AAAR 37th Annual Conference October 14 - October 18, 2019 Oregon Convention Center Portland, Oregon, USA
Abstract View
BevoBeacon: A Low-Cost Sensor Platform to Monitor Indoor Environmental Quality
HAGEN FRITZ, William Waites, Sepehr Bastami, Kerry Kinney, Zoltan Nagy, David Schyner, University of Texas at Austin
Abstract Number: 768 Working Group: Air Quality Sensors: Low-cost != Low Complexity
Abstract Air quality monitoring is one research area that has taken to using low-cost sensors to determine spatio-temporal concentrations of various pollutants. In this paper, we present the BevoBeacon, a low-cost research platform for environmental monitoring. The BevoBeaon is built around a Raspberry Pi microcomputer extended with custom interface hardware to connect an array of sensors. It gathers temperature, relative humidity, particulate matter (PM) and volatile organic compound concentrations as well as wireless hosts using WiFi and Bluetooth. The software architecture is modular, allowing a BevoBeacon to be augmented with external sensors Here we describe the sensor apparatus, the validity of the data gathered from the BevoBeacon’s PM sensors through comparison to more robust instrumentation in stainless steel environmental chamber, and results garnered through a small pilot study conducted at UT Austin.
The BevoBeacon is housed within a small unit that can be easily transported and installed in any indoor environment. Data is stored locally as well as transmitted for storage in a secure, centralized repository. Initially, the BevoBeacons were placed in a 384 ft3 stainless steel chamber that was seeded with various sizes of Arizona Test Dust. Concentrations and counts measured by the BevoBeacon were compared to those measured by an aerodynamic particle sizer (TSI Instruments, Shoreview MN). To determine the performance of the BevoBeacon in the field, the platform was distributed to 30 students during the academic year and placed in the individual’s bedrooms where data were collected for approximately one week.
The BevoBeacon represents an open-source platform that is flexible, available for quick and easy modification, and able to be deployed at scale. The BevoBeacon has the potential to influence future research projects and can be combined with other low-cost sensing technologies to help further the field of indoor environmental quality monitoring.