Self-powered WiFi-connected monitoring stations for environmental pollution app-based control in urban and industrial areas

This paper presents the design of a sensing device for monitoring and storing the atmospheric and noise pollution data, using technology with zero impact on the environment. The system consists of an eco-friendly sensor pitch equipped with a multi-sources harvesting system used to scavenge energy from renewable sources (wind and solar light), making it suitable to be accumulated into a storage device. The harvested energy is used to feed a sensing section, which samples the environmental parameters (i.e. PM2.5, PM10, NH3, CO2, NO2, CO) at regular intervals. The hardware and firmware development of the sensor node is discussed; this last is based on the Arduino Pro Micro microcontroller board, which acquires, processes and stores the data from sensors and manages their transmissions towards the cloud platform. Finally, the test results of the developed sensor pitch are presented, demonstrating the correct operation of all system sections.