Self-diagnosis and smart maintenance prototype for sustainable and desirable onsite sanitation

Abstract

Electrochemical oxidation appears to be a practical technology for the decentralized treatment of wastewater in regions where sewer-based wastewater treatment is too expensive or otherwise impossible to construct and maintain. As of now, the control processes used by many systems rely principally on successive events that are time-dependent and come with some level of monitoring but little feedback into the system process. One reason is the high cost of sensors and automation systems used in industrial installations cannot easily translate into the household or public bathroom products for developing countries where capital expenditure is limited. As an answer to this challenge, we integrated a suite of inexpensive sensors (e.g., ORP, color, turbidity, voltage, current, water level, leakage) in and around the electrochemical treatment system and to a local computer (Raspberry Pi + Arduino) that can diagnose failure modes and send alerts to on-demand repair technicians and users. We also investigating the redesign of the sensors network to make it wireless at a low-cost in order to enjoy the benefits of wireless communications (e.g., monitoring flexibility, accessibility, and availability). The Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) will facilitate the installation of sensors as well as locating and managing failures.