A Smart Fire Detection System Using Iot Technology With Automatic Water Sprinkler
A Smart Fire Detection System Using Iot Technology With Automatic Water Sprinkler
net/publication/345062499
A Smart Fire Detection System using IoT Technology With Automatic Water
Sprinkler.
Article in International Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering (IJECE) · October 2020
DOI: 10.11591/ijece.v11i4.pp2994-3002
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3 authors, including:
Amgad Muneer
Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS
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Corresponding Author:
Amgad Muneer,
School of Engineering,
Asia Pacific University,
Technology Park, 57000 Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Email: [email protected]
1. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, fire incidents have become a critical issue [1-3], which must be dealt with on time without
any unnecessary delay to avoid the loss in lives and belongings [4-10]. It is considered a fire situation when
the monitored temperature exceeds 50o C. In critical places such as hospitals, schools, and banks, personnel's
arrival time to come for help in fire hazards is around 15 minutes [11]. The statistics show that there are 475,500
structural fires annually in the United States, causing 2,950 civilian deaths, 12,775 civilian injuries, and $7.9
billion in property damage [12]. According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), two-third of
U.S. household fires occur in premises with no working smoke alarms, alarms with no proper maintenance, or
misplaced alarms [13]. The appropriate allocation of fire alarms with a proactive warning could save lives and
reduce property losses [14], [15]. Particularly, there are many types of fire alarms as heat detectors and smoke
detectors [16]; studying these types helps to decide which type is more suitable for home or store. For instance,
heat detectors are classic options [17] when the temperature reaches a certain level. Thus, it is more suitable
for applications that rapid response is not required or in an environment where smoke detectors cannot be
placed like frozen areas. Heat detectors have a lower false alarm rate but still slower in response because the
temperature rises slowly [19]. With all these lacks, smoke detectors remain better than heat detectors [18].
Smoke alarms will more likely detect fires before it really starts. Smoke comes when the energy of an object
is consumed due to the loss of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) from heat [20]. Smoke detectors are classified into three
types: ionization, photoelectric, and combination. All these types can be studied further in instruments and
measurement books. In this study, we will highlight a brief description of ionization. In brief, ionization is a
radioactive material that receives radiation from the fire. It enters the ionization chamber, which is an air-filled
space between two electrodes and permits a small, constant current between the electrodes. This type is the
best for fast fires or fires caused by bombs or accidents [21].
The concept of Internet of things (IoT) nowadays is applied in many applications ranging from the
smart industry [33], smart agriculture [34] to smart healthcare [31], and smart home application [32]. Home
automation is an area where IoT has several advantages [35-37]. In the case of remote plant locations, for
example, technology enabling remote operation and maintenance will benefit; autonomous inter-appliance
such that devices are mutually aware of the information exchange, thereby minimizing engineering costs in
handling all devices involved. Nowadays, fires can get out of control because people intend to save money
rather than installing proper fire alarm systems. Some problems are still on, such as affordability, effectiveness,
and responsiveness [22-24]. Previous related works such as Network-Based Real-time Integrated Fire
Detection and Alarm (FDA) System with Building Automation [25] have been done to overcome these
problems.
Considering the aforementioned challenges, this study focuses on building an advanced fire alarm
using heat and smoke alarms. The system reads the flame, heat, and smoke data using IoT, analyzes these data,
and then quickly triggers the automatic water sprinkler. Thus, this study's importance is to provide a low-cost
fire alarm system considering the affordability, effectiveness, and responsiveness.
Many studies have been conducted to address these issues like [26-28]; however, fire detection issues
are not addressed properly since these systems rely on machine vision, where the algorithms need more images
to train, and the detection rate is not satisfactory. Other approaches like [29,30] suffer from some limitations,
mainly slow time responses and low accuracy. Thus, this paper aims to minimize false alarms, provide faster
response, and a new IoT approach than previous studies that used mostly Node-Red. The contribution is as
follows: (1) To determine which combinations and algorithms of sensors can accurately and quickly detect
fires, (2) We have designed and then developed a system that detects fire and activates the fire alarm, (3) the
proposed system evaluates the situation and initiates an automatic water sprinkler where the water unit was
designed separately, and (4) the system analyses the collected data using Ubidots platform which results in a
faster response. Thus, the highlighted four points make the proposed system superior in terms of affordability,
effectiveness, and responsiveness.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 gives an overview of the methodology
adopted for the proposed research and described the experimental model. Results are discussed in Section 3
while; the conclusion and the future work are given in Section 4.
2. RESEARCH METHOD
Smart Fire Detection System with Automatic Water sprinkler has been developed to solve the slow
response issue of fire accidents. The inputs provide readings for the system to analyze, such as sensors and Wi-
Fi module that works as a transmitter for the sensor readings. Temperature, gas, and flame sensors are inputs.
The readings from the inputs are displayed on the web page. Outputs like LED and Buzzer indicate a fire. The
water system is lunched with a 12V water pump powered by Arduino and Controlled by a 5V relay. The
sprinkler head is the outer of the water output. An ultrasonic sensor is used to measure the tank level and inform
the need for refilling. Moreover, batteries are suppling the circuitry and the pump. The pump is 12V that cannot
get powered by an Arduino. Relay is used as a switch to control the 12v motor that pumps water required from
the tank. In addition to the microcontroller used, a Multiplexer is also used to deal with Analog and Digital
lack of pins.
Figure 1. Block Diagram of Smart Fire Detection System with Automatic Water Sprinkler
2.2 Flowchart
Figure 2 depicts the proposed fire detection system with an automatic water sprinkler. As described in
the figure, the Arduino Mega controls the sensors to extract reading from the surroundings. Each indicator for
these readings has a threshold to check the potentiality and criticality of fire. For example, the temperature
exceeds 80C, CO2 exceeds 30%, and/or flames detection. Smoke and flame, indicators of fire criticality,
represent the extra needed readings to see fire plus, if one sensor does not work, then back up reading is
required. If the above thresholds are met, the water system would be activated to stop the danger. The 12V
pump sucks water from the tank to pass into the sprinkler head through the pipe. An ultrasonic sensor reads the
water level on the tank. The feedback is linked to IoT updates that control the water pump with other sensors
that detected fire. Besides, LED and Buzzer are used in the system as visual evidence to show danger.
NodeMCU stores data and display continuous reading on a smartphone.
A Smart Fire Detection System using IoT with Automatic Water Sprinkler (Alqourabah)
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80
44 48
60
26
40
20
0
0 10 20 30 40
Distance
Figure 4. Flame Sensor Detection results. Figure 5. Result of temperature sensor accuracy
Furthermore, the experimental result indicates that the distance is proportionally linked with
wavelength. Ideally, the flame sensor would be more accurate if it is placed within a range of 10cm to 15cm
from the targeted point.
Figure 5 indicates that results are accurate and can be used practically. Due to the voltage varying and
formula used to convert the voltage into temperature, the results can be affected by the delay, so the water
pump is not linked to a temperature reading.
Figure 6. Automatic Water System Working Diagram Figure 7. Response time Vs Distance
Therefore, Hsu et al. [38] have developed a kitchen fire detection system with the same sensors employed
in this study. However, the system was mainly functioning to warn the residents with loud sounds if a flame
was detected and let them monitor the kitchen stove using the Line app to reduce the loss. In Hsu et al. [38]
work, no automatic water sprinkler unit was involved, making the system not sufficient and reliable to minimize
the fire or turn it off. A different system was proposed by [40], where the authors used temperature, flame,
Carbon Monoxide (CO), and humidity sensors. The system is designed to notify the owner using SMS;
A Smart Fire Detection System using IoT with Automatic Water Sprinkler (Alqourabah)
106 ISSN: 2088-8708
however, their system has an average delay of less than 30 seconds to achieve its desired functionality. While
the proposed approach in this study obtained an average response of 5 seconds
When a flame sensor detects light that ranges from 760nm to 1100nm, fire is detected, and data are
collected into the IoT platform of Ubidots. Ubidots sends SMS messages into a signed phone number to alert
the user that there is a fire threat, as shown in Figure 9 (a). Therefore, the authors in [39] have proposed a fire
detection system based IoT using a gateway protocol and flame sensor with Arduino. However, the system was
designed to warn the property owner via email if a fire was detected, unlike our system, which alerts the
property owner by sending direct SMS messages. Also, there is no automatic water sprinkler unit implemented.
This approach is time-consuming and not sufficient compared to the proposed approach in this study.
Figure 9 (b) illustrates the developed experimental model front view, which shows three units
integrated with a solid metallic prototype. The joints are eight to support the corners and edges. The water tank
is placed on top to make use of gravity when water flows to the bucket. The testing chamber will carry the
flame, gas, and temperature sensors. The water unit will carry two containers for water and a water pump
attached to the water sprinkler. The electronics will form the brain of the operation with IoT included.
Figure 9. (a) Sending SMS message into a signed phone number to alert the owner of properties; (b)
The developed expermintal model.
4. CONCLUSION
The fire detection systems proposed in the literature served fire stopping with no care of the
responsiveness. Thus, this study considers the existing issues and build an efficient and effective fire detection
system based on IoT technology, gas, temperature, and smoke sensors to collect the data accurately and rapidly.
The continuous readings sent over WIFI modules to the central unit to analyze the data and trigger the water
sprinkle. This system structure enhances the efficiency and effectiveness of fire detection. Moreover, using the
Ubidots platform in this system made the data exchange faster and reliable. However, this study's proposed
approach obtained an average response of 5 seconds to detect the fire and alert the property owner. Meanwhile,
the water pump activated to suck water from the tank and release it into the water sprinkler to minimize the
fire until the property owners and emergency services reached. Hence, the proposed system overcame the
challenges of the issues of affordability, effectiveness, and responsiveness. The proposed system still needs
further enhancements. Thus, one of the enhancement directions is integrating machine learning with the system
to predict the potentiality of fire based on the collected data from different sources. Machine learning may help
the operators find and overcome the vulnerabilities in their building to prevent fire instead of detection only.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work was supported by Prince Sultan University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
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