Calibration and Assessment of Low-Cost Dust Sensors

Abstract

Air pollution with particulate matter (PM) represents major risk for humans' health. Important step towards the solution of the aforementioned problem is the correct measurement of PM concentrations in the air. Commodity (low-cost) sensors are very popular nowadays, since they are affordable and they fit well in the trend called Internet of Things (IoT). However, measurement of PM concentrations in the air is difficult task and low-cost sensors are unable to provide accurate readings out of the box. Thus, advanced calibration is necessary for any application of low-cost dust sensors. In this paper we propose calibration technique and discuss initial results.

A novel IoT architecture for measuring and visualizing influence of common factors on house dust concentration

“…Microcontroller board is connected to a temperature and humidity sensor and also to a Honeywell HPM series particulate matter sensor. This dust sensor uses laser scattering on the particles where laser light is scattered on the particulate matter in the air, producing certain effect on the photo-detector in the sensor [22]. Electric signal from the photo-detector is amplified and processed internally using the Mie theory for scattering of an electromagnetic plane ( [21] and [22]).…”

“…This dust sensor uses laser scattering on the particles where laser light is scattered on the particulate matter in the air, producing certain effect on the photo-detector in the sensor [22]. Electric signal from the photo-detector is amplified and processed internally using the Mie theory for scattering of an electromagnetic plane ( [21] and [22]). As shown in [22], it is required to humidity correct readings of such a lowend dust sensor.…”

“…Electric signal from the photo-detector is amplified and processed internally using the Mie theory for scattering of an electromagnetic plane ( [21] and [22]). As shown in [22], it is required to humidity correct readings of such a lowend dust sensor. However, since this is an indoor system and relative humidity never goes above 80%, the correction factor is 1.0 so measured value and corrected value are the same.…”

On the Applicability of Low-cost Sensors for Measurements of Aerosol Concentrations

“…Taking into account conclusions from our previous studies [5], [6] among all commercially available low-cost sensors, we have selected Plantower PMS5003 sensor. Main reasons for such choice are reliability of the sensors, consistence between units from different batches of sensors, well implemented digital interface and good mean time before failure (MTBF).…”

Visualization of Data from Network of Sensors: Appropriate Spatial Interpolation Method

“…Figure 1 illustrates the location of sensors, while table 1 shows calculated average values of PM10 for each sensor. The method for data acquisition is explained in [6] and [7], while the calibration of PM10 sensor was described in [8].…”