DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF A LOW-COST IOT-BASED SYSTEM FOR REMOTE VACCINE STORAGE MONITORING

Abstract

This paper addresses the design and development of a low-cost system empowered by the Internet of Things (IoT) and utilized for enabling remote monitoring of vaccine storage conditions. The main objectives of this research are to assess the accuracy and reliability of collected and transmitted environmental parameters by the developed IoT system and provide accessibility remotely. The system employs a low-cost microcontroller, environmental sensors, Wi-Fi modules, cloud storage systems and mobile/web applications for online observation. The NodeMCU ESP8266 microcontroller ensures wireless connectivity and DHT11 sensors consistently record the temperature and humidity inside and outside the vaccine container. A NEO-6M GPS module is also incorporated to enable reliable location tracking. The sensor readings are continuously sent at fixed intervals to the ThingSpeak cloud platform. Our final product is a personal mobile application called QuickVax, which allows user interaction and offers the functionality of uploading participant data and viewing real-time environmental readings. The experimental results showed that the system maintains optimal temperature conditions throughout the supply cold chain, minimizing vaccine spoilage risk and enabling location tracking in the remote environment.