246

A Low Cost Web Based Remote Monitoring System

With Built-In Security Feature For Vulnerable
Environments
Jeswin Joy Mathew, Liju Philip
Department of Electronics
College of Engineering, Chengannur
Chengannur, India
[email protected], [email protected]

Abstract24X7 monitoring of environmental phenomena and Many papers have already been published based on the
security are the two prime areas of concern in an industrial topics of remote monitoring and security either separately or
setup. This paper mainly focus on the design and implementation jointly. But most of them lack implementation, as in [1]. Some
of an intelligent, low cost and fully automated system which will lack low level implementation details, as in [2] and [3]. In
be able to provide full time monitoring and eventual security to
some of them, implementations are done on workstation like
the concerned setup. The targeted area includes all type of
susceptible environment like gas filling station, research and embedded server with huge database backup, as in [4]. But in
development laboratories etc. The system has the flexibility to this paper we focus on a system which is open source
add more number of nodes to the setup. The mode of hardware having small size with implementation details.
communication implemented in the system is wired and could be
migrated to wireless as required. Section II of this paper deals with industrial setup analysis
and the system sketch is given in section III. Section IV gives
Keywords Remote monitoring; Security; Embedded Web- the system overview and section V deals with tools used and
Server; Microcontroller; Intranet. the experiment setup.
I. INTRODUCTION
Monitoring and security are the two major areas of concern II. INDUSTRIAL SETUP ANALYSIS
in industrial establishments. Monitored parameters include In order to implement an error free monitoring system in an
various environmental phenomena like temperature, light
industrial setup, we need to analyze the entire area. In an
intensity, moisture, pressure etc. Of all the functionalities
present in the system, remote measurement and control of industry, the parameters to be monitored vary from zone to
critical parameter plays a very important role. In order to make zone in a locality. Here we take care of all types of industrial
a remote connectivity feasible following requirements need to setup. Localization of the system in to small zones is done
be met, like server connectivity with back end database like based on the parameter to be monitored. The zone creation
MYSQL or ORACLE and a web server like application(eg: isnt that much vital in all the cases and can be omitted in
apache, NGiNX) running on it. Another possible method is by
some, where localities are small or places where only a single
using a web server board. Security is also a prime area of
concern in industrial setup, be it a door type security or parameter needs to be monitored. The monitoring of zones
security to machinery setup. need to be done continuously, as the values of sensor present
Here, we propose the design and implementation of low in the zone needs to be fed to the intelligent monitoring system
cost web based remote monitoring system with built-in in real time scenario, which will later update the portal hoisted
security features. Due to the usage of an embedded intelligent by the monitoring system and would alert the concerned
monitoring module which is the Beagle Board from Texas personnel with the help of attached gadgets. Security features
Instruments, portability, low power consumption and low cost
are built in to the setup in the form of real time surveillance
have been achieved in the system. The intelligent embedded
module is made up of a TI DM3730 -1GHz Cortex A8 core and an entry type feature, the results of which are later posted
processor. The maximum power consumption of the board is in to the portal by the intelligent monitoring system. A brief
2 watts. The Beagle Board is a low-power open source setup of the system is shown in Figure 1.
hardware single-board computer which measures (82.55 X
82.55) mm, making it very much suitable for a portable
system. Later programming is done on this Board to make it
act as an embedded web server.

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Figure.1 System Overview

A. Creation Of Zones
As already stated, the entire locality can be
b divided in to a
number of sub zones on demand. This coulld be such that on
the same setup if we need to focus on tempeerature gradient as
well as on the pressure gradient factor we need
n to divide the
entire locality in to sub zones based on requuirement, and this Figure.3 Structure of an Arbiter Zone Node
division can be done by various means off analysis. Such a
setup is shown in the Figure 2, where the industrial
establishment is divided in to subzones as power generation C. Intelligent Monitoring Systeem
area, electrical section, backup room, emplooyee cabin section The data from all the arbiteer nodes are fed in to the centre
and ware house (here the zonal split is bassed on the critical intelligent monitoring system m. The intelligent monitoring
nature of the locality). system is made up of an open source hardware called Beagle
Board which is a single boarrd computer with TI DM3730
processor, which is a combbination of ARM Cortex A8
processor, TMS320C64x+ corre and Power VR SGX 2D/3D
Graphics Processor. It has 1GHz processing speed with
512Mb RAM and has the cappability to boot from SD card
loaded with operating systems like Android, Angstrom Linux,
Fedora and Ubuntu. The dimeension of the board is (82.55 X
82.55) mm
The intelligent monitoring system
s is preloaded with certain
packages so that it is made to act
a as a flash media as well as a
web server. The intelligent moonitoring system is connected to
external accessories like GPR RS/GSM modem, webcam and
network accessories for aleert, security and connectivity
Figure.2.Zone divisions in a General Industriial Establishment respectively.
D. External Peripheral Setup
B. Setup Of Arbiter Zone Nodes As already mentioned, the GPRS/GSM modem, web cam
Once the zones have been created, it is then the turn and network accessories are coonnected to central system. The
of setting up the monitoring devices at the
t zonal nodes. In GPRS /GSM modem alerts thee personnel by sending SMS on
each zone, we maintain special arbiter nodes and each request by the intelligent moonitoring system. The Webcam
m. Sensor selection
arbiter consists of sensors and a webcam connected to central monitoring system does the overall
depends upon the selected zone. Sensorss are meant for the surveillance of the locality and thereby provides added
monitoring and webcam is meant for security purpose. security feature to the systemm. The video captured by the
Each arbiter node is in turn connected to a centre webcam is then hoisted on thee portal on a real time basis so
intelligent system which is in turn connnected to intranet that it can be viewed from remoote locations.
and external accessories. An example sttructure of a Zone Figure4 shows the architectuure of the system.
Node is shown in Figure3.
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III. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE Another important feature of monitoring system proposed

here is that it would be able to capture the video images of the
locality and display it on the portal in real time basis.
Security is another striking feature of our intelligent
monitoring system; which would be able to keep a check on
the clients using the facilities provided in the locality and the
record of the same would be provided on the portal.
V. TOOLS USED AND EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
Xampp Package is the one preferred for the first phase of
database and web development, as it contains an aggregate
mixture of PHP-5.0, MY SQL and NGiNX WEB SERVER.
Sensors that are mainly used in the setup are LM-35
temperature sensor and LDR. Arbiter consists of ATMEGA
168, which is an AVR with 16kB in system programmable
flash memory. AVRDUDE is the ISE compiler used for
programming AVR. Interfacing with GPRS Module is done
with the help of tool known as GAMMU. A media server is
maintained in the system for the live video broadcasting
Figure.4 System Architecture purpose, a utility application known as MJPEG streamer is
deployed in the system which helps in live telecasting of the
video feed as MJPEG frames there by reducing the broadcast
IV. SYSTEM OVERVIEW overload of the BeagleBoard-XM. For the video recording
Here we propose the setup of a remote monitoring system, option in the zonal end we are using the application known as
which would be stand alone, low power, low cost as well as STREAMER. The entire experimental setup and application is
less prone to error. Most important step in this setup is to spot based on LINUX based system, LUBUNTU 12.04.
out the parameters that need to be monitored on various zones. A. System Realization
For that, proper analysis as well as proper selection of the
A set of temperature and light sensors are connected to the
sensors needs to be made. Once the monitoring parameters are
arbiter node. Arbiter node composed of ATMEGA 168
fixed in the zones then it is the turn to make arbiters.
collects the data from the sensors and feeds it to the intelligent
The whole system setup can be divided as follows:
monitoring system via serial port connection. A physically
Arbiter zone nodes realized arbiter node is shown in Figure 5, and its connection
Intelligent monitoring system to the intelligent monitoring system is shown in the Figure 6.
Other External peripherals connected to The values received from the arbiter nodes are in turn fed to
central monitoring system. the database present in the intelligent monitoring system. The
The whole setup is divided in to a number of zones based on values are then uploaded to a portal via PHP programming.
the environmental factors, and an arbiter node is placed on The program written in the central system carries out four
each zones. Arbiter nodes have sensors as well as the webcam functions as given below:
as per requirement. The parameters which are to be monitored Invoke the serial communication via configuring
are fed to the arbiter by the sensors in the form of voltage teletypes.
signals. The arbiter in turn conveys the information to the Port the data to the concerned databases.
monitoring system, which is then fed to the database present in
Continuously update the database.
the intelligent monitoring system.
Connect the database and the web server.
The arbiter not only routes the sensor signal to the
The first three functions are realized using C program and
intelligent monitoring system but also performs routine check
the fourth one using PHP. Figure7 shows the table in the
on the received sensor output. The OMAP based intelligent
database.
monitoring system is the heart of the system. It feeds the input
Web portal consists of five links, namely home, current
received from the sensors to web server on real time basis via
value, critical values, entire database and surveillance. The
ODBC connection, as well as continuously monitors for the
home-link is meant to hold the latest 15 values recorded from
alarming conditions in the received inputs. If something
the sensors. The current-link shows the current value in the
undesired happens the intelligent monitoring system would
database. The critical value-link shows the details of the
alert the administrators by the means of SMS/voice messages
sensor values that exceed the safe limit. The entire database-
through the GPRS/GSM module connected to it, and then it
link is meant to access the entire values stored in the database.
forces the webcam connected to the arbiter to capture image
The surveillance-link is meant to see the live video
sequence of the alarming incident, which is then fed back to
broadcasting. Figure 8 shows the home page with
the central system and stored in the video database for further
corresponding links.
assessment by the concerned authorities.
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Figure.5 Arbiter node

Figure.8 Home pagge of the web portal

VI. NCLUSION
CON
In this paper, a low cost web based remote monitoring
system with built-in security features
f has been designed and
implemented. Portability, low w power consumption and low
cost have been brought in to thet system by the usage of the
embedded intelligent monitorring module. This system has
taken in to account the setup off a single node and its operation
with the intelligent monitoringg system. As an enhancement it
is possible to incorporate morre than one node to the system,
and the medium of communiccation can be made wireless. A
zone dividing algorithm cann also be backed as a future
advancement.
Figure.6 Arbiter node connected to the cen
ntre intelligent
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[4] Ali Ziya Alkar, and Um mit Buhur, "An Internet Based
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Figure.7 System hierarchy with database details.