Automatic Detection and Cleaning of Manhole Blockages Using IoT

Manhole and sewage system is most common in rural and urban areas. If the system is left undetected which causes blockages, overflow of drainage water, bad odour, and suffocation leads to several diseases. Monitoring and cleaning of sewage system are very essential to maintain cleanliness in both urban and rural areas. Even the workers who are involved in the process of cleaning are prone to accidents by getting inside the manhole due to inhaling of poisonous gases. Cleaning of manholes manually leads to disasters due to ignorance. The proposed system developed is an automatic cleaning process avoiding human intervention. This saves time, cost, and manual labour for immediate attention. The developed system makes use of ESP32 WROOM, gas sensor, ultrasonic sensor for blockage detection, while communication circuit along with IoT module is used for information system. A servo robotic arm is employed to remove the blockages, and exhaust fan with associated circuit is used to suck out the poisonous gases. Upon detection of any blockages, the communication system gives information to the municipal corporation authorities about the location where the blockage is, so that the module developed can be deployed to the place of blockage for cleaning purpose.