A Project Report Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Embedded and Mobile System of the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology
Voltage fluctuations in batteries during consumption are amongst the challenges facing
telecommunication towers. Due to these fluctuations, many injuries that cause deaths and
environmental poisoning have been reported. These fluctuations and injuries mainly occur due to
poor management and lack of battery voltage-level monitoring systems after installation. This
paper proposes a battery voltage-level monitoring system to be used in telecommunication towers.
The proposed solution is incorporated with a centralized mobile application dashboard that allows
access to the live data of the installed battery due to integration with components for sensing the
battery’s voltage, current, and temperature levels, as well as fire, and gas contents. An Arduino
Uno microcontroller board was used in the processing and analysis of the data collected from the
sensors. The global service message module (GSM) internet connectivity was used to store and
monitor data in the cloud. The user was then alerted about low voltage, detected fire, and increased
levels of harmful gases in the tower through a short message service (SMS). The experiment was
conducted at Ngorongoro and Manyara telecommunication towers and it revealed that the
developed battery voltage-level monitoring system could access battery information remotely
while allowing users to continually monitor the battery usage in telecommunication towers in real time. The unique value of this study is the proposed battery voltage-level monitoring system that
contributes to the elimination of battery hazards in telecommunication towers. The proposed
battery voltage-level monitoring system can be adopted by telecommunication towers engineers
to reduce voltage fluctuation risks like injuries, environmental degradation, and deaths.