DEVELOPMENT OF A LOW- COST EARTHQUAKE EARLY WARNING AND POWER CUT-OFF SYSTEM USING AN EMBEDDED MICROCONTROLLER
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35631/IJIREV.826005Keywords:
Low-Cost Seismic Detection, Automatic Power Cut-Off, Earthquake Early Warning System, Electrical Safety, Embedded MicrocontrollerAbstract
Earthquakes pose significant threats to human safety and electrical systems, especially in small-scale buildings where conventional seismic monitoring systems are often economically impractical. Most current earthquake early warning systems only send out a few alerts and don't usually have built-in electrical power control. This raises the risk of secondary hazards like electrical fires, damage to equipment, and electric shock during seismic events. These gaps underscore the importance of an affordable, integrated solution that addresses both seismic detection and electrical safety simultaneously. In this research, an embedded microcontroller is used to construct a low-cost earthquake early warning and power cut-off system. The proposed system is designed to offer a single, compact, and cost-effective platform that can be used to provide real-time seismic detection, automatic electrical isolation, and occupant evacuation signals. The innovation of this work is the integration of multi-sensor seismic detection with embedded power management and human-presence-based alerting, which enables both immediate electrical protection and proactive warning at the device level. The system utilises an ESP32 microcontroller and incorporates a SW-420 vibration sensor for initial tremor detection, alongside an ADXL335 accelerometer to assess three-axis acceleration and determine total ground motion. A logic algorithm categorises occurrences into safe and hazardous conditions according to established thresholds. Overcurrent protection is executed by a relay-controlled power interruption system, confirmed through simulated current fluctuations. The presence of individuals is identified by an infrared sensor, which activates evacuation alarms through an Internet of Things (IoT) platform, supplemented by visual and auditory local notifications and a real-time status display. The findings showed that the proposed system achieved detection accuracy of 98.2 % and average relay activation time of 68 ms. The system provides a cost-effective solution for enhancing electrical safety and earthquake preparedness in seismic-prone and resource-constrained environments.
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