5G AI Water Filter System

Clean water, sanitation, and hygiene education are necessities for a healthy environment and a productive life.

 Slogan from https://www.rotary.org/en/our-causes/providing-clean-water

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report has alerted that the effects of climate change will affect nearly 600 million children living in areas with scarce water resources by 2040. The countries that will be hardest hit are those that are already the most marginalized and lack access to clean water. The Rotary Club in HK offered the STEM competition of improving the quality of the drinking water from the river in these areas with scarce water resources. We were inspired to apply the design thinking process to contribute to helping them find solutions for water quality issues. So, we applied our creativity, STEM knowledge, and technology to develop an innovative 5G AI water filter system.

Apparatus & Materials

Filter Bed (Purchase from local aquarium supplies shop)

1.     Customize filter and Sedimentation tank

2.     Activated Carbon

3.     Fine Sand

4.     Coarse Gravel

5.     Large Gravel

Sedimentation Tank (Purchase from IT related company or Amazon online shop)

1.     pH sensor

2.     ORP sensor (Oxidation Reduction Potential Sensor)

3.     Turbidity sensor

4.     TDS sensor (Total Dissolved Solids Sensor)

5.     Solenoid Valve-DN15

6.     Relay

7.     Rubber tubing

Monitoring System (Purchase from IT related company or Amazon online shop)

1.     UNO w. I/O Shield

2.     UART OBLOQ – IoT Module

3.     All the sensors in the sedimentation tank

Replacing the Water Filter System (Purchase from IT related company or Amazon online shop)

1.     Rotating table (5kg Servo motor)

2.     UNO w. I/O Shield

3.     UART OBLOQ – IoT Module

4.     Acrylic plastic plate with wooden plate

Transportation System (Purchase from IT related company or Amazon online shop)

1.     Mini Linear Stage Small Slide Guide CNC Screw Lead Motion Table [200mm Stroke]

2.     STEPPERONLINE Digital Stepper Driver 0.3-2.2A 10-30VDC

3.     UNO with IO shield

4.     UART OBLOQ – IoT Module

5.     Acrylic plastic plate (laser cutting)

6.     Drone (programmable drone)

7.     3D printed cross connector (for supporting bonds)

Miscellaneous (Purchase from local electronic equipment supplies shop)

1.     Connecting wire

2.     Power supply (12V transformer, battery pack)

3.     Mobile phone (iPhone/ Android)

4.     Computer (coding and cotrolling)

Precautions

1.     Wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) during drilling and heavy duty work.

2.     Good ventilation system for laser cutting process and 3D printing.

It is a water filtering system for a rural area. The monitoring center will supervise the water quality parameters.

There are two main filtration approaches in the water filter.

Gravity filtration: The liquid that needs to be filtered flows through different coarse sand, gravel or porous media to separate solid impurities in the liquid. During the whole process, only general gravity (gravity) is used to allow the filtered liquid to flow from top to bottom to the filter element so that the solid precipitate in the liquid is blocked in the filter element. This method has a higher filtration efficiency and can filter some finer sediment.

Vacuum filtration: Similar to gravity filtration, except that the air behind the filter element is extracted by the extraction pressure-reducing device, resulting in a pressure difference and accelerating the filtration of the liquid to be filtered under the pressure difference. Although this method can speed up filtration, some of the finer sediments will be transferred to the filter layer due to the reduction of retention time

Activated carbon - 3 cm height:

Removes natural organic compounds, taste, and odor compounds. It is an effective adsorbent. Because it is a highly porous material and offers a large surface area.

Fine sand (0.65mm) - 3 cm height:

Removal of suspended solids, including floating and sinkable particles. The raw water to be purified slowly sinks through the sand of the filter, leaving dirt particles in the water in the fine pores of the sand. The fine sand layer is a salt that cannot be filtered. Another function is to slow down the flow of water and increase the retention time between water and sand.

Coarse gravel (1.2mm) - 3 cm height:

Coarse gravel is the supporting medium. The angularity and hardness of gravel resist erosion and loss of sand.

Large gravel (6-7mm) - 3 cm height:

Large gravel is also a supporting medium. It helps to prevent sand from clogging the outlet of the filter.

General drinking water treatment process

Raw Water - Preliminary treatment - Sedimentation - Filtration - Disinfection - Distribution Reservoir - Users

 1. Raw water from reservoirs, a variety of chemical agents were added to the raw water for pretreatment;

 # Alum -- condensed impurities

 # Hydrated lime -- control pH

2. In the clarification stage, the condensed particles form large flocculent and are removed by the precipitation method;

3. After the flocculent is removed, the water passes through the filter to remove the finer suspended solid;

4. The filtered water is disinfected by adding chlorine or ozone to the contact tank. Disinfection Chemicals:

# Chlorine -- disinfectant for water distribution systems

# Ozone -- oxidant, deodorization and deodorization

# Fluoride -- prevents tooth decay and strengthens developing permanent teeth (enamel) under the gums

5. After disinfection, the filtered water is stored in the distribution reservoir for later use.

The water filter consists of four different layers. It included activated carbon, fine sand, coarse gravel, and large gravel.

UNO reads the Turbidity, TDS, ORP, and pH values, and OBLOQ sends the Turbidity, TDS, ORP, and pH data to the cloud database which is the Control Center (EASY IOT), stored in the cloud website. For example, if Turbidity does not meet the standard, the control center opens the solenoid valve and the sewage flows into the water filter for filtration.

If the water does not meet the standard, the solenoid valve will open. We discovered that the filtered water was better than the sand and gravel water.

The IOT system can control the solenoid valve wirelessly according to the parameter of the water quality.

If the water from the river does not meet the standard of the drinking water, the AI filter system will turn on by sending the char “0”. It means that the system will open the valve”. Otherwise, the system will turn off. If the filtration of the water from the river is needed to stop, the AI filter system will turn off by sending the char “C”, “Close the valve”.

If the water from the water filter does not meet the standard of the drinking water, the AI filter system will replace the new water filter by sending the char “r”, rotating table, which will be shown in the step later.

If water quality does not meet the standard of the drinking water, the AI IOT system will switch on the drainage valve directing the river water flow to the sedimentation tank.

Turbidity, TDS, ORP, and pH values are monitored and displayed. The diagram shows the Turbidity, TDS, ORP, and pH values in the IOT system in the control center. The IOT System stores The Parameters Of the Quality Of Water in real time.

The control center, the IOT system, collects the data from the turbidity sensor.

The control center, the IOT system, collects the data from the TDS sensor.

The control center, the IOT system, collects the data from the ORP sensor.

The control center, the IOT system, collects the data from the pH sensor.

AI IOT control center reads the turbidity, TDS, ORP, and pH value of the water from the river by writing the block code. MQTT function wirelessly connects to the IOT system and sends all these data to the cloud database.

The control center will collect the data from the turbidity sensor, TDS sensor, ORP sensor, and pH sensor.

Sand and gravel water will be filtered by the water filter.

The water filter is created and tested by the sand and gravel water. The filtered water is drinkable since it meets the parameters of the standard of drinking water.

If the filtered water does not meet the standard of the drinking water, the QBLOQ receives the IOT signal (replace the water filter) from the control center and UNO controls the rotation table/platform for replacing the old water filter.

This rotation table/ platform is made of an acrylic plastic board and hard cardboard. In addition, the servo is controlled by UNO. Two UNOs are used because of load sharing.

If the water from the water filter does not meet the standard of the drinking water, the AI IOT filter system monitors the parameter of the water quality, the operator can decide to replace the new water filter by sending the char “r”, “rotating table”. The UNO receives the signal from the AI IOT filter system by using Obloq and controls the servo to rotate the table/platform which can replace the new water filter.

If the filtered water does not meet the standard of drinking water, the AI IOT system can exchange the water filter by using a mobile phone.

Sustainability: Mobile 5G AI water filter system

How is a 5G AI water filter system set up in mountainous and river areas? How can the engineer repair the 5G AI water filter system in mountainous and river areas?

Proposed solution: The enhancement of the GPS positioning system to the 5G AI water filter system is precisely to assist in setting up the water filter systems or replacing parts in mountainous and river areas. When the central monitoring center receives information that the water filter has reached saturation or parts need to be repaired, it will send instructions to the drone through the IOT system to send new water filters or parts that need to be repaired across mountains and rivers for the replacement or the repair by the local personnel.

The 3D Printed Advanced Transport System Of The Water Filter and spare parts are made of acrylic plastic board, 3D printed parts, the linear motion table, the stepper motor driver, and the UNO. The linear guide rail slide screw motion table is applied to transport the water filter or the spare parts.

The Linear Guide Rail Slide Ball Screw Motion Table System will transport the new water filter or the spare parts of the water filtering system to the parking apron by sending “f” forward or “b” backward. If the new water filter or the spare parts of the water filtering system need to be sent to the control center in the village, the drone can carry the new water filter or the spare parts of the water filtering system. 

If the water filter has reached saturation or parts need to be repaired, the drone will carry the new filter or the spare parts through the mountains and rivers.

• The control center
• The River
• The Various sensors
• The sedimentation tank
• The water filter
• The rotating table
• The IOT shield
• The motion table
• The drone carries the water filter and spare parts

I would like to give the overall introduction in my comments (Billy Cheng).

Nowadays, people living in developed countries might think that having drinkable water is a common situation. Indeed, we don’t need to worry about how to get a few ounces of clean, drinkable water every single day. Who needs to?

The answer is that most third-world countries.

Some countries in Africa and Southeast Asia might not have an available, stable way to obtain usable water.

In this case, we decided to create a useful tool, to help these people in need, emergency needs.

 And now, me and my teammates explain the 5G AI water filter system.

 As mentioned before, there is a river model, in the middle of the river, there is a drainage valve and various sensors. If the water quality does not meet the standard of the drinking water after the sensor’s analysis, the AI IOT system will switch on the drainage valve to lead the nondrinkable water into our water filtering system.

There are two parts to our water filtering system: The filter and the sedimentation tank.

Inside the filter, different materials are used: Activated carbon, fine sand, coarse gravel, and large gravel. Since the density of these materials is not the same. So we separate them into different layers.

The filtered water would be stored in the sedimentation tank, when the water has reached the limited storage of the tank, the water would flow through the holes in the tank.

After this process, the filtered and sedimentary water would be provided to the users.

Since I am in charge of making the water filter, I would like to give a brief explanation of the composition of the water filter in my comment section.

Here's the main structure of our filter. There are five parts of it. The first part is activated carbon, it will remove natural organic compounds, odor compounds, and the taste. Because of its highly porous material and large surface area. The second part is fine sand, suspended solids like floating and sinkable particles will be removed. The fine sand has a high destiny that can slow down the water flow and ensure the suspended solids are removed. The third and fourth parts are coarse gravel and large gravel, they are all supporting medium which prevents sand upside dropping downwards and stuck to the outlet. The last part of the filter is the sedimentation tank, it is used to sink away the remaining impurities. After the filtering steps, the raw water also needs to be disinfected and then sent to a water storage reservoir and given to people to drink.

Because of the importance of standard of the drinking water, I would like to give a general idea of our produced drinking water. This is our 5G AI Water Quality Tester Circuit Diagram. As you can see, there are four sensors shown in this diagram. They are the TDS sensor, ORP sensor, pH sensor, and turbidity sensor. The data of the sensors will be transferred by the IOT transmitter and receiver to the cloud database, which is the Control Center (Easy IOT). And we have a solenoid valve to control the water or sewage flow into the filter for filtration. The parameters of standard drinking water are: turbidity is smaller than 1.5 NTU, or 4 volts plus or minus 0.3 V. TDS 50 to 150 ppm ORP greater than 380 millivolts. The pH value is 6.5 to 8.5. The effluent before filtration is not drinkable; for example, turbidity is 3.45 volts. After filtration, we collect the data and compare the water parameters and experimental data. You can see the data on this slide. The data meets drinking water standards. It proves that the filtered effluent is drinkable.

Since I am a laboratory technician, I would like to give some comments from my point of view.

It is an incredible experience. “I am a participant again.” 

This time the role is to instruct my students to finish this huge project.

Our project is about water resource management. 

Due to the uneven distribution of fresh water in the world and the global climate change in recent years, a stable supply of clean and safe drinking water is a main problem in many parts of the world in the visible future. 

To solve this problem, we should search for new sources and protect the existing sources by saving and filtering the water source. Based on this mindset, we mainly focus on designing a filtering and monitoring system for rural areas. This system also provided real-time monitoring of the quality of water. It ensures the end-user will have clean and safe fresh drinking water.

It is not an ideal solution. But in this stage, it is a way to extend the existing water source and find other solutions.

Since I am an ICT teacher, I would like to share our learning process in this project.

We are glad that we have the chance to be the first-time authors on instructables.com. We worked together and solved the real-life problem. We have already presented this idea of how to produce the drinkable water from the sand and gravel water. In our learning process, we consulted the specialists from the water supply department and the engineers from STEM education. In addition, we did some research on the Internet about the standard of drinking water, the composition of the water filter, and the electronic device for testing the standard of drinking water, collecting data, and controlling the water filter system through the 5G AI IOT system. Finally, I appreciate all the authors from instructables.com since I learned a lot of interesting things and innovative ideas from the authors of instructables.com since 2015.