IoT enabled embedded ultrasonic sensor based water tank level system with pump switching control

• Main Authors: Khan, Naila, Kumar, Pankaj, Sadistap, Shashikant
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Electric contacts; Management systems; Manpower; Microcontrollers; Moisture content; Overflow; Position sensing; Sensors; Switching; Travel time; Water conservation; Water depth; Water levels; Water management; Water resources; Water tanks
• ISSN: 0094-243X; 1551-7616
• DOI: 10.1063/5.0043399

Measuring water level is an important task to the existing water management systems. The paper presents a smart water level measurement using non-contact sensor which detects the amount of water present in the tank and returns the percentage of water present in it. The main objective is to save electrical energy and water resources. We have developed an loT Enabled Embedded Ultrasonic Sensor Based Water Tank Level lndicator with pump switching system useful for both overhead and underground tanks. The system real time monitors the level of water in a tank. When water level is at the specified lowest level setting then the pump is automatically turned ON to refill until the tank upper level limit is reached and then pump is turned OFF to avoid overflow and wasting of the water. Thus saving both inadequate consumption of electrical and water. The system consists of Arduino Mega 2560 microcontroller along with chargeable battery power supply, ultrasonic sensor, flow-meter, Wi-Fi module, display, pump units etc. In a nutshell, smart water depth sensing to measure the depth of water in a tank or container is achieved by using ultrasonic technology in this application. With ultrasonic sensors, we measured the water depth by finding the distance between the transceiver and the surface of the water. Here, we have measured the travel time of ultrasonic pulse to the liquid and back then subtracted the measured distance from the total depth of the tank to determine the water depth. Further, we have divided the over-head tank by mean of percentages like 10%, 20%…100%. When the lower water level limit (10%) is reached then automatically system starts the water pump and when the water level reaches maximum water level limit (95-100%) pump is turned off to avoid overflow and wastage of water. It is important to note that we need to position the sensor at a fixed point above the tank wherever the water is stored. This greatly increases the overall lifespan of the sensor also it is the benefit of this ultrasonic sensor over contact or underwater submersion type sensing technique. Moreover, the system will be more useful in areas where water and electricity are main issues; also we can reduce the time, money, manpower and workload of the farmer