CONSTRUCTION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A LiDAR BASED ESP8266 ENABLED REAL-TIME REMOTE GROUNDWATER MONITORING DEVICE
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upload
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Abstract
Expanding noncontact techniques for monitoring groundwater level variations to include laser based devices has been limited in the past by the low reflectivity of water to laser light The advances made in the realization of highly sensitive receivers has greatly enabled Laser devices with the prospect for effective noncontact monitoring of groundwater levels. In this work a real-time groundwater level monitoring devices was implemented using a LiDAR-lite v3HP laser-based sensor, an Arduino Uno rev 3 microcontroller, and an ESP8266 Wi-Fi module. Hardware implementation involved interfacing the microcontroller with the LiDAR-lite, the Wi-Fi module, a 16 x 2 liquid crystal display and other necessary basic electronic components. The software implementation involved writing, editing, compiling and uploading codes through the Arduino ide unto the microcontroller. The implemented prototype was powered by a 20,000mAH, 5V power bank and deployed on two artesian wells to collect depth to water surface data which were uploaded automatically to ThingSpeak platform. Measurements at various times taken with the device were compared with manual measurements from a calibrated tape. A correction factor was applied to correct measurement residuals. Results of the validation showed that measured values were uploaded to the ThingSpeak platform an average of 33 seconds which could be reconfigured to longer timeframes. The results were remotely accessed on the platform. A correlation graph of measurement before and after applying the correction revealed a near perfect correlation coefficient of 0.99995 for the LiDAR readings for both pre-correction and post correction measurements; confirming a strong linear relationship with tape measurements. The coefficient of variation, root mean square error and limits of agreement from the Bland Altman’s plots all ascertained the improvement in post-correction measurements.
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