Machine Learning-based Calibration Approach for Low-cost Air Pollution Sensors MQ-7 and MQ-131

Abstract

Air quality is a vital concern globally, and Sri Lanka, according to WHO statistics, faces challenges in achieving optimal air quality levels. To address this, we introduced an innovative IoT-based Air Pollution Monitoring (APM) Box. This solution incorporates readily available Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) sensors, specifically MQ-7 and MQ-131, for measuring concentrations of Carbon Monoxide (CO) and Ozone (O3) ,Arduino and "ThingSpeak" platform. Yet, those COTS sensors are not factory-calibrated. Therefore, we implemented machine learning algorithms, including linear regression and deep neural network models, to enhance the accuracy of CO and O3 concentration measurements from these non-calibrated sensors. Our findings indicate promising correlations when dealing with MQ-7 and MQ-131 measurements after removing outliers.