Author Date

2023-12-02

Degree Name

Department

Electrical and Computer Engineering

College

Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering

Defense Date

2023-10-23

Publication Date

2023-12-02

First Faculty Advisor

Dr. Randy Lewis

First Faculty Reader

Dr. Philip Lundrigan

Honors Coordinator

Dr. Karl Warnick

Keywords

humanitarian engineering, global outreach, embedded systems

Abstract

The particulate matter (PM), carbon monoxide (CO), and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emitted from cookstoves cause many potential health and environmental risks. This work outlines the design of a sensor system to accurately and affordably measure these gas quantities to aid in the certification of cookstoves for a laboratory in Peru. Our team was able to design and build this system at a price ten times reduced than the current commercial sensor unit in use. The performance of our sensor system was verified by comparing its PM and CO trends to that of the commercial unit. After testing, we found that our sensor system is accurate in comparison to the commercial unit and future work in calibration techniques is needed to ensure absolute measurement values match and are accurate.

This thesis explores the development of the software powering our sensor system. The development process includes integrating the software interface for a high-performing PM sensor, implementing battery saving mechanisms, and refactoring the system software architecture. This work enabled the team to provide more data and allowed the project to be easily tested and built upon.