A Mobile Platform for Measuring Air Pollution in Cities using Gas Sensors

Abstract: Although air pollution is one of the largest threats to human health, the data available to the public is often sparse and not very accurate nor updated. For example, there exists only about 5-10 air quality measuring points across the city of Stockholm. This means that the available data is good in close proximity of the sensing equipment but can differentiate much only a couple of blocks away. In order for individuals to receive up to date information around a larger city, stationary measurements are not sufficient enough to get a clear picture of how the current state of the air quality stands. Instead, other methods of collecting this data is needed, for instance by making the measurements mobile. GOEASY is a project financed by the European Commission where Galileo, Europe’s new navigational service, is used to enable more location-based service applications. As part of the GOEASY project is the evaluation of the potential of collaborative applications where users are engaged to help individuals affected by breathing-related diseases such as asthma. This thesis presents the choice of architecture and the implementation of a mobile platform serving this purpose. Using sensors mounted on a range of objects real time air quality data is collected and made available. The result is a mobile platform and connected Android application which by utilizing air quality sensors, reports pollution measurements together with positional coordinates to a central server. Thanks to the features of the underlying systems used, this provides a platform which is accurate and more resilient to exploits compared to traditional location-based services available today. The result allows individuals with respiratory conditions to receive much more accurate and up to date information in a larger resolution. It also serves the purpose of demonstrating the potential of the supporting technology as part of the GOEASY project.