Disaster-Preparedness

Motion Sensor

Under construction until the end of Fall 2014 semester unless indicated otherwise.

Purpose

• Detect and measure motion.
• Use multiple cheap, inexpensive sensors to increase accuracy/reliability/functionality.
• Be cheap and portable.
• Provide data that can be aggregated over a network.

Sensors

We used tilt switches, a piezo element, a laser / photoresistor combo, and an accelerometer.

Tilt

Use

• A tilt switch uses a material to complete a circuit (E.G. press a button) when it reaches either end of the container.
• We used XZ mercury switches.
• The Y direction wasn't very sensitive. It only seemed useful for seeing if the device had flipped over.
• Tilt switches work best when the motion is parallel to them. This loss of motion can be minimized by adding more sensors at half-steps. For example, we could add a tilt that was inbetween XZ to measure diagonal motion more effectively.
• We looked exclusively for change. This means we didn't care about what state the tilt switch was in, just if it had changed since the last read.
• No noticeable noise.

Wiring

• Power, ground, and signal.
• 10k resistor on power.
• Signal is digital.

Code Sample

const int tiltPin = 2;
int tiltState = 0;

void setup() {
  pinMode(tiltPin, INPUT);     
}

void loop(){
  tiltState = digitalRead(tiltPin);
}

Resources

• [wikipedia]
• useful code [here]

Piezo Element

Use

• A very cheap, diverse piece of kit.
• Can be used as a button, a knock sensor, to detect vibration, to detect sound, or to produce sound similar to a buzzer.
• We used it as a vibration sensor.
• Vibration sensitivity is increased dramatically when the piezo element is attached to a solid object by a weight, glue, or tape.

Wiring

• Signal and ground. Signal serves as power.
• 1k resistor on the signal; 10k worked similarly, so 1k+ is probably fine
• analog
• minimal noise

Code Sample

const int piezoPin = 2;
int piezoState = 0;

void setup() {
  pinMode(piezoPin, INPUT);     
}

void loop(){
  piezoState = analogRead(piezoPin);
}

Resources

• [product page]
• [arduino tutorial]
• [technical datasheet]
• [wikipedia]

Research

These are notes and observations from research.

Earthquake

Waves produced by an earthquake.

How to measure earthquakes accurately.

• occur due to movement in tectonic plates
• only seconds of notice, 5-10 seconds
• [p waves] are much faster than [s waves] and the actual waves that cause the earthquake.
  • earthquakes travel at about the same speed as data networks
• can be measured by motion (on surface or underground) and pressure (underground)
  • downside of underground monitoring is 1) power and 2) transmission
    • can use repeaters or solar power to solve these issues
  • advantage of being underground is distance from noise (such as animals and humans) and being closer to the source of the earthquake
  • being attached to rock is good

Resources

[introduction]

[wave types]

Tsunami

Possible methods to predict and measure tsunamis.

• in the deep sea pressure sensors are used to measure the relatively small sea-level change (in centimeters)
• nearer to shore, where waves start to form, altitude could be measured by buoy
• travel at hundreds of miles per hour
• tsunami headquarters in Hawaii
• notification could be minutes to hours in advance depending on distance from source of tsunami
• height/speed of wave reduces with distance