LcDs: An IoT-Enabled Low-Cost and Efficient AQI Monitoring System Using Delay Synchronization

Health is a primary concern for humans, and good air quality enables to live healthier. The Air Quality Index (AQI) was developed to better understand the air quality situation, which comprises parameters such as particulate matter and harmful gases. Currently several AQI monitoring systems are available to measure or forecast AQI. After a survey of existing system designs, two significant challenges were identified while developing an AQI monitoring system: first, making it low-cost, and second, achieving better efficiency in terms of experiencing lesser missing values. Addressing first challenge, two low-cost programming boards were used to sense and communicate AQI data over a cloud database; however, the setup experienced some delay in serial communication among the programming boards, resulting in missing values. To minimise missing values (the second challenge), low-cost AQI monitoring system design with a delay synchronization (LcDs) algorithm has been proposed to measure AQI values. The LcDs comprises a data acquisition unit to collect sensor data of AQI, a data processing and communication unit to calibrate and apply the proposed delay synchronization algorithm, and a data visualization unit to see the results in real-time. The algorithm synchronizes the communication between two programming boards and sends the data over the cloud data repository. On average, the efficiency of receiving correct sensor data was increased from 85.7% to 96.28% with the proposed delay synchronization algorithm. The proposed low-cost AQI setup design will further help disseminate AQI data from various locations in smart cities to monitor air quality and attain sustainability.