IoT Enabled Cold Supply Chain Monitoring System

Efficient management of cold supply chain can provide a substantial support in delivery of perishable food items as well as various pharmaceutical products and vaccines across the distances. With the advent of wireless communication technology, Information of Things (IoT) is implemented in various disciplines and applications. Devices enabled with IoT are capable of remote monitoring and data logging in cloud. The cloud connectivity in IoT devices provides the end user the opportunity to inspect the real-time data from any remote location via internet across the world. In the current work, a low-cost cold supply chain and cold storage environment monitoring device is proposed. The proposed device can be deployed at the cold storage containers during transport or in the warehouse. For perishable food items and medicines, conservation of temperature and humidity of the storage container to a pre-determined value is a mandate. The proposed device is capable of sensing the temperature and humidity automatically and can log the sensed data in cloud. Thereby, the proposed device can provide an opportunity of real-time continuous monitoring of the environmental conditions inside cold storage. Additionally, high intensity light can increase the temperature of an enclosure. Hence, the proposed device is equipped with a light intensity sensor. Further, the proposed system consists of a gas level sensor that is capable of detecting methane, which is produced by perished food items. Additionally, the gas level sensor can detect smoke providing a possible fire alarm. The data from the above-mentioned sensors is logged in cloud through ThingSpeak. Additionally, an alarm is sounded and an e-mail is sent out if any of the above-mentioned parameters crosses a pre-set threshold to alert the end-user.