Development of an IoT Cloud Control System for Managing

Pressurized Gas Containers

FRANCESCO ZITO, NICOLA IVAN GIANNOCCARO, ROBERTO SERIO,

SERGIO STRAZZELLA

Department of Engineering Innovation,

University of Salento,

Via per Monteroni 73100 Lecce,

ITALY

continuously detect the state inside the cylinder via a pressure transducer. The customer can monitor the system

by viewing the cylinder's status locally or through an online dashboard. In addition, if the level inside the

cylinder becomes critical, the system turns on a warning LED light and sends an Alert message to the Cloud

containing location information. The alert message was generated in the AWS IoT Cloud environment using

the MQTT protocol and will be received on a mobile device owned by the cylinder replacement operator.

Finally, an energy analysis has been carried out to evaluate the autonomy characteristics of the device.

Key-Words: - Technical gas cylinder; Mkr Wi-Fi 1010 microcontroller; pressure detection; IoT, energy design,

to the detriment of the production itself. Avoiding

some situations that could cause interruptions is the

common thread, [1] that led to the development of

this research. There are many real industrial

situations in which the gas cylinder becomes empty

and operators must stop operating while waiting to

replace the cylinder. Just think, for example, of an

operator using an argon cylinder in a TIG (Tungsten

Inert Gas) welding operation, [2] or the use of food

gases (carbon dioxide, nitrogen, argon, and oxygen)

digital pressure manometer capable of detecting the

pressure inside cylinders. Unlike traditional pressure

manometers, which merely display pressure

readings, this digital solution eliminates the need for

the constant presence of the operator near the

cylinder to ensure an uninterrupted gas supply.

the localization. Recent research using Arduino for

GPS using a GSM module is shown in, [13].

collected are displayed locally through a simple

LCD screen and collected remotely in a database.

The system has been integrated with a GPS module,

LED once the minimum threshold has been reached.

Remotely, the person in charge of replacing the

cylinder must have a device that allows the

reception and display of the alert message, whether

a simple smartphone or a mobile device.

aspects, such as feedback times and the pressure or

battery level at which the alarm will be sent. The

operator can remotely control the cylinders via a

graphical interface by integrating the proposed

demonstrating its applicability for industrial

purposes.

The prototype device consists of two parts:

•The first part is a box with the microcontroller,

GPS module, and batteries to power the system. The

box has an LCD screen that shows the data revealed

by the pressure sensor and the status of the batteries

•The second part is a hydraulic pipe used for

pressure measurement. The pipe has two fittings for

the analog pressure sensor and a differential

pressure gauge. The pipe nozzle is installed

upstream of the rolling valve and downstream of the

cylinder shut-off valve. The system layout is shown

in Figure 1.

The main hardware components (shown in Figure 2)

are:

a voltage divider that allows the state of charge of

the batteries to be derived; this information will be

added to the message sent.

[19], [20]. All NMEA's sentences have a structure

like:

calibrated to a compressed air cylinder via a

connecting pipe and a manual manometer for the

calibration values (Figure 6).

gradually increasing the pressure from 0 bar to 5 bar

for the pressure transducer calibration. The sensor

was cabled to Arduino MKR Wi-Fi 1010 for data

analysis, and the calibration curve was obtained

with test results. The equation that best interpolates

the data trend was derived from experimental data in

Fig. 7: Interpolation curve obtained by the

calibration

standard error and R squared value on the linear

regression carried out by 150 measurements and

coefficients of the linear regression line. Figure 8,

Figure 9 and Figure 10 show the distribution of

Fig. 8: Tracing of residuals

Fig. 11: Design system layout

made available in the AWS IoT core service. The

image shows the structure of the JSON message

underlying the communication between the system

the MQTT protocol to use X.509 certificates for

authentication, [21]. A CSR (Certificate Signing

Request) must be generated to do that. This will

allow the microcontroller to be associated with an

physical counterpart. Another relevant aspect is the

definition of the policy of 'things.' It allows

establishing and limiting the actions that individual

'things' can undergo and perform.

the JSON content of MQTT messages arriving at the

Table 3. Data table

IoT cloud-centric environment by taking advantage

of the capabilities offered.

need to be improved: connectivity and power

supply.

the use of Wi-Fi that does not allow communication

over long distances (and the need to associate the

smart box with the client's Wi-Fi).

power supply. Still, in this case, the applications of

the system should be limited to cases where a power

supply is available.

excellent tool for optimizing resource management

processes in the cylinder rental industry over a wide

territory. In addition, a key step for further

improvement is integrating artificial intelligence

(AI) systems to address emerging challenges and

improve the efficiency of management, logistics,

Artificial intelligence-based systems can be used to

improve delivery planning and optimize inventory

management. These systems can predict peak

demand and plan deliveries by analyzing historical

data on cylinder consumption, weather patterns, and

other factors. In this way, operating costs can be

reduced, and customers can be assured of more

timely and efficient service: a neural network model

could learn from real-time data, adapting

dynamically to unexpected changes in demand or