Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
50 Crowdsurf: Realtime Crowd-Monitoring for indoor spaces
 Ananya Krishnan
John Abraham
Tanvika Boyineni
 Aniket Chatterjee design_document1.pdf
proposal1.pdf
Team Members:
Tanvika Boyineni (tanvika3)
Ananya Krishnan (ananya10)
John Abraham (jabra6)

Problem:
Indoor public spaces (libraries, study lounges, gyms, student centers) often become congested, but students and facility staff lack real time, localized information about crowd density and traffic flow. Existing approaches either rely on cameras, raising privacy concerns, require manual observation, or provide only building level estimates that are not actionable for choosing a specific room/entrance.

Solution:
This project proposes a privacy preserving, real time crowd monitoring system that estimates occupancy and directional flow using distributed, non-imaging sensor nodes with local processing. Each node is deployed at an entrance or transition point and performs local detection and direction inference. Processed data is transmitted wirelessly to a central gateway, which aggregates occupancy estimates, logs data, and presents live metrics through a user facing dashboard. The system emphasizes robustness to sensor noise and communication loss, and ease of deployment.

Solution Components:
1. Sensing Subsystem (Doorway Detection and Direction)

-Non-imaging sensors per entrance mounted with spatial separation.

-Direction inference using ordered sensor trigger

-Calibration procedures for mounting height, angle, and baseline noise conditions.

2. Embedded Processing Subsystem

-Microcontroller-based state machine for event detection, debouncing, and occupancy updates.

-Filtering and gating logic to handle common edge cases such as pausing in doorways, close following individuals, and short reversals.

-Node health monitoring, including sensor timeouts and heartbeat status.

3. Wireless Communication Subsystem

-Packet structure includes timestamp, IN/OUT counts, current occupancy estimate, and node status.

-Features such as retransmission, periodic heartbeats, and graceful degradation during packet loss.

4. Gateway and Data Logging Subsystem

-Gateway device (like Raspberry Pi) receives telemetry from sensor nodes.

-Maintains the system wide occupancy per entrance or room.

-Logs data to persistent storage (CSV) and manages node reconnection.

5. Dashboard and User Interface Subsystem

-Live dashboard displaying current occupancy, directional flow rate (people per minute), and recent trends.

-Visual indicators for “crowded” vs. “not crowded” states based on configurable thresholds.

6. Hardware and PCB Subsystem (Sensor Node)

-Custom PCB using a modular, low risk design approach

-Mechanical enclosure and mounting plan to ensure consistent and repeatable sensor placement.

Criterion for Success:
The project will be considered successful if the system can accurately demonstrate real time directional counting and occupancy estimation at one to two doorways using non imaging sensors. The system must correctly track entries and exits and maintain a live occupancy estimate that updates within one second of a doorway event. A functional dashboard should display current occupancy, flow rate, and node status in real time, while the gateway continuously logs data for at least one hour without interruption. Additionally, a custom designed PCB must be fabricated and used for at least one sensor node in the final demonstration. The system must remain stable and operational during temporary wireless packet loss events, demonstrating graceful degradation without crashes and automatic recovery once communication resumes. Node health and connectivity status should be clearly visible through the user interface to allow for basic monitoring and debugging. If time permits, additional success criteria include scaling the system to three or four sensor nodes covering multiple entrances or zones, improving robustness in challenging edge cases such as tailgating or closely spaced groups, and evaluating accuracy as a function of traffic rate. Further extensions may include implementing battery-powered sensor nodes with basic power optimization strategies or adding simple short term congestion prediction based on recent occupancy trends.

Modularized Electronic Locker

Jack Davis, Joshua Nolan, Jake Pu

Modularized Electronic Locker

Featured Project

Group Member: Jianhao (Jake) Pu [jpu3], Joshua Nolan [jtnolan2], John (Jack) Davis [johnhd4]

Problem:

Students living off campus without a packaging station are affected by stolen packages all the time. As a result of privacy concerns and inconsistent deployment, public cameras in Champaign and around the world cannot always be relied upon. Therefore, it can be very difficult for victims to gather evidence for a police report. Most of the time, the value of stolen items is small and they are usually compensated by the sellers (Amazon and Apple are very understanding). However, not all deliveries are insured and many people are suffering from stolen food deliveries during the COVID-19 crisis. We need a low-cost solution that can protect deliveries from all vendors.

Solution Overview:

Our solution is similar to Amazon Hub Apartment Locker and Luxer One. Like these services, our product will securely enclose the package until the owners claim the contents inside. The owner of the contents can claim it using a phone number or a unique user identification code generated and managed by a cloud service.

The first difference we want to make from these competitors is cost. According to an article, the cost of a single locker is from $6000 - $20000. We want to minimize such costs so that we can replace the traditional mailbox. We talked to a Chinese manufacturer and got a hardware quote of $3000. We can squeeze this cost if we just design our own control module on ESP32 microcontrollers.

The second difference we want to make is modularity. We will have a sensor module, a control module, a power module and any number of storage units for hardware. We want to make standardized storage units that can be stacked into any configuration, and these storage units can be connected to a control module through a communication bus. The control module houses the hardware to open or close all of the individual lockers. A household can purchase a single locker and a control module just for one family while apartment buildings can stack them into the lockers we see at Amazon Hub. I think the hardware connection will be a challenge but it will be very effective at lowering the cost once we can massively manufacture these unit lockers.

Solution Components:

Storage Unit

Basic units that provide a locker feature. Each storage unit will have a cheap microcontroller to work as a slave on the communication bus and control its electronic lock (12V 36W). It has four connectors on top, bottom, left, and right sides for stackable configuration.

Control Unit

Should have the same dimension as one of the storage units so that it could be stacked with them. Houses ESP32 microcontroller to run control logics on all storage units and uses the built-in WiFi to upload data to a cloud server. If sensor units are detected, it should activate more security features accordingly.

Power Unit

Power from the wall or from a backup battery power supply and the associated controls to deliver power to the system. Able to sustain high current in a short time (36W for each electronic lock). It should also have protection against overvoltage and overcurrent.

Sensor Modules

Sensors such as cameras, motion sensors, and gyroscopes will parlay any scandalous activities to the control unit and will be able to capture a photo to report to authorities. Sensors will also have modularity for increased security capabilities.

Cloud Support

Runs a database that keeps user identification information and the security images. Pushes notification to end-users.

Criterion for Success:

Deliverers (Fedex, Amazon, Uber Eats, etc.) are able to open the locker using a touchscreen and a use- provided code to place their package inside. Once the package is inside of the locker, a message will be sent to the locker owner that their delivery has arrived. Locker owners are able to open the locker using a touchscreen interface. Owners are also able to change the passcode at any time for security reasons. The locker must be difficult to break into and offer theft protection after multiple incorrect password attempts.

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