Volume 10, Number 12, October 2020

SmartTank: An Internet-of-Things (IoT) Application to Automate the
Water Tank Refilling using Computer Vision and AI

  Authors

Henry Hamilton¹, Yu Sun², Fangyan Zhang³, ¹USA, ²California State Polytechnic University, USA, ³ASML, USA

  Abstract

This system provides a method of automatically keeping water bowls full and refilling every time it is detected that they are not. This is highly useful for anyone who owns a pet, as it decreases the amount of work the owner will need to do. The system uses an AI model, trained with over a thousand images of water bowls. This allows it to accurately determine when a bowl needs filling. When an empty bowl is spotted, a subsystem consisting of a valve and other electronic parts releases stored water into the bowl. Through experimentation it has been shown the accuracy of the system is about 97% under optimal lighting conditions. Without a light source, the system does not function. Currently, the components are not of the highest quality and the system only works with the bowl used in testing. There are future plans to train the model with new pictures featuring an assortment of bowls. Additionally, an LED could be added to the system to solve the issue of it not working without external light.

  Keywords

Artificial Intelligence, image detection, RPI system processor.