfaces through the MAC, SDIO
(host) and CPU. Depending on the address, the AHB data requests can go into one of the two slaves.
• APB block

• Flash controller (usually for standalone applications)

Data requests to the memory controller are usually high speed requests, and requests to the APB
block are usually register access. The APB block acts as a decoder that only accesses the
programmable registers within the main blocks of ESP8266EX. Depending on the address, the APB
request can go to radio, SI/SPI, SDIO (host), GPIO, UART, real-time clock (RTC), MAC or digital
baseband.

2.1.3. Clock

High Frequency Clock The high frequency clock on ESP8266EX is used to drive both
transmit and receive mixers. This clock is generated from internal crystal oscillator and external
crystal. The crystal frequency ranges from 24 MHz to 52 MHz. The internal calibration inside the
crystal oscillator ensures that a wide range of crystals can be used, nevertheless the quality of the
crystal is still a factor to consider to have reasonable phase noise and good Wi-Fi sensitivity. Refer to
Table 3-2 to measure the frequency offset.

Table 2.2 High Frequency Clock Specifications

2.2. Robotic Arm

The pick and place robot actually consists of:

 A Rover: It is the main body of the robot consisting of several rigid bodies like a cylinder or
a sphere, joints and links. It is also known as a manipulator.
 End Effector: It is the body connected to the last joint of the rover which is used for the
purpose of gripping or handling objects. It can be an analogy to the arm of a human being.
 Actuators: They are the drivers of the robot. It actually actuates the robot. It can be any
motor like servo motor, stepper motor or pneumatic or hydraulic cylinders.
 Sensors: They are used to sense the internal as well as the external state to make sure the
robot functions smoothly as a whole. Sensors involve touch sensors, IR sensor etc.
 Controller: It is used to control the actuators based on the sensor feedback and thus control
the motion of each joint and eventually the movement of the end effector.
The basic function of a Robotic arm is done by its joints. Joints are analogous to human joints and
are used to join the two consecutive rigid bodies in the robot. They can be rotary joint or linear joint.
To add a joint to any link of a robot, we need to know about the degrees of freedom and degrees of
movement for that body part. Degrees of freedom implement the linear and rotational movement of
the body and Degrees of movement imply the number of axis the body can move.

Fig 4: Robotic Arm

A simple pick and place robot consists of two rigid bodies on a moving base, connected with rotary
joint. A rotary joint is a one which provides rotation in 360 degrees around any one of the axes.

 The bottom or the base is attached with wheels which provide linear movement.
 The 1st rigid body is fixed and supports the second rigid body to which the end effector is
provided.
 The 2nd rigid body is provided with movement in all 3 axes and has 3 degrees of freedom. It is
connected to the 1stbody with a rotational joint.
 The end effector should accommodate all 6 degrees of freedom, in order to reach all sides of
the component, to take up position to any height.
On a whole, the basic pick and place robot works as follows:

 The wheels underneath the base help to move the robot to the desired location.
 The rigid body supporting the end effector bends or straightens up to reach the position where
the object is placed.
 The end effector picks up the object with a strong grip and places it at the desired position.
A simple pick and place robot can be controlled by controlling the movement of its end effector. The
motion can be using hydraulic motion, i.e. using hydraulic fluid under pressure to the drive the robot,
or using pneumatic motion, i.e. using pressurized air to cause mechanical motion. However, the most
effective way is using motors to provide the required motion. The motors have to be controlled in
order to provide required motion to the robot and the end effector.

2.3 DC Motor

A DC motor is any of a class of rotary electrical machines that converts direct current
electrical energy into mechanical energy. The most common types rely on the forces produced by
magnetic fields. Nearly all types of DC motors have some internal mechanism, either
electromechanical or electronic, to periodically change the direction of current flow in part of the
motor.

DC motors were the first type widely used, since they could be powered from existing direct-current
lighting power distribution systems. A DC motor's speed can be controlled over a wide range, using
either a variable supply voltage or by changing the strength of current in its field windings. Small DC
motors are used in tools, toys, and appliances. The universal motor can operate on direct current but
is a lightweight motor used for portable power tools and appliances. Larger DC motors are used in
propulsion of electric vehicles, elevator and hoists, or in drives for steel rolling mills. The advent of
power electronics has made replacement of DC motors with AC motors possible in many
applications.
2.2.1. Motor Driver (L298N)
There are two inputs and two output pins for each motor. The connection for each is as follows:

Figure 5: L298D Dual DC motor controller

The current supplied by the PIC is not sufficient to drive the motors and thus, we must use a motor
driver for driving the motors. Here we are using L298N which is a Quadruple Half-H Driver. The
L283N is designed to provide bidirectional drive currents of up to 600-mA at voltages from 4.5 V to
36 V. Both devices are designed to drive inductive loads such as relays, solenoids, dc and bipolar
stepping motors, as well as other high-current/high-voltage loads in positive-supply applications. All
inputs are TTL compatible.

Specifications:
1. Driver can drive two motors at a time.
2. It outputs a current of 600mA
 3. Software Requirements

Programming Node MCU with Arduino IDE

NodeMCU Dev Board is based on widely explored esp8266 System on Chip from Express if. It
combined features of WIFI access point and station + microcontroller and uses simple LUA based
programming language.

ESP8266 NodeMCU offers-

--Arduino-like hardware IO
--Event-driven API for network application’s
--10 GPIOs D0-D10, PWM functionality, IIC and SPI communication, 1-Wire and ADC A0 etc. all
in one board
--Wifi networking (can be uses as access point and/or station, host a webserver), connect to internet
to fetch or upload data.
--excellent few system on board for Internet of Things (IoT) projects.
Programming, of ESP8266 using Arduino IDE is not very straight forward, until it is properly
configured. Especially because, the Input and output pins have different mapping on NodeMCU than
those on actual ESP8266 chip.

ESP-8266 NodeMCU using Arduino IDE:

1) Installing Arduino core for ESP8266 WiFi chip in Arduino IDE and Getting started with sketches
written using Latest stable Arduino IDE 1.6.7

2) Run/modify basic LED blink sketch to blink onboard LED and/or externally connected LED at
pin D0 or GPIO-16 as per the pin configuration

NOTE- To use NodeMCU V1 or V2 or V3 dev boards using Arduino IDE, we do not need to flash it
with firmware using nodemcu flasher. It is required only if we intend to program NodeMCU using
Lua script with esplorer etc.
Step 1: Install Arduino IDE

Step 2: Installing Arduino Core for NodeMCU ESP-8266 Using Arduino Boards Manager

http://arduino.esp8266.com/stable/package_esp8266com_index.json

Step 3: Tools - Boards Manager

Tools - Boards manager and search for ESP8266 and install the libraries/files given under
heading ESP8266 by ESP community.

Step 4: Selecting NodeMCU Board in Arduino IDE

Go to Tools - Boards (scroll down the list of boards) - Select NodeMCU 1.0 ( ESP-12EModule).
Select the Port number at which you have connected nodeMCU. Rest of the settings can be left to
default values.
 4. IoT & Blynk Cloud

INTERNET
Today, internet has become an integral part of people’s lives, influencing the daily activities
of almost every human being. Evidently, every second smart phones with sophisticated
functionalities are released out in the market. It infers that internet users in accordance with the
booming smart phone use are multiplying vigorously day by day. Thus, connecting everything
possessed by a human to the internet and subsequently monitoring and further controlling through
smart phones is the goal of this project.
INTERNET OF THINGS
IOT is the area of network in connection with consequences, result and actions via internet
allowing them to send and receive data. Here, things are connected among themselves without
human intervening for automatic identification of intended activities.
IOT helps in sharing of information from sensors through wireless network, achieving identification
and informational exchange in open computing network and achieving transparent management of
system.
Things that we are using in our daily life are becoming smart with the current technologies, but it
isn’t enough until we link them to act with the changing environment and additionally make their
own inter-network, that is, machine-to-machine communication.
In a dynamically changing city area, creating and maintaining public transport system, smart
provision of electric energy, water and gas distribution systems, waste management and maintenance
of the city infrastructure like roads and public parks are some of the challenging activities to be taken
care of. We believe these complex systems will be better addressed with IOT technology.

How does the Internet of Things Work?

A complete IOT system integrates four distinct components: sensors/devices, connectivity, data
processing, and a user interface. The IOT works on similar principles.

1) Sensors/Devices

First, sensors or devices collect data from their environment. This could be as simple as a
temperature reading or as complex as a full video feed. I use “sensors/devices,” because multiple
sensors can be bundled together or sensors can be part of a device that does more than just sense
things. For example, your phone is a device that has multiple sensors (camera, accelerometer, GPS,
etc.), but your phone is not just a sensor. However, whether it’s a stand-alone sensor or a full device,
in this first step data is being collected from the environment by something.

2) Connectivity

Next, that data is sent to the cloud but it needs a way to get there!

The sensors/devices can be connected to the cloud through a variety of methods including: cellular,
satellite, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, low-power wide-area networks (LPWAN), or connecting directly to the
internet via Ethernet. Each option has tradeoffs between power consumption, range and bandwidth
choosing which connectivity option is best comes down to the specific IoT application, but they all
accomplish the same task: getting data to the cloud
3) Data Processing

Once the data gets to the cloud, software performs some kind of processing on it. This could
be very simple, such as checking that the temperature reading is within an acceptable range. Or it
could also be very complex, such as using computer vision on video to identify objects (such as
intruders in your house).But what happens when the temperature is too high or if there is an intruder
in your house? That’s where the user comes in.

4) User Interface

Next, the information is made useful to the end-user in some way. This could be via an alert
to the user (email, text, notification, etc). For example, a text alert when the temperature is too high
in the company’s cold storage. Also, a user might have an interface that allows them to proactively
check in on the system. For example, a user might want to check the video feeds in their house via a
phone app or a web browser. However, it’s not always a one-way street. Depending on the IOT
application, the user may also be able to perform an action and affect the system. For example, the
user might remotely adjust the temperature in the cold storage via an app on their phone. And some
actions are performed automatically. Rather than waiting to adjust the temperature, the system could
do it automatically via predefined rules. And rather than just call to alert you of an intruder, the IoT
system could also automatically notify relevant authorities.
The Three Cs of IOT

Communication:

IOT communicates information to people and systems, such as state and health of equipment
(e.g.it’s on or off, charged, full or empty) and data from sensors that can monitor a person’s vital
signs. In most cases, we didn’t have access to this information before or it was collected manually
and infrequently. For example, an IOT-enabled HVAC system can report if its air filter is clean and
functioning properly. Almost every company has a class of assets it could track. GPS-enabled assets
can communicate their current location and movement. Location is important for items that move,
such as trucks, but it’s also applicable for locating items and people within an organization. In the
healthcare industry, IoT can help a hospital track the location of everything from wheelchairs to
cardiac defibrillators to surgeons. In the transportation industry, a business can deliver real-time
tracking and condition of parcels and pallets. For example, Maersk can use sensors to track the
location of a refrigerated shipping container and its current temperature.

Control and Automation:

In a connected world, a business will have visibility into a device’s condition. In many cases,
a business or consumer will also be able to remotely control a device. For example, a business can
remotely turn on or shut down a specific piece of equipment or adjust the temperature in a climate-
controlled environment. Meanwhile, a consumer can use IoT to unlock their car or start the washing
machine. Once a performance baseline has been established, a process can send alerts for anomalies
and possibly deliver an automated response. For example, if the brake pads on a truck are about to
fail, it can prompt the company to take the vehicle out of service and automatically schedule
maintenance.

Cost Savings:

Many companies will adopt IoT to save money. Measurement provides actual performance
data and equipment health, instead of just estimates. Businesses, particularly industrial companies,
lose money when equipment fails. With new sensor information, IOT can help a company save
money by minimizing equipment failure and allowing the business to perform planned maintenance.
Sensors can also measuring items, such as driving behavior and speed, to reduce fuel expense and
wear and tear on consumables. New smart meters in homes and businesses can also provide data that
helps people understand energy consumption and opportunities for cost savings.

6.2. Blynk
 Blynk is a platform with IOS and Android apps to control Arduino, ESP8266 Raspberry Pi
and similar microcontroller boards over the internet. It was designed for the Internet of Things. It can
control hardware remotely; it can display sensor data, visualize it and do many other cool things. It
provides an app you can install right on your android or IOS device and start interacting with your
projects.

Blynk App: –

It allows you to create amazing interfaces for your projects using various widgets which are
provided. It is a digital dashboard where you can build a graphic interface for your project by simply
dragging and dropping widgets. It is really simple to set everything. Blynk is not tied to some
specific board or shield. Instead, it's supporting hardware of your choice. Whether your Arduino or
Raspberry Pi is linked to the Internet over Wi-Fi, Ethernet or this new ESP8266 chip, Blynk will get
you online and ready for the Internet Of Your Things.

Fig: Blynk App

Blynk Server: – It is responsible for all the communications between the smartphone and hardware.
You can use the Blynk Cloud or run your private Blynk server locally. Its open-source could easily
handle thousands of devices and can even be launched on a Raspberry Pi.

Fig 12: Blynk cloud architecture.

Blynk Libraries:
It enables communication, for all the popular hardware platforms, with the server and
process all the incoming and out coming commands. Now imagine, every time you press a Button in
the Blynk app, the message travels to the Blynk Cloud, where it magically finds its way to your
hardware. It works the same in the opposite direction and everything happens in a blynk of an eye.

Characteristics of Blynk are:

 Similar API & UI for all supported hardware & devices.
 Connection to the cloud can be done using Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, BLE and USB (Serial)
 Set of easy-to-use Widgets.
 Direct pin manipulation with no code writing
 Easy to integrate and add new functionality using virtual pins
 History data monitoring via History Graph widget
 Device-to-Device communication using Bridge Widget.