Application of GPRS modules in data acquisition and control of devices for air quality monitoring

This paper describes a modern GPRS based system for air pollution monitoring. Due to the widespread of the mobile telephony, currently it is possible to use GPRS modules for wireless data acquisition and control. At the moment, there are a lot of available solutions with usage of GPRS modems and some of them are mentioned in this paper as reference to our design. Explanations of how to use GPRS modem with common problems and solution are given. Designed prototype system consists of Telit GM862 GPRS modem, dsPIC30F4013 microcontroller and set of metal-semiconductor gas sensors with accompanying processing electronic. Integration of microcontroller inside sensing process allows automatic monitoring and support for management of the peripherals units. This system measures concentrations of gases such as CO, CO
₂
, NH
₃
, CH
₄
and H
₂
S. For gas sensor compensation, sensors for humidity, pressure and temperature are installed.