Masters Theses and Dissertations

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Browsing Masters Theses and Dissertations by Subject "Mobile Application"

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    IoT-based control and monitoring system of a solar-powered brushless dc motor for agro-machines – the case of a Tanzanian-made oil press machine
    (NM-AIST, 2022-07) Minja, Gilbert
    The impulse in designing local agricultural machinery for curbing post-harvest losses in most African countries particularly Tanzania is unmatched. Locally made agricultural machines have proven to elevate the life of many small-scale farmers, which has increased the need to incorporate machine drives and controls to ease the process and operations. With potentials in Solar Energy, powering machine drive systems that operate in off-grid areas has been the best solution. Using the principles of Internet of Things (IoT) together with advancement in motor designs and readily available off the shelf microcontrollers such as the Raspberry Pi and Arduino UNO in the market, we achieve machinery that caters for our needs and the local content. Mobile apps play a huge role in industrialization where monitoring and even controls of machines can be performed by the mobile phones. This project incorporated Agile-Scrum methods to develop a control and monitoring system for a locally made avocado oil extraction machine that is powered by a solar system with 1600W panel arrays and 800Ah battery pack, and uses a Brushless Direct Current Motor coupled with electric solenoid valve, relay modules and a controller unit assisting on the control process and collecting crucial motor operation data such as voltage and current. The designed Mobile app ‘Blue’ acquire motor operation data from the Raspberry Pi via Bluetooth technology, delivering data to cloud server for later analysis. Easing data acquisition in off grid areas when engineers, technicians or operators have a physical access to the stations. It was concluded that this novel design would provide an effective control and monitoring mechanism with an acceptance on reliability, usability and effectiveness of up to 85.65% for a plethora of locally-made machinery that available in the market which still uses the manual means of operation emphasizing ease of use and productivity, thence joining hands with the global world on attaining some of the Sustainable Development Goals.
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    A mobile-based system for enhancing interactive communication among people in the protected area: a case study on human-wildlife conflicts management in Ngorongoro conservation area and Serengeti national park in Tanzania
    (NM-AIST, 2021-07) Nyange, Frank
    One of the core human rights is the right to the best possible health for humans and a balanced ecology for wildlife. Electric fences are the only way to prevent human-wildlife conflict, but they are ineffective in many countries due to the high cost of power management required to operate them. Camera trap management can help this problem, however, in underdeveloped nations like Tanzania, it fails to owe to poor GPS usage, which prevents the information from being reported to the protected area authority. The goal of this study is to create a mobile application A mobile-based human-wildlife conflict Management App) that would help to solve the human and wildlife conflicts within Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Serengeti National Park. Mobile application captures video from camera trap and allows to report the information to the park rangers through live chatting. Interviews, observations, and questionnaires were used to gather information. The findings suggest that 93% from interviews and observation of people thought it to be really useful for receiving video from camera trap to the mobile app and able to report information to the protected area authority. The remaining 7% were unable to fix the problem due to a lack of smartphones and poor internet access within the protected area. Within the villages, the application may be used with a smartphone and a decent internet connection. People in the protected area gave the designed system positive feedback, with 95.2% of those who completed the system evaluation agreeing that the App should be used. Further development of the application would necessitate more functionality and improved internet accessibility.