Abstract
Increasing urbanisation and a better understanding of the negative health effects of air pollution have accelerated the use of Internet of Things (IoT)-based air quality sensors. Low-cost and low-power sensors are now readily available and commonly deployed by individuals and community groups. However, there are a wide range of such IoT devices in circulation that differently focus on problems of sensor validation, data reliability, or accessibility. In this paper, we present AirKit, which was developed as an integrated and open source “social IoT technology”. AirKit enables a comprehensive approach to citizen-sensing air quality through several integrated components: (1) the Dustbox 2.0, a particulate matter sensor; (2) Airsift, a data analysis platform; (3) a reliable and automatic remote firmware update system; (4) a “Data Stories” method and tool for communicating citizen data; and (5) an AirKit logbook that provides a guide for designing and running air quality projects, along with instructions for building and using AirKit components. Developed as a social technology toolkit to foster open processes of research co-creation and environmental action, Airkit has the potential to generate expanded engagements with IoT and air quality by improving the accuracy, legibility and use of sensors, data analysis and data communication.
Highlights
Cities worldwide face numerous challenges related to socio-economic and environmental sustainability and justice [1]
Air pollution is a leading risk factor for non-communicable diseases and accounts for 22% of all deaths from cardiovascular-related disease, 26% of deaths related to ischaemic heart disease, 25% of deaths related to stroke, 53% of deaths related to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and 40% of deaths related to lung cancer [5]
Most of the existing firmware update methods are hardware and operating system specific [17,18], and the ones used by existing Internet of Things (IoT) devices [6,19] require the user to perform the update manually. We address this issue by proposing an automatic remote update method that encompasses all steps of the update process: from firmware generation and validation, to transmitting the update to the IoT device, its verification and installation
Summary
Cities worldwide face numerous challenges related to socio-economic and environmental sustainability and justice [1]. AirKit consists of more than sensors and data It is an end-to-end citizen infrastructure for monitoring air quality, with components that are openly available for widespread use and further development. We answer this question by focusing on data reliability and transparency, which are achieved by performing extensive sensor validation and evaluation in real-world scenarios in collaboration with the regulatory bodies Another emerging issue related to IoT devices is scalability [15]. AirKit is presented as an end-to-end citizen-sensing infrastructure for air quality monitoring It is designed as an integrated IoT framework that is based on open technology principles, including open architecture, open hardware, open software and open data.
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