The proposed system has been developed with the purpose of reducing domestic
water wastage in households and allow the user to take preventive measures in
order to avoid possible future pipe damages and water losses. The result obtained
is seen to be promising since the system is capable of monitoring the water flow
rate and notifies users when a leak is detected in the water pipelines. The system
allows the user to view real-time sensors and actuators information, presented in
a simple format. It enables users to control the system via SMS commands or the
android application. Whenever there is a leak detected by the waterflow sensors
or by the ultrasonic ones, an SMS command is issued. The sms commands
received by the GSM module are able to change the state of the actuators of the
system. Besides, automatic intervention is enabled if no action is taken within 5
min, provided that an SMS has been issued to the user as a warning. However,
the system is limited as it cannot accommodate any more sensors other that those
already present since only one microcontroller was used. To enhance the system
further, provision can be made for recognition of water usage patterns by using
other technologies in combination with IoT.
Description of the InventionCampaigns are being carried out in many countries around the world to sensitize
people about the importance of water and actions are being taken to preserve it.
Apart from drinking, almost all our daily chores require the use of water. Water
obviously run when opening taps and this is being taken up for granted. Not until
that there is draught and there is enforcement of restriction to the water supply
that people realise the importance of savings up water. It is a commodity that not
every individual unfortunately has access to. Pipeline system runs into home that
facilitates the distribution of water to the entire house and leakage is certainly a
risk. It is important to keep the home water pipeline system monitored to prevent
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water loss where possible. Detection of leakage has always been a challenging
issue for plumbers who managed to get through by using their experience.
Nowadays, technologies can be used to bring improvement to water pipeline
systems. IoT can be a means to achieve the desired system. Computing devices
such as microcontrollers, sensors amongst others work together in a holistic
manner to make a system smart. In simple words, IoT has the ability to orient
normal systems towards the Internet where different components can interact
with each other over a network with the aim to mitigate the interaction between
humans or between human and computer to solve problems quicker. Therefore,
detecting and reporting of irregular behaviours can be done more efficiently,
saving up water and time. Usually, a leak in a person’s home water pipeline
system is detected only after a significant amount of water has been lost or after
complete breakdown of the water pipe. Many factors can cause a water pipe to
break such as prolonged water leakages, pipes becoming old amongst others.
Furthermore, the higher the water pressure, the more water is wasted and the
higher the risk of causing damage to other parts of the water pipeline system.
Leaks and other similar damages in a home water distribution system often occur
in places which are difficult to have access to or where people are unable to
notice them. People must go around their house and carefully examine each water
pipe one by one to find the root of the problem. Moreover, the service provider at
time cuts water supply region-wise for an interval of time as a preventive
measure to preserve water, especially during dry seasons. During that time, a
person might forget to close the tap after using it. The person may be away when
the water supply is resumed, and water keep running which resulted in heavy
bills. The proposed system eventually present solutions to these problems by
creating an IOT system which incorporates Cloud technology that monitors a
home water pipeline system and notifies an individual about leakages in water
pipes. The system also takes actions on behalf of the user in case of delayed
response to the problem while giving the latter the possibility to decline any
automatic action.
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(2) BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
IoT is among the most successful and constructive wireless communication
models. IoT technologies can monitor various objects and environmental
situations such as smart water meter, organisms, moisture, and chemical contents.
In water management, a lot of IoT sensors are available to monitor specific
values for water quality, water-Flow rate, pressure, and temperature. Due to a
decrease in the price and size of these small devices along with its cleverness in
different situations keep increasing, this has made IoT applications more feasible.
The implementation of IoT in water management can help in saving millions of
gallons of water in residential areas and can ascertain when, where, and how
much water is needed in many different fields such as for irrigation purposes and
help in making users more aware of the usage of water and help reducing wastage
alongside. IoT based smart system that includes watering features can be
remotely operated using smart devices such as tablets, phone and PCs. Arduino
which is an open-source electronic prototyping platform enables users to create
interactive electronic objects and particularly found to be useful in developing
water protection system. Arduino is comprised of two parts: the Arduino circuit
board and the IDE for issuing commands to the board via a USB cable, which are
the respective hardware and software parts.
The use of Arduino board with appropriate sensor connection is effective for
monitoring environmental conditions which may include temperature, pressure,
water and humidity. In fact, sensors may be connected to the Arduino circuit
board to detect leak. An acoustic sensor may send an acoustic sound pulse in the
direction of a target, which is reflected back to the sensor and the nearer the
sensor is to the targeted water leak, the stronger the signal received by the sensor.
Furthermore, hydrophones, which are acoustic sensors, are used for the detection
of underwater sound signals and may also be used for locating leakages through
water leak noises. In addition, to interface with mobile devices, the General
Radio Packet Service (GPRS) module can be used to transmit sensor data from
the microcontroller to a Cloudbased server wirelessly and uses the radio waves of
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the mobile network to provide easy Internet access. The module can be set up to
connect to the Internet by means of a power supply and SIM card along with AT
commands to configure the network since it has an inbuilt TCP/IP protocol. The
GPRS module can be used to send commands to a microcontroller in the form of
SMS to open or close the smart valves considering the severity of problem
encountered. This is a good option to provide control over the smart water system
while being offline since the system can also send an SMS to the owner using
GSM acting like an alarm to notify any issue in the pipelines. A water detection
system was proposed that comprises of three options to choose from which are:
Water leak detection rope, water leak cable and spot sensor. The detection cable
or rope has up to 225 meters spot coverage ability and is placed in areas prone to
leakages while the spot sensor which is used for detecting dripping water, is best
positioned directly below the leaking equipment. A web interface is provided to
keep track of multiple leaks simultaneously through diagnostics displayed using
sensor graphing, that is, graphical representation of data collected by sensors.
However, the control need to rely on a heavy centralized infrastructure in the
cloud which is costly. More recently, a system to proactively monitor home water
pipeline systems was developed. The technology uses temperature, water flow
and pressure sensors to monitor and detect leaks with emphasis on pressure
sensing. Processing of data is then done on cloud and these sensors are combined
with a smart water valve which is configured with algorithms to make all the
components work in harmony for water leak detection. The system’s equipment
is compatible with pipes having diameters of 0.75 inch to 1.5 inches. A standard
power supply is used to support the system and it has a 24/7 operation ability.
The smart valve used can be remotely opened or shut off from any part of the
world provided that the user is connected to the Internet and can also be
automatically controlled by the system if needs be.
The technology however is still under evaluation, though it is found to be
promising some users reported its complexity in terms of the setting
infrastructure. The proposed system rather looked at the features of usability and
comes with an application which can be easily installed on an android
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smartphone allowing the user to control the valves, view the home’s real-time
water usage statistics, alert the user about anomalies or contact a plumber in case
of leak catastrophes and since water usage patterns are also learned, the system
also promote efficient consumption of water at home.
1) SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION:
Campaigns are being carried out in many countries around the world to sensitize
people about the importance of water and actions are being taken to preserve it.
Apart from drinking, almost all our daily chores require the use of water. Water
obviously run when opening taps and this is being taken up for granted. Not until
that there is draught and there is enforcement of restriction to the water supply
that people realise the importance of savings up water. It is a commodity that not
every individual unfortunately has access to. Pipeline system runs into home that
facilitates the distribution of water to the entire house and leakage is certainly a
risk. It is important to keep the home water pipeline system monitored to prevent
water loss where possible. Detection of leakage has always been a challenging
issue for plumbers who managed to get through by using their experience.
Nowadays, technologies can be used to bring improvement to water pipeline
systems. IoT can be a means to achieve the desired system. Computing devices
such as microcontrollers, sensors amongst others work together in a holistic
manner to make a system smart. In simple words, IoT has the ability to orient
normal systems towards the Internet where different components can interact
with each other over a network with the aim to mitigate the interaction between
humans or between human and computer to solve problems quicker. Therefore,
detecting and reporting of irregular behaviours can be done more efficiently,
saving up water and time. Usually, a leak in a person’s home water pipeline
system is detected only after a significant amount of water has been lost or after
complete breakdown of the water pipe. Many factors can cause a water pipe to
break such as prolonged water leakages, pipes becoming old amongst others.
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Furthermore, the higher the water pressure, the more water is wasted and the
higher the risk of causing damage to other parts of the water pipeline system.
Leaks and other similar damages in a home water distribution system often occur
in places which are difficult to have access to or where people are unable to
notice them. People must go around their house and carefully examine each water
pipe one by one to find the root of the problem. Moreover, the service provider at
time cuts water supply region-wise for an interval of time as a preventive
measure to preserve water, especially during dry seasons. During that time, a
person might forget to close the tap after using it. The person may be away when
the water supply is resumed, and water keep running which resulted in heavy
bills. The proposed system eventually present solutions to these problems by
creating an IOT system which incorporates Cloud technology that monitors a
home water pipeline system and notifies an individual about leakages in water
pipes. The system also takes actions on behalf of the user in case of delayed
response to the problem while giving the latter the possibility to decline any
automatic action.
2) BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Both the pump and the ultrasonic sensor will be fixed inside the water tank.
Figure 1 shows the circuit design. In “Fig 2” it shows how the leaked out or
the stolen water is being detected. The GMS module is connected to the
nodeMCU as shown in Figure 3. Pump is then connected to the nodeMCU as
shown in Figure 4. The implemented watch interface is illustrated in Figure 5.
3) DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Both the pump and the ultrasonic sensor will be fixed inside the water tank.
Figure 1 shows the circuit design. In “Fig 2” it shows how the leaked out or the
stolen water is being detected. To omit the use and extra cost of GPS module we
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will use pipeline codes which will be based on their location, like the car
numbers we get or the university roll number. Each pipeline will have a unique
code which will be stored in the database with an offline map of the place.
Whenever the micro-controller will send a code it will directly go to the server
and then server will look for the exact location in the offline map, present in the
database, and then after appropriate matching, it will show the exact location of
leakage on a web application making it easier for operators to understand the
system. Moreover, as the application will be hosted on a website, it can be
easily accessed at any place from a web-browser. “Fig. 2” also depicts the real
scenario when the length of pipelines is very large. Here the data of leakage
detection is sent to the central coordinator after various hopes starting from the
point of leakage. Diagram shows multi-hop mechanism of Xbee in unicast
mode. The GMS module is connected to the nodeMCU as shown in Figure 3.
D7 and D8 pins allows the exchange of data between the NodeMCU and the
module through the UART1 serial communication. Pump is then connected to
the nodeMCU as shown in Figure 4. A relay is used to control the pump
accordingly when the user wants to turn on or off the system. The pump’s live
wire is connected to the Normally Open (NO) port of the relay and the ground
wire to the 12V power source’s ground. The android interface is implemented
after installing Android Studio, the necessary libraries and SDK-tools. The
implemented watch interface is illustrated in Figure 5.

CLAIMS
We / I Claim:
1. The proposed system eventually present solutions to these problems by
creating an IOT system which incorporates Cloud technology that
monitors a home water pipeline system and notifies an individual about
leakages in water a pipes.
2. The system also takes actions on behalf of the user in case of delayed
response to the problem while giving the later the possibility to decline
any automatic action.
3. The person may be away when the water supply is resumed, and water
keep running which resulted in heavy bills.
4. The system provides the user with a simple yet intuitive interface where
information about the condition of the water pipeline system is in a
conclusive way