The tide height is calculated using an ultrasonic level sensor. This measurement is taken periodically and then sent to ThingSpeak, an IoT analytics cloud platform by MathWorks, using a cellular modem. The system can easily be adapted to collect data about any environmental system such as greenhouses or oyster farms.

Once you have the data in a ThingSpeak channel, you use MATLAB to preprocess and clean up the data. The raw data some times has extraneous values caused by environmental factors such as lighting, cabling, and electrical interference. Sometimes, you have missing data caused by connectivity issues. It is important to clean up the data before you use the data in your analysis.

To predict future tide levels and send alerts when the tide is rising or falling, we use the MATLAB Analysis app on ThingSpeak. With MATLAB, we can use historical data to make a prediction about the future tide levels. This predicted tide level can be used to help schedule a boating trip or plan for a water surge after a storm.

Tide Alerts

Remembering to check the tide level when fishing or lazing on the beach is not particularly convenient. A much more useful approach is to have the system send a message when the time has come to pack up and start heading back to the dock. The timing of the alert depends on how much water depth is needed by a particular boat. Larger boats need higher water levels in order to move without getting stuck in the mud. One way to send alerts is to use ThingSpeak and MATLAB to detect changes in tidal height and send alerts.

Conclusion

Developing a tide monitoring system provided accurate tide level measurement and tide level prediction, with the added ability to send alerts. Robert has been able to avoid being stuck in the bay by providing enough time to get back to his dock using this system. This project also serves as a useful approach to solving many data-driven puzzles by having a reliable way to collect, analyze, and act on data. Using MATLAB, the accuracy of the tide levels improved by understanding the proper tide levels at a specific location and when the tide levels will change. If you used the general tide forecast, you would have to account for several inches of tide height difference.

Resources

• Developing an IoT Analytics System with MATLAB, Machine Learning, and ThingSpeak – MathWorks Technical Article by Robert Mawrey
• Measure and Analyze Tide Levels with ThingSpeak and MATLAB – Hackster tutorial
• TideAlerts.com – Robert’s website dedicated to the exploration of tides

The project also shows you how to use MATLAB to get very detailed visualizations and data analysis of the data collected by the weather station. Some of the examples include histograms of temperature, humidity, and pressure, curve fitting, daily comparisons, and 3D plots of temperature.

Visit Hackster.io for the complete tutorial to build your own weather station, connect it to the internet with the Particle Photon, collect your data with ThingSpeak, and do data analysis with MATLAB.

[via Hackster.io]

The ThingSpeak platform joins the likes of Amazon Echo, ESP8266 Wi-Fi, and Particle.io platform. ThingSpeak users can easily document, share, and reproduce hardware and Internet of Things projects using Hackster.io. We are already off to a great start with 13 documented projects and tutorials and 31 community members. Check out our platform on Hackster.io to discover great projects and build your own IoT projects.

The Electron is a new 3G connected IoT device using cellular data and works anywhere you can get 3G in the United States. It is really awesome to plug-in a device and get it connected without the issues of Wi-Fi. This development kit also makes it possible to build battery-powered, mobile sensors. Good thing that ThingSpeak supports GPS data and offers sensor data analytics.

Check out Julien’s tutorial to go “From 0 to IoT in 15 Minutes” and other ThingSpeak projects on Hackster.io.

The Uber API allows you to pass a latitude and longitude to determine the estimated time of arrival for an Uber car. The API also allows you to schedule a car. I have made a button that requests an Uber car and also schedules an Uber at the right time.

MATLAB Analysis Code

% Read the ThingHTTP for 'Uber Ride Estimate'
data = webread('https://api.thingspeak.com/apps/thinghttp/send_request?api_key=XXX')

% Convert the response to a number
eta = str2num(data);

% Write the data to the 'Uber Ride Estimate Data' ThingSpeak Channel
thingSpeakWrite(Channel_ID,eta,'WriteKey','XXX');

Each time the MATLAB Analysis code is executed, it will write the estimated time of arrival (ETA) for Uber to your ThingSpeak channel. To track the ETA over time, schedule the MATLAB code with TimeControl. I am running the code every 5 minutes to get an idea of when the peak times are for Uber to pick me up at my office in Natick, MA. Check out the ThingSpeak channel number 840700 to see the estimated times.

Step-by-step project details are available at Hackster.io.