IoT Project Ideas
We live in an exciting age of technological and digital revolution. In just a decade, we’ve witnessed a radical change in the world around us. Thanks to the recent advancements in Data Science, today, we have at our disposal things like AI-powered smart assistants, autonomous cars, surgical bots, intelligent cancer detection systems, and of course, the Internet of Things (IoT). So, if you are a beginner, the best thing you can do is work on some real-time IoT project ideas.
We, here at upGrad, believe in a practical approach as theoretical knowledge alone won’t be of help in a real-time work environment. In this article, we will be exploring some interesting IoT project ideas which beginners can work on to put their knowledge to test. In this article, you will find top IoT project ideas for beginners to get hands-on experience.
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But first, let’s address the more pertinent question that must be lurking in your mind: why to build IoT projects?
When it comes to careers in software development, it is a must for aspiring developers to work on their own projects. Developing real-world projects is the best way to hone your skills and materialize your theoretical knowledge into practical experience. The more you experiment with different IoT projects, the more knowledge you gain.
The Internet of Things is a major sensation of the 21st century. After all, who would have thought that someday we’d have access to a technology that would allow us to connect everyday objects – like thermostats, kitchen appliances, door lock systems, baby monitors, and electrical appliances – over a centralized and integrated network and control them from anywhere in the world!
Essentially, IoT describes a connected network comprising of multiple physical objects that have sensors and smart software embedded in them to facilitate the exchange of data among them via the Internet. However, IoT isn’t just limited to everyday household objects – you can even connect sophisticated industrial objects and systems over an IoT network. As of now, there are over 7 billion IoT devices, and this number is expected to grow to 22 billion by 2025!
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An IoT network leverages a combination of mobile, cloud, and Big Data technologies along with data analytics and low-cost computing to enable the collection and exchange of data among physical objects connected within the network. And what’s impressive is that all of this is accomplished with minimal human intervention.
As you start working on IoT project ideas, you will not only be able to test your strengths and weaknesses, but you will also gain exposure that can be immensely helpful to boost your career. Working on IoT simulation projects and IoT projects for engineering students is a fantastic way to improve efficiency and productivity. In this tutorial, you will find interesting IoT project ideas for beginners to get hands-on experience.
As the IoT technology continues to gain momentum in the modern industry, researchers and tech enthusiasts are readily investing in the development of pioneering IoT projects. In this post, we’ll talk about some of the best IoT project ideas.
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So, here are a few IoT Project ideas which beginners can work on:
Top 13 Best IoT Projects Ideas
This list of IoT project ideas for students is suited for beginners and those just starting out with IoT in general. These IoT project ideas will get you going with all the practicalities you need to succeed in your career. With a goal to keep up with advancing technologies, IoT projects for engineering students serve to be the blueprint to explore technological possibilities, a chance to produce, improve, and recreate technology capable of working on minimal human intervention.
IoT research topics can help aspirants work on their practical skills and extend their subject knowledge further through consistent practice on IoT projects for engineering students. Further, this list should get you going if you’re looking for IoT project ideas for the final year. So, without further ado, let’s jump straight into some IoT project ideas that will strengthen your base and allow you to climb up the ladder.
One of the best ideas to start experimenting you hands-on IoT projects for students is working on smart agriculture system. As the name suggests, this IoT-based project focuses on developing a smart agricultural system that can perform and even monitor a host of farming tasks. For instance, you can schedule the system to irrigate a piece of land automatically, or you can spray fertilizers/pesticides on the crops wirelessly through your smartphone.
Not just that, this IoT-based project can also successfully monitor soil moisture through a moisture sensing system, which can work to detect dry soil. Such an advanced system can handle the routine agricultural tasks, thereby allowing farmers and cultivators to focus on more manual-intensive agricultural tasks. Learners can implement a similar IoT simulation project or IoT research topics to monitor house gardens or indoor plants that often go untended.
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This is one of the excellent IoT project ideas for beginners. This IoT-based weather reporting system is specifically designed to facilitate the reporting of weather parameters over the Internet. This is one of the best IoT projects where the system is embedded with temperature, humidity, and rain sensors that can monitor the weather conditions and provide live reports of weather statistics.
It is an always-on, automated system that sends data via a microcontroller to the webserver using a WIFI connection. This data is updated live on the online server system. So, you can directly check the weather stats online without having to rely on the reports of weather forecasting agencies. The system also allows you to set threshold values and alerts for specific instances and notifies users every time the weather parameters cross the threshold value.
A few IoT projects for final year are aiming to evolve efficient usage of devices to reduce carbon footprint, which is a need of the hour. From consistent monitoring of carbon emissions to enforcing standard equipment and energy usage to operate under restricted levels, IoT’s role is evolving. Developers are leveraging smart technologies to maintain a consistent balance between nature and technology.
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Home automation is perhaps the most talked of IoT projects. IoT-based home automation project aims to automate the functioning of household appliances and objects over the Internet. All the household objects that are connected over the IoT network can be controlled and operated through your smartphone.
This is not only convenient but also gives more power to the user to control and manage household appliances from any location in the world.
This IoT-based project uses a touch-based home automation system. The components of this project include a WiFi connection, an AVR family microcontroller, inbuilt touch sensing input pins. While the microcontroller is integrated with the WiFi modem to obtain commands from the user via the Internet, an LCD screen displays the system status. When the microcontroller receives a command, it processes the instructions to operate the load accordingly and show the system status on an LCD screen.
However, also Blockchain IoT allows homeowners to manage the home security system remotely from the smartphone. Mentioning IoT projects can help your resume look much more interesting than others.
This IoT project involves building a smart AI bot equipped with advanced facial recognition capabilities. This is one of the best IoT Projects where the intelligent AI bot is designed to recognize the faces of different people or a single person and also their unique voice.
The system includes facial recognition features like face detection (perceives faces and attribute the same in an image), person identification (matches an individual in your private repository containing hundreds and thousands of people), and also emotion recognition (detects a range of facial expressions including happiness, contempt, neutrality, and fear).
This combination of advanced recognition features makes for a robust security system. The system also includes a camera that lets users preview live streams through face recognition.
Yes, you can use IoT technology to control and operate your garage door! The IoT-based smart garage door eliminates the need for carrying bulky keychains. All you need is to configure and integrate your smartphone with the home IoT network, and you can effortlessly open or close your garage door with just a few clicks of a button.
This smart garage door system incorporates laser and voice commands and smart notifications for monitoring purposes, and also IFTT integration that allows you to create custom commands for Google Assistant. The smart notification option can trigger alerts in real-time to notify as and when the garage door opens or closes, which is a nifty addition. This is one of the most straightforward IoT project ideas for you to work on.
This is one of the interesting IoT project ideas. This IoT-based alarm clock functions not only as an alarm clock to wake you up every morning, but it can convert into a fully-functional device capable of performing other tasks as well. The features of this smart alarm clock include:
- Voice command option to execute standard commands and also to initiate a video chat.
- A text-to-speech synthesizer
- Automatic display brightness adjustment
- Audio amplifier volume control
- Alphanumeric screen for displaying text
Apart from these features, you can also add customizable features on the smart alarm clock. Interestingly enough, the alarm clock offers three ways of waking you up – by playing local mp3 files, by playing tunes from the radio station, and by playing the latest news updates as podcasts.
One of the best ideas to start experimenting you hands-on IoT projects for students is working on Air pollution monitoring system. Air pollution is a menace in all parts of the world, and monitoring air pollution levels is a challenge that we’re facing. While traditional air pollution monitoring systems fail to monitor air pollution levels successfully and the contaminants, IoT-based air pollution monitoring systems can both monitor the level of air pollution in cities and save the data on web servers for future use.
This smart air pollution monitoring system promotes a cost-efficient technique of determining air quality. The system is embedded with sensors that specially monitor five components of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Quality Index – ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxide, and particulate matter. Plus, the system also includes a gas sensor that can alert users in case of gas leaks or the presence of flammable gases. Apart from this, there’s also a temperature and humidity sensor.
With cities and urban areas getting crowded by the minute, finding a parking space is nothing short of a challenge. It is not only time-consuming but also quite frustrating. Thanks to IoT, there’s a solution for solving the parking problem crisis. This IoT-based smart parking system is designed to avoid unnecessary travelling and harassment in the search for an appropriate parking area. This is an excellent IoT projects for beginners.
So, if you are at a parking space, this system uses an IR sensor to monitor the entire area during the run time and provide you an image for the same. This allows you to see any free spaces in the parking lot and drive straight to it without wasting any time in looking for a parking space. Also, the system is tuned to open the car gate n only if there are empty slots available in a parking space.
As the population increases, the number of vehicles plying on the road also increases inevitably. Due to the ever-increasing number of both public and private cars in cities and metropolitan areas, traffic congestion has become an everyday problem. One of the needed and best IoT projects. To combat this problem, this IoT-based project creates a smart traffic management system that can effectively manage traffic on roads, and offer free pathways to emergency vehicles like ambulance and fire trucks.
Emergency vehicles can connect to this smart system and find signals and pathways where the traffic flow can be controlled dynamically. It flashes a green notification light for emergency vehicles. Also, this intelligent traffic management system can identify and monitor traffic violators even at night.
The whole concept behind creating the smart cradle is to enable parents to check up on their infants and monitor their activities from afar (remote locations).
This is one of the interesting IoT project ideas. The IoT-based smart cradle system includes a cry detecting mechanism and live-video surveillance along with a user interface (for mobile or web). The cradle is equipped with multiple sensors that can check and monitor the humidity and temperature of the bed. On the other hand, the surveillance camera attached to the cradle will continue to send footage of the infant to the parents.
The data generated by the sensors is stored in the cloud. Additionally, the system includes a health algorithm that feeds on the sensor data to continually check the health condition of the infant and alert the parents if it senses anything unusual in the baby’s health stats.
Gas pipes are an indispensable component of both homes and industrial companies. Any leakage in gas pipes can lead to fire accidents and also contaminate the air with pollutants, thereby causing a disastrous effect in the air and the soil. This IoT-based project is explicitly built to combat the issue of gas leakage.
And this is the perfect idea for your next IoT project!
This tiny bot includes a gas sensor that can detect any gas leaks in a building. All you have to do is insert the bot into a pipe, and it will monitor the condition of the pipe as it moves forward. This is one of the important and best IoT projects. In case the bot detects any gas leak in the pipeline, it will transmit the location of the leakage in the pipe via an interface GPS sensor over the IoT network. The bot uses IOTgecko to receive and display any gas leakage alert and its location over the IoT network.
12. Streetlight Monitoring System
Streetlights are a significant source of energy consumption. Often, streetlights continue to remain on even when there’s no one in the street. With the help of this IoT-based streetlight monitoring system, we can efficiently monitor and optimize the energy consumption of streetlights.
In this IoT-based project, street lights are fitted with LDR sensors that can monitor the movement of humans or vehicles in the street. If the sensor can catch any movement in the street, it signals the microcontroller, which then turns on the street light. Similarly, if there’s movement in the street, the microcontroller switches the lights off. This way, a substantial amount of energy can be saved. This is one of the best IoT projects for safety.
Not just that, the smart light system also allows users to monitor the estimated power consumption based on the current intensity of a streetlight. It is incorporated with a load sensing functionality that can detect any fault in the lights. If the system detects an error, it automatically flags a particular light as faulty and sends the data over to the IoT monitoring system so that it can be fixed promptly.
Security is one of the primary choices for homes, businesses, and corporations. Having a robust security system helps to keep unwanted intruders at bay. The IoT-based anti-theft system is the perfect solution for safeguarding homes as well as industrial enterprises.
This IoT-based security system is programmed to monitor the entire floor of the building for tracking any kind of unusual movement. When turned on, a single movement could trigger an alarm, thereby alerting the owners of the property about unwanted visitors. It works something like this – whenever you vacate a house or a building, the Piezo sensor is turned on for tracking any movement in and around the property. This is one of the best IoT projects to practice.
So if an intruder were to enter the property, the sensor would send the data to the microcontroller, which then converts it into a signal for the camera to snap a picture of the intruder. This picture is then automatically sent to the users on their smartphone. Mentioning IoT projects can help your resume look much more interesting than others.
14. Liquid Level Monitoring System
This IoT-based project involves building a liquid level monitoring system that can remotely monitor a particular liquid’s level and prevent it from overflowing. This project holds immense value for the industrial sector that uses large volumes of fluids in their day-to-day operations. Apart from detecting a liquid’s level, this monitoring system can also be used to track the usage of specific chemicals and to detect leaks in pipelines.
The system is fitted with ultrasonic, conductive, and float sensors. A WiFi module helps connect the system with the Internet and facilitates data transmission. Four ultrasonic sensors help transmit the data on the liquid level and alert the user on the same.
15. Night Patrol Robot
This is one of the best IoT project ideas. It is a well-established fact that a majority of crimes occur in the dark, at night. This IoT project aims to develop a patrolling robot that can guard your home and property at night to prevent and reduce the possibilities of crimes.
The patrol robot is equipped with a night vision camera with the help of which it can perform a 360-degree scan of a predefined path. It will scan a particular area, and if it detects human faces and movements, it will trigger an alarm to alert the user. The camera of the patrol robot can capture an intruder’s image and send the data to the user. The robot can function in a self-sufficient manner, without requiring you to hire security guards to protect your home.
16. Health Monitoring System
This is one of the interesting IoT project ideas to create. This IoT-powered health monitoring system is designed to allow patients to take charge of their own health actively. The system will enable users to monitor their body vitals and send the data to qualified doctors and healthcare professionals. The doctors can then provide patients with immediate solutions and guidance based on their health condition. The sensors in the application can monitor patient vitals like blood pressure, sugar level, and heartbeat. If the vital stats are higher/lower than usual, the system will immediately alert the doctor.
The idea behind creating this system is to allow patients and doctors to connect remotely for the exchange of medical data and expert supervision. You can use this application from any location in the world. It is an Arduino-based project – the communication occurs between the Arduino platform and an Android app via Bluetooth.
17. Smart Irrigation System
Often, farmers have to irrigate the land manually. Not only is this a time-intensive task, but it is also labor-intensive. After all, it is quite challenging for farmers to continuously monitor the moisture level of the whole field and sprinkle the pieces of land that require water. This IoT project is a smart irrigation system that can analyze the moisture level of the soil and the climatic conditions and automatically water the field as and when required.
You can use the smart irrigation system to check the moisture level, set a predefined threshold for an optimum moisture level of soil, on reaching which the power supply will get cut-off. An Arduino/328p microcontroller controls the motor that supplies water, and there’s an on/off switch with which you can start or stop the motor. The smart irrigation system will automatically stop if it starts raining.
18. Flood Detection System
Floods are a common natural disaster that occurs almost every year in our country. Floods not only destroy agricultural fields and produce, but they also cause significant damage to vast stretches of area and property. This is why early flood detection is extremely vital to prevent the loss of life and valuable assets.
This IoT-based flood detection system is built to monitor and track different natural factors (humidity, temperature, water level, etc.) to predict a flood, thereby allowing us to take the necessary measures to minimize the damage caused. This IoT project uses sensors to collect data for all the relevant natural factors. For instance, a digital temperature humidity sensor detects fluctuations in humidity and temperature. On the other hand, a float sensor continually monitors the water level.
Besides providing a system equipped with temperature sensors and float sensors to gauge the possible flood conditions, comprehending the geographical features of the space can help create shelters and collect required amenities beforehand. At the same time, flood detection systems are capable enough to gauge the time a fresh wave of the flood could take to reach a particular location. Systems like these are significant to maintaining the well-being of communities. Advanced detection systems created through IoT projects for final year can alert residents in time, allowing for early evacuation planning.
This is one of the interesting IoT project ideas. Mining workers work under extremely hazardous and dangerous conditions. Underground environments are full of risks, so there is always a fear of unpleasant accidents for miners. This mining worker safety helmet uses a microcontroller-based circuit to track the mining site’s environment and evaluate the safety of the workers.
The safety helmet is equipped with an RF-based tracking system that helps transmit the data over the IoT network. An atmega microcontroller-based RF tracker circuit receives the data that is sent by the helmet nodes. Based on this data, the system maps the current location of workers in real-time as they move through the mining site.
The helmet also includes a panic (emergency) button. If you press this button, an emergency sign will show up over the IoT web interface. This will alert the management to take the necessary steps for ensuring the workers’ safety.
20. Smart Energy Grid
At present, energy grids are not optimized. Often when the electricity grid of a given region fails, the entire area suffers a blackout. This usually hinders the daily activities of people. This is one of the best IoT project ideas which proposes a solution to rectify this issue by creating a smart electricity grid.
This IoT-based smart energy grid uses an ATmega family controller to monitor and control the system activities. It uses WiFi technology to communicate over the Internet via the IoTGecko webpage. This smart grid’s primary task is to facilitate the transmission line’s re-connection to an active grid in case a particular grid fails.
So, if an energy grid becomes faulty, the system will switch to the transmission lines of another energy grid, thus, maintaining an uninterrupted electricity supply to the specific region whose energy grid failed. The system uses two bulbs to indicate valid and invalid users. Registered personnel can log in to the IoTGecko webpage and view updates on which grid is active and faulty. This is one of the best IoT Projects to add to your resume.
The smart energy grid can also monitor energy consumption and detect incidents of electricity theft.
Future for IoT
With the ever-growing need for improvement and better accessibility, IoT estimates a dynamic future globally. Introduction to 5G and Metaverse are proof of the oncoming bright future for IoT’s flexible and improved variants. Assimilating the virtual world with reality through Metaverse is on its way, and IoT-based projects with source code are only a step away from joining hands to bring in digitally-driven physical devices. Cellular IoT’s growth is another aspect market expects to see in the coming years to adopt remote monitoring across diverse fields, including agriculture and smart cities.
Extended IoT simulation projects are gaining popularity as a way to prepare young minds for the upcoming IoT trends. But perks are not the only thing accompanying IoT in the near future.
Experts also predict heightened security threats for IoT-driven areas. A significant number of evolving IoT sectors are under the threat of botnets. In early 2021, sources reported a 35% to 51% spike in botnet attacks across individual devices and organizations through sophisticated instruments. As technological advancements improve, so do the intrusion methods. Fortunately, constant improvements in security intelligence through IoT-based projects with source code are keeping such intrusions in check and aim to strengthen network and application firewalls further.
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In this article, we have covered 20 IoT project ideas. These IoT-based projects are just a few examples of how IoT technology can be used and implemented to create innovative products. With further advancements in technology, it is highly likely that more such radical and groundbreaking IoT-based projects will enter the canvas of our everyday lives.
If you wish to improve your IoT skills, you need to get your hands on these IoT project ideas. Now go ahead and put to test all the knowledge that you’ve gathered through our IoT project ideas guide to build your very own IoT Projects!
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How easy it is to implement these projects?
These projects are very basic, someone with a good knowledge of IoT can easily manage to pick and finish any of these projects.
Can I do this projects on Internship?
Yes, as mentioned, these project ideas are basically for Students or Beginners. There is a high possibility that you get to work on any of these project ideas during your internship.
Why do we need to build IoT projects?
When it comes to careers in software development, it is a must for aspiring developers to work on their own projects. Developing real-world projects is the best way to hone your skills and materialize your theoretical knowledge into practical experience.
How is IoT useful in real life?
IoT is an integral part of our daily lives now; we all use IoT either knowingly or unknowingly. The best example of IoT in our day-to-day lives is home automation applications. Smart lights and smart blinds are becoming increasingly common today in modern smart homes. Then, our smartwatches that can track our heartbeat, count steps, etc., are also another brilliant application of IoT. Most of our smartphones come with biometric locks nowadays. These are again applications of IoT in real life. The barcode scanners we find in shopping malls are also IoT applications connected to computers and billing machines, which are all a part of the IoT network.
Do IoT engineers have to write code?
IoT devices or the hardware that we see are built up of several components, of which the IoT software needs to be programmed using computer languages. So IoT engineers have to write code using programming languages for IoT software to function. Several programming languages go into creating successful IoT applications, each with its own unique features and benefits. Some of the most commonly employed programming languages used are Python, Java, C++, MySQL, and C, among others. These programming languages are used to write the instructions contained in IoT software, which is embedded in the IoT hardware.
What skills and aptitude do you need to become an IoT developer?