The Advantages of using IoT Technology in Monitoring and Dams Management

This article discusses the advantages of using IoT technology in the monitoring and managing activity of hydro energetic buildings, like dams. The dams in any country represent a national interest good with a special importance for the country’s economy and for the safety of the population. Every single day, meticulous monitoring takes place in these buildings equipped with an extensive network of sensors and dataloggers. Communication between dataloggers is established using the RS485 standard protocol. The data is sent to a local server. Currently, there is a local database accessible exclusively to the staff of that unit. Our research is focused on increasing the visibility of data from dam buildings. Raspberry Pi is used like a bridge between physical quantities acquired by sensors and the virtual world. The system’s functions include monitoring, performing datalogging, and collecting real-time data on parameters that describe the behavior of constructions. Due to the characteristics of Raspberry Pi this can be more easily integrated into RS485 network. Taking advantage of the internet networking capabilities offered by this smart board, the data will be transmitted to a cloud database. This application can be accessed anytime and from anywhere through a web platform called ThingSpeak. This is a secure and safe web platform from anybody can visualize data in real time. A warning system can be added to this project in case the values are out of the standard range.