HYDRABOT: ARDUINO-BASED ROBOT FOR MEASURING CONDUCTIVITY AND TURBIDITY AS WATER QUALITY PARAMETERS
Description
Water is essential to both bodies and the environment since it moves nutrients, waste products, and oxygen to and from cells and organs, supporting various actions and results across the state. Turbidity is the measure of the relative clarity of a liquid. According to Fondriest Environmental Learning Center (2019), turbidity is caused by suspended sediment, such as silt or clay, as well as organic or inorganic matter, such as algae, plankton, and decaying material. On the other hand, water conductivity is important because it can tell you how much dissolved substances, chemicals, and minerals are present in the water. Higher amounts of these impurities will lead to higher conductivity. These substances are toxic to aquatic life and humans, especially when present in high concentrations. O'Donnell (2019) reported that higher temperatures, in most cases, imply higher electrical conductivity. An increase in water temperature of one degree Celsius causes an increase in electrical conductivity of 2-3%. Furthermore, technology has impacted and changed society in significant ways. One of the products of technology that helped humans in their daily activities are robots. Robotics for Society (2021) stated that robots are used in multiple areas, significantly where they can alleviate strenuous tasks or complete missions that are dangerous for a human to undertake. Apart from being precise and consistent, robots can work in any environment, adding to their flexibility. Meanwhile Arduino is an open-source platform primarily used for building robots or electronics projects. It is small but packed with powerful features, such as IDE (Integrated Development Environment) software for writing and uploading code to the device and a programmable circuit board. It can drive motors, light-emitting diodes, sensors, and other components. On the other hand, water analysis is a method in monitoring water quality which is very expensive. With this issue, the researchers conducted this study to help the people know the water conductivity and turbidity of water by just placing the sensors in the water also the robot is affordable and it can measure simultaneously. This study will determine if the Hydrabot is accurate and precise in water analysis in terms of water conductivity and turbidity also the researchers will determine if there is a significant difference in the water quality of the readings from the water analysis and the Hydrabot in terms of water conductivity and turbidity.
Files
Steps to reproduce
The researchers were able to construct the Hydrabot by programming Arduino UNO to identify turbidity and conductivity via assigned sensors each of which were attached to VCC to any of the power input pins (5V). After programming and creating the Hydrabot, the researchers must have steady hand in handling the sensors to avoid changes in the results that will show through the LiquidCrystal Display (LCD). With the posttest only control group design, the research compared Hydrabot to standard water analysis in Dagupan City Water District in reading turbidity and conductivity. They took water samples from the rivers of Barangays Dinalaoan, Longos, Malabago. The accuracy of the Hydrabot is determined using the formula of %relative error formulated by Alimorong, et. al, (2021): %Relative Error = Experimental Value - Accepted Value/Accepted Value * 100. Results must be ≤ 5% to deem Hydrabot accurate. Meanwhile in terms of precision standard deviation must be less than 0.49 to prove that its reliability is high (Perez,et. al, 2018). The results of each experiment will be analyzed using Paired T-Test. If the p-values are lesser than the alpha (0.05), the researchers will reject the null hypothesis which will indicate that there is a significant difference between the water quality of the readings from the water analysis and the Hydrabot in terms of conductivity and turbidity.