Automatic Vehicle Access System using Ultra-High Frequency RFID

Securing and monitoring the territory have become a big challenge for everyone as the number of vehicle users have increased. The premise area must be secure with enforced entrances and exits. It should have an automated and efficient security and monitoring system. For this purpose, an automated vehicle access system with accurate and secure monitoring of vehicle entry and exit was developed with Graphical User Interface (GUI) and vehicle’s user database along with the prototype of Ultra-High Frequency RFID. The suitable configuration for the hardware prototype has also been evaluated to maximize the system’s capabilities. This system operates on frequencies from 400MHz to 950MHz and is performed at distances of 7 meters. The passive tag was attached to the various condition and sizes of the car. The result shows showed that the system was optimally performed with the speed of the vehicle up to 50 km/h, 7 m of reading range and a maximum 20% tinted windshield. The ideal angle for the reader is around 60ᵒ to 70ᵒ with 2 meters of mounting pole. For future improvement, it is suggested that the registered vehicle user data was linked with the official premise’s database and the data is saved in an off-site location (cloud storage). The GUI is also able to support more than 1 reader at a time depending on demand.

Smart Fish Feeder Using Solar Energy

Smart fish feeder is an emerging concept of the current trend which use Internet of Things (IoT) technology to operate, monitoring and provides crucial information and status to the whole farming system. This project aims to provide such essential proof of concept that utilized IoT technology combine with the solar energy to power up servo motor and temperature sensor that connect from NodeMCU for the agriculture system. The main objectives of this project are specifically focused on the development of a smart fish feeder by using the solar system with charging capability and controlled by the IoT system. Such a fish feeder system was powered up by 12V battery using 10W solar panel controlled by a solar charger controller. The solar energy was stored in 12 V rechargeable battery. IoT-controlled sensors were also attached to the fish feeder system for providing essential information on temperature and fish feeder timer via the Blynk platform. The results of the developed system successfully proved the concept is workable and could be extended to a larger scale of the farming industry. Owing to its energy autonomy and low cost, the system has the potential to be useful in smart farming technology.

Feasibility Study of the Technical and Economic Performance of Grid-Connected PV System for Selected Rooftops in UTHM

This paper presents the feasibility study of the technical and economic performances of grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) system for selected rooftops in Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM). The analysis of the electricity consumption and electricity bill data of UTHM campus show that the monthly electricity usage in UTHM campus is very high and expensive. The main purpose of this project is to reduce the annual electricity consumption and electricity bill of UTHM with Net Energy Metering (NEM) scheme. Therefore, the grid-connected PV system has been proposed at Dewan Sultan Ibrahim (DSI), Tunku Tun Aminah Library (TTAL), Fakulti Kejuruteraan Awam dan Alam Bina (FKAAS) and F2 buildings UTHM by using three types of PV modules which are mono-crystalline silicon (Mono-Si), poly-crystalline silicon (Poly-Si) and Thin-film. These three PV modules were modeled, simulated and calculated using Helioscope software with the capacity of 2,166.40kWp, 2,046.20kWp and 1,845kWp respectively for the total rooftop area of 190,302.9 ft². The economic analysis was conducted on the chosen three installed PV modules using RETScreen software. As a result, the Mono-Si showed the best PV module that can produce 2,332,327.40 kWh of PV energy, 4.4% of CO₂ reduction, 9.3 years of payback period considering 21 years of the contractual period and profit of RM4,932,274.58 for 11.7 years after payback period. Moreover, the proposed installation of 2,166.40kWp (Mono-SI PV module) can reduce the annual electricity bill and CO2 emission of 3.6% (RM421,561.93) and 4.4% (1,851.40 tCO₂) compared to the system without PV system.

Economical Electricity Home System using Solar

Economical home system can be defined as one realization of home that have a cost-effective ideal by using specific set of technologies combined with the renewable energy as a power supply. This system has a highly advance for lighting, temperature control, socket and own power supply by using solar panel. This system is developed in this project and focused on B40 community that represents the bottom 40% of income earners and also this project becomes suitable for this community for getting an energy efficiency system. Due to the COVID-19, B40 households were reported to have lost their jobs causing financial hardship and had to face the issue of high electricity bills which are very burdensome for them at all in order to pay the cost electricity for monthly. The aim of the article is to design and simulate the solar power system including battery storage in suitable software for a residential house especially in B40 community home and also to analyze the potential of battery storage in order to store the energy from solar panel. Therefore, the economical electricity home system using solar energy for B40 community is proposed in this project for producing an energy efficient system at home. In addition, an electrical floor plan and floor plan of B40 community home is designed in the SketchUp software that using basic electrical equipment such as lighting, ceiling fan and socket. The system is developed by using the MATLAB software in order to produce the result of energy efficiency by using the renewable energy which is solar system and also battery storage. According to the data produced from the calculation of old bills and new bills, the energy consumptions are calculated and also be compared before and after using the renewable energy which is using solar system. The data obtained through calculation of maximum demand in new bill is used in the simulation of solar system in MATLAB software. The results obtained show that after using an energy-efficient load, the monthly new bill is around RM 27.79 which is around RM 10.75 less than the monthly old bill before using an energy-efficient load. It can be concluded that the use of renewable energy in B40 community home can save the energy and also money.

Performance Characteristics of Electric Vehicle Battery using Charging Station System with Grid-Connected Configuration via Matlab Simulation

Due to the increase in demand for electric vehicles (EV) in recent years, the lack of EV charging stations and different EVs’ battery types are causing inconvenience to the user. The paper presents modeling and simulation of the grid-connected EV charging station system using MATLAB Simulink platform. The model consists of LCL filter, inverter, and battery charger. The inverter is regulated by a dq-frame that synchronizes with a phase-locked loop (PLL) to convert a three-phase alternating current (AC) source to a direct current (DC) source. Futhermore, lead acid (Pb-acid), lithium-ion (Li-ion), nickel-cadmium (Ni-Cd), and nickel metal hydride (Ni-MH) were tested and their performances were evaluated using the simulated EV charging station. All simulations were carried out and tested in the MATLAB Simulink platform. The results showed that Li-ion battery reaches the highest state-of-charge (SOC) value which is 51.66%, Pb-acid is 51.60%. Ni-MH is 51.55%, and Ni-Cd is 51.47% within 60s. The voltage values are 226.0V, 225.2V, 220.8V, and 220.2V for Pb-acid, Ni-MH, Ni-Cd and Li-ion, respectively. The findings revealed that the lithium ion is the most suitable for the use of EV since it had the fastest charging and slowest to reach its maximum threshold value of charging voltage.

Miniaturized Dual-Band Dual-Mode Microstrip Patch Antenna with Defected Ground Structure for Wearable Applications

This work presents the performance of a miniaturized dual-band dual-mode microstrip patch antenna with Defected Ground Structure (DGS) at 2.45 GHz and 5.8 GHz on the stacked substrate configuration in the order of FR-4 – PDMS- FR-4. The antenna offers a promising solution for wearable applications in the ISM bands. The first substrate is a flexible Flame Retardant 4 (FR-4) and the other substrate is a highly flexible Polydimethyl Siloxane (PDMS). The size of the antenna was reduced from 50 × 50 mm2 to 30 × 30 mm2, by introducing DGS on the ground plane. A single U-slot on the rectangular radiating patch was introduced to produce the upper resonant frequency of 5.8 GHz while the existing square patch is to generate the lower resonant frequency of 2.45 GHz. The simulations on the dual-band dual-mode microstrip patch antenna shows the reflection coefficient, S11 at 2.45 GHz is -17.848 dB with a bandwidth of 278.8 MHz and -13.779 dB with a bandwidth of 273 MHz at 5.8 GHz. A unidirectional radiation pattern observed in the E-plane shows that the antenna could be applied for off-body communication while an omnidirectional radiation pattern in the H-plane showed that the antenna can be used for on-body communication. Bending investigation were performed for the antenna over a vacuum cylinder with varying diameters of 50 mm, 60 mm, 70 mm, 80 mm, 90 mm, 100 mm and 120 mm in the CST MWS® software. From the graph of reflection coefficients, the performance of the antenna were not affected in bending condition. The SAR simulations showed that the SAR limits obey the guidelines as stipulated by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) and the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) for 1 mW of input power. The 2.45 GHz SAR limit for 1 g of human tissue is 0.09007 W/kg (FCC standard: < 1.6 W/kg) while for 10 g is 0.01867 W/kg (ICNIRP standard: < 2 W/kg). For 5.8 GHz, the SAR limit for 1 g of human tissue is 0.115 W/kg and for 10 g is 0.03517 W/kg. Based on the performance of the antenna in bending condition and the SAR limits, it is safe to conclude that the antenna can be used for wearable applications at 2.45 GHz and 5.8 GHz of the ISM bands.

Development and Implementation of Water Quality Assessment Monitoring (WQAM) System using the Internet of Things (IoT) in Water Environment

Water quality monitoring (WQM) system is widely being explored as it is needed to prevent the problem of water contamination worldwide. Nowadays, there are various studies on WQM system that are being integrated with Internet of Things (IoT) concept for Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) technology implementation to get real time data measurement. Traditional ways of collecting the data are more time consuming and they lack real time changes in the quality of water. This paper presents the development and implementation of Water Quality Assessment and Monitoring (WQAM) system. The system development used WiFi enabled microcontroller to connect with the IoT environment and store the data in the IoT cloud server. The microcontroller used is Arduino UNO that interacts with three types of sensor probes which are pH, turbidity and temperature probe. All the data measurements is transferred using a WiFi module which is ESP8266. The IoT cloud used to utilize the data frame is ThingSpeak. This system was implemented on Bandar Perda Lake and Derhaka River in Pulau Pinang with two systems implemented at each location. The sensors were placed on the water surface for more accurate measurements. This system continuously measures the readings of pH, turbidity dan temperature on the lake/river for every 1 hour. Twenty readings were taken for every 1 hour within the first 20 minutes with 1 minute interval and the readings were stored in the IoT cloud server. The readings are accessible via ThingSpeak GUI. In conclusion, this system would benefit the authorities to take advantage of using the WQAM system with the aid of the IoT that is less time consuming, less cost and more reliable in real time data reading.

Design A Lighting Point Calculator System For Residential Houses Using Microsoft Visual Basic

Lighting point calculation plays an important feature in developing a new residential house. This enables people inside the house will have enough of light to perform tasks efficiently. Currently, consulting electrical engineers use rules of thumb to forecast the quantity of lighting points, however these rules are inaccurate. It does not take into account the lux required based on Malaysian Standard MS1525. Furthermore, good lighting can save money and provide visual comfort to the occupants. However, numerous parameters such as room index, utilisation factor and illuminance used for each space or room inside the house must be considered when determining the quantity of lighting point for a residential property. Three types of residential houses are considered which are: single storey house, double storey house and condominium house. This paper presents the development of lighting point calculator system for residential houses using Microsoft Visual Basic and comparison of quantity of lighting point using manual calculation using Microsoft Excel and simulation calculation using Microsoft Visual Basic.

Block-Based Development of a Mobile Application in Basic Electrical Concept for Diploma in Electrical Engineering Student

Electrical Technology is one of the main courses for Diploma in Electrical Engineering students in Politeknik Malaysia. The subject has been delivered conventionally; however, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, relatively it has changed the landscape in delivery method. Regarding this problem, an innovation by using an online learning application such as mobile applications is a must. There are many mobile applications provided in the Google Playstore; however, the function is either limited to one function for each mobile application or too complicated for diploma students. This paper presents the block-based programming language used in App Inventor to make the creation of mobile apps for basic electrical concepts for electrical engineering students in Politeknik namely My ReSist. This app is used to convert the resistance color codes to resistance values and calculate the total resistance in the circuit as well as to do Star-Delta transformations. Results showed that this mobile application is useful for students to solve basic electrical concept including total resistance in series and parallel circuit. It is proved that this app is user-friendly and attractive.

Automated Irrigation and Fertigation System Applying Sensing Technology

Internet of Things (IoT) is the most discussed topic nowadays and it finds many applications in various industries. The development of efficient agricultural systems has become essential to address the challenges of feeding the enormous and ever-increasing population around the globe. One way of dealing with this is to expand agricultural production standard and quantity. An integrated IoT system with irrigation and finishing on the market was missing. To increase production efficiency, farmers shall collect massive data from various devices. The system's effectiveness depends on the performance of the sensor under various climate changes. The network and a closed-loop feedback system need to be connected to the system for maximum operational capacity. The module of the Soil Moisture Sensor and the MCU ESP8266 V2 MCU Node, the float switch and the 5V Optocoupler relay module are used in this project. The remote control of the system is a mobile application. If the moisture level in the soil reaches the desired value, it will stop water supply. The project could be expended on a larger scale in the future and the system may also be developed with solar energy rather than batteries.