Earthquake Detector using Accelerometer

Rajat Sharma, Rajat Sharma, Saurav Pathak, Sonia Sharma, Nitika Chadha
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Department of Electronics aand Comm Engg, Chitkara University Rajpura, India

AbstractAn earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earths crust that creates seismic waves. The moment magnitude is the most common scale on which earthquakes larger than approximately 5 are reported for the entire globe. The more numerous earthquakes smaller than magnitude 5 reported by national seismological observatories are measured mostly on the local magnitude scale, also referred to as the Richter scale. But there is need for local detection systems which can alert the persons in a building or nearby surrounding along with recording the earthquake data. This paper presents the earthquake detection model by using an accelerometer and plotting the accelerometer values to give an account of nature of environment. It give very quick output and is reasonably accurate. KEYWORDSEarthquake, PIC, Microcontroller, RF Module, MATLAB, Real Time

allow people to drop, cover and hold on and grant businesses time to shut down and move workers to safe locations,give medical professionals time to stop delicate procedures, protect travelers by providing time for trains to slow or stop, for elevator doors to open, for bridge traffic to clear, for slowing or stopping traffic, and even stopping landings and take-offs at airports, and enable emergency responders to prepare by opening fire station doors and starting generators. This project involves the use accelerometer that would be the prerequisite for the detection of earthquake. We are going to utilize accelerometer based sensor for the detection of earthquake. The output of the sensor is monitored and detected by microcontroller unit that further indicates an alarming buzzer after detecting the earthquake. The data is send to the laptop using infrared module which works on 2.1 Ghz and has a range of 30 to 50 meters. MATLAB software is used to record the graph of the data that is received.

II. LITERATURE SURVEY I. INTRODUCTION

In its most general sense, the word earthquake is used to describe any seismic event whether natural or caused by humans that generates seismic waves. Earthquakes are caused mostly by rupture of geological faults, but also by other events such as volcanic activity, landslides, mine blasts, and nuclear tests. The idea behind this project was to implement the design for that could be utilized by the society for safety and precautions in case of natural calamities like earthquakes. Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) uses existing seismic networks to detect moderate to large earthquakes very rapidly so that a warning can be sent before destructive seismic waves arrive to locations outside the area where the earthquake begins. These warnings allow people to take protective action and can also triggering automatic responses to safeguard critical infrastructure. Such actions might include Earthquakes can be recorded by seismometers up to great distances because seismic waves travel through the whole Earth's interior. The absolute magnitude of a quake is conventionally reported by numbers on the Moment magnitude scale (formerly Richter scale, magnitude 7 causing serious damage over large areas), whereas the felt magnitude is reported using the modified Mercalli intensity scale (intensity IIXII). Forecasting a probable timing, location, magnitude and other important features of a forthcoming seismic event is called earthquake prediction. Various attempts have been made by seismologists and others to create effective systems for precise earthquake predictions, including the VAN method. Most seismologists do not believe that a system to provide timely warnings for individual earthquakes has yet been developed, and many believe that such a system would be unlikely to give significant warning of impending

seismic events. However, more general forecasts routinely predict seismic hazard. Such forecasts estimate the probability of an earthquake of a particular size affecting a particular location within a particular time-span, and they are routinely used in earthquake engineering.

1. PIC Microcontroller

III. SOLUTION PROPOSED

As the earthquake cannot be predicted but the warning system can be implemented which can potentially save a lot of damage. We have developed a system which can be used in a building, it will not only sound the alarm for people to evacuate but it will also record the data that is generated by the accelerometer sensor which can be used by researchers for seismology studies.

IV. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE

A PIC microcontroller is a processor with built in memory and RAM and you can use it to control your projects. So it saves you building a circuit that has separate external RAM, ROM and peripheral chips. 2. RF Transmitter Receiver Radio frequency (RF) is a rate of oscillation in the range of about 3 kHz to 300 GHz, which corresponds to the frequency of radio waves, and the alternating currents which carry radio signals. 3. LCD Display Liquid crystal displays (LCD) are widely used in recent years as compares to LEDs. This is due to the declining prices of LCD, the ability to display numbers, characters and graphics, incorporation of a refreshing controller into the LCD, their by relieving the CPU of the task of refreshing the LCD and also the ease of programming for characters and graphics. We have used LMB162A LCD display. 4. Buzzer A buzzer or beeper is an audio signaling device, which may be mechanical, electromechanical, or piezoelectric. Typical uses of buzzers and beepers include alarm devices, timers and confirmation of user input such as a mouse click or keystroke. 5.Accelerometer Accelerometer sensor can measure static (earth gravity) or dynamic acceleration in all three axes. Application of the sensor is in various fields and many applications can be developed using this sensor. Accelerometer sensor measures level of acceleration where it is mounted this enable us to measure acceleration/deceleration of object like car or robot, or tilt of a platform with respected to earth axis, or vibration produced by machines.

BLOCK DIAGRAM OF EQD

The modules included in the system architecture are as follow1. 2. 3. 4. 5. PIC microcontroller RF Transmitter Receiver LCD Display Buzzer for beep source Accelerometer Sensor

Accelerometer

V.

HARDWARE DESIGN

VII.

REFERENCES

The PIC series provides a family of micro controllers which are cost effective, flexible and suitable for a wide variety of Applications. PICs are popular with both industrial developers and hobbyists alike due to their low cost, wide availability, large user base, extensive collection of application notes, availability of low cost or free development tools, and serial programming (and re-programming with flash memory) capability. Analog data is send from the accelerometer to the port A of the PIC microcontroller which is the analog digital port of the PIC. This data is converted to digital form by the PIC. This data is then transmitted through the RF transmitter receiver to the nearby laptop. Then MATLAB graphs the incoming data.

[1]Farley, John. Earthquake Fears, Predictions, and Preparations in Mid-America. Southern Illinois University. Carbondale, IL: 1998. [2]The USGS and Partners Work to Develop an Earthquake Early Warning System for California United States Geological Survey 17 April 2012 [3]Dewey, James. The Early History of Seismometry. January 7th, 2005.
[4]Allen, R. M., and H. Kanamori, The potential for earthquake early warning in southern California, Science 300, 786-789, 2003. [5]Wurman, G., R.M. Allen and P. Lombard, Toward Earthquake Early Warning in Northern California, J. Geophys. Res. 112, B08311, 2007

Final Prototype VI. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK In this paper we have presented the earthquake detection model by using an accelerometer and plotting the accelerometer values to give an account of nature of environment. We can expand this project further by using GSM modules or Ethernet modules instead of the RF module. Using a GSM module and Ethernet module will increase the data logging capability of the system. The Ethernet can also be connected to Internet so that users can login to the system and get real time water quality data faraway.