IoT Enabled Intelligent Sensor Node for Smart City: Pedestrian Counting and Ambient Monitoring

An Internet of Things (IoT) enabled intelligent sensor node has been designed and developed for smart city applications. The fabricated sensor nodes count the number of pedestrians, their direction of travel along with some ambient parameters. The Field of View (FoV) of Fresnel lens of commercially available passive infrared (PIR) sensors has been specially tuned to monitor the movements of only humans and no other domestic animals such as dogs, cats etc. The ambient parameters include temperature, humidity, pressure, Carbon di Oxide (CO₂) and total volatile organic component (TVOC). The monitored data are uploaded to the Internet server through the Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) communication system. An intelligent algorithm has been developed to achieve an accuracy of 95% for the pedestrian count. There are a total of 74 sensor nodes that have been installed around Macquarie University and continued working for the last six months.