LoRa Based Envi-Rover

Authors: Narendra R Giriyappanavar, Kiran Nandi, Harish B Patil, Murali Vijay Vhanmani, Netravati M Murari

Abstract: This paper describes the design and implementation of Envi-Rover, a LoRa-based IoT rover designed to perform Realtime environmental monitoring over remote areas. The system utilizes the ESP32 microcontroller as its main processing unit. It works with a Cytron MDD10A motor driver to perform dual-channel motor control and an RYLR890 LoRa transceiver operating at 868 MHz for long-range, low-power wireless communication. Equipped with many sensors, such as a DHT11 for temperature and humidity measurement, an ultrasonic module on a servo motor for obstacle detection, an LDR to detect ambient light, and MQ-series sensors to monitor gas concentrations, the data acquired from these sensors are transmitted through LoRa to a base station and displayed on the Blynk IoT platform for real-time analysis. The rover can be driven in both manual and semi-autonomous modes by using a joystick controller for effective navigation in the field and continuous data gathering. Stable LoRa communications beyond one kilometer were observed in test results, along with accurate performance of all sensors. This proves that the system can be very helpful in environmental assessment, agricultural monitoring, and disaster management. The Envi-Rover merges IoT and robotics to form a low-cost, energy-efficient, and scalable solution toward environmental data collection at remote locations.