Abstract

Indoor air quality (IAQ) is a major concern for many people, especially those who spend a lot of time indoors, such as in office environments. One of the indicators of IAQ is Carbon dioxide (CO₂) which, in high concentrations, could lead to drowsiness, headaches, nausea, and an increase in heart rate. To assist with real-time air quality awareness of a person's surroundings, this project aims to design a self-powered indoor CO₂ monitoring system for personal desks that periodically updates the CO₂ sensor data on a smartphone app. The entire sensing system will be powered by indoor solar cells and include Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) protocol to communicate data with a smartphone app.

Students undertaking this project will learn the following skills:

1. EM Simulations: They will be trained on industry-standard EM simulators (CST and HFSS) for designing the Bluetooth antenna.
2. Printing: They will get hands-on experience in 3D and screen printing of electronics for fabricating the designed Bluetooth antenna and device package.
3. Measurements: They will use state-of-the-art technology for measuring the performance of the fabricated antenna, such as an anechoic chamber, vector network analyzer, and impedance analyzer. Also, students will learn about CO₂ sensor measurements using a custom-designed gas measurement setup.
4. Embedded system design and Integration: They will be trained on integrating the developed antenna with other components (i.e., solar cells, CO₂ sensor, embedded electronics, readout App) of the system to realize the self-powered CO₂ /IAQ sensing system.

Deliverables

• Design of a Bluetooth antenna on a printed substrate.
• Fabrication and measurements of the designed antenna.
• Design of embedded system (including embedded software) for CO₂ measurements, indoor solar powering, and BLE communication with Smartphone App.
• Integration of Antenna, Embedded system, and App for realizing self-powered CO₂ / IAQ sensing system.