BY Michelle Howie 15 July 2021
Learn how Arduino can be used to trigger an SMS alert when a device has been dropped.
Automate alerts using environmental triggers
In part 1 and part 2 of this workshop series, we demonstrated how to poll for input from our remote IoT sensors and get data on demand, as well as how to push commands to remote devices via SMS. Now it's time for the fun part: automating alerts based on environmental triggers.
We connected an Arduino IMU sensor to the IoT board that outputs things like acceleration of the device. To infer if the device has fallen or been dropped, we set a threshold for maximum acceleration (on the x, y and z axes). When that level is exceeded, the Arduino device triggers a message to the IoT broker, which in turn puts together an SMS to a pre-defined emergency contact to let them know that the device has fallen.
Potential use cases
Imagine if the device was attached to a high value asset, or a patient with mobility issues – with real-time alerts, you could be notified immediately if there is a sudden change in their orientation (i.e we can infer that they've fallen).
The cool thing about defining all of this in a system like Node-Red is that you can bring in various inputs and outputs, plug in other APIs, and it's all done with drag and drop connectors using low-code (or even no-code if you find what you need open source).
For some use cases, it may be simpler to send an SMS alert directly from your Arduino device. This depends on how complex the process is, and if you need to input any other external data sources. For those who have purchased the Arduino MKR NB 1500 Dev Kit from TelstraDev with a Cat-M1/LTE-M SIM, I’ve outlined your options for sending SMS direct from the Arduino board in this forum.
See it in action
If you enjoyed this tutorial series, and want to take the next step in your API journey, let us know in our community forum. What should we cover next?
Have you tried these out and taken it to the next level already? Share it with us.
Find out more
GitHub Repo + ReadMe: https://github.com/MichelleHowie/Arduino-MKR-IMU-Fall-Detect
Watch the workshop in action at Telstra Health Hack for Digital Healthcare with me and DeveloperSteve Coochin, November 2020:
