Design and Development of an IoT-based Smart System to Monitor and Control Environment of a Laboratory

This work represents a microcontroller-based automated system employed to monitor and control the laboratory environment from the cloud. A standard LDR (Light Dependent Resistor) based light sensor was developed and a DHT (Digital Humidity and Temperature) sensor is used to acquire surrounding humidity, temperature and light intensity data. The performance in measuring light level by the developed LDR system deviates about 10 % from the light level measured by the digital light sensor GY30. These data are displayed on a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) and can be accessed from the cloud as well as stored in the memory of the device. The system also allows a user to set humidity and temperature values directly or from the cloud and the system maintained the specified set values automatically. A separate module has been used for making communication with the cloud to facilitate monitor and controlling the laboratory environment using the mobile application. We are anticipating that the automated system may be expedient for optimization of the laboratory environment for different sophisticated instruments and thus may explore the novel applicability of IoT (Internet of Things) in different areas such as Intensive Care Units (ICU) of hospitals, production facilities of industry and research laboratories.