Iron Curtain

An IoT device using laser field, sensors and nodeMcu to save lives of factory workers from heavy machinery.

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Inspiration

Many workers lose their lives or get amputated for life by getting stuck in heavy machines like heavy presses or cutting wheels or shredders while working near them. In my village itself, some people have lost limbs or have lost their life due to such accidents. In many cases, it happens due to an accident or it happens when the worker unknowingly wanders in the no-go zone of the machine. Such instances could have been easily avoided if the machine would have stopped in time. Also, a lot of damage is done to the machine itself if any foreign object enters the area.

What it does

We have developed a device that creates a laser field around the heavy machine. The device also acts as a switch that controls power to the heavy machines used in the industry. If any object or body part enters the laser field, it is interrupted and the device instantly shuts off the power to the machine hence instantaneously stopping it. At the same time, a buzzer is activated informing the nearby workers that something is wrong with the machine so they can come and inspect the area. We have also connected this device to a Web App and also a Mobile App that can give the real-time status of the machine to the Machine Supervisor. The supervisor can use this app to monitor the status of the machine from anywhere as this system is connected to the Cloud.

How we built it

We have used a set of Mirrors and a laser to create the laser field. The laser field is detected by the LDR (light-dependent resistance) which is connected to a nodeMCU module. Any disturbance in the laser field is detected by the LDR. A Relay module is also connected to the nodeMCU which controls the power to the Heavy Machinery. This device is connected to the cloud and transmits the real-time status of the machine to the Web App and Mobile App with the help of Blynk Cloud. In case of an object crossing the laser field, it is disturbed, sensed by the LDR, and reported to the nodeMCU and then the nodeMCU module starts the Emergency stop protocol disconnecting the relay module and instantaneously stopping the machine and also a notification is sent to the supervisor on the Mobile and Web Apps.

Challenges we ran into

During the building of this project, we ran into several challenges like aligning the mirrors perfectly to get the laser field aligned with the LDR sensor, which took some time. Then we ran into some issues with the authentication to connect the nodeMCU to the Blynk Cloud to get the data to the Web App and the Mobile App. We also had some issues with reducing the latency of the device detection and also transmitting the data to the Applications.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are very proud about the thing that we got the latency of the device data transmission to the cloud and to the mobile Applications to nearly 10ms which is very less and very efficient. Also, the disconnection of the machine, if any object passes the laser field, is near instantaneous.

What we learned

We learned a lot about prototype design and IoT implementation in real-world scenarios. We also learned a lot about teamwork and distributing the workload among the team members.

What's next for - Iron Curtain

In the next version of this project, we want to add even more mirrors and bars to increase the area coverage of the laser field and also include more controls and data in the accompanying mobile app.

Built With

  • blynk
  • cloud
  • iot
  • laser
  • ldr
  • nodemcu
  • relay
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