Free-Drifting System for Lake Water Quality Monitoring

Ng, Zi Bin (2026) Free-Drifting System for Lake Water Quality Monitoring. Final Year Project (Diploma), Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology.

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Abstract

Nowadays, pollution of water is one of the main threats. Water pollution in lakes poses significant threats to aquatic ecosystems and public health. If water pollution can be detected in an early stage, some action can be taken to solve the water pollution. To reduces the effect of the water pollution, the quality of the water should be examined in real-time. Traditional fixed-point monitoring systems are limited to single locations, failing to capture spatial variations in water quality across a water body. This project presents the design, development, and testing of a Free-Drifting System for Lake Water Quality Monitoring —a floating platform equipped with pH, Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), and temperature sensors, integrated with a Neo-6M GPS module for location tracking. The system is powered by a portable power bank with an LM2596 step-down converter and controlled by an ESP32 microcontroller, which transmits real-time sensor data to user devices via the Blynk IoT platform. The platform drifts with natural water currents, enabling spatially distributed water quality data collection without human intervention. Calibration and testing results show that the temperature sensor has a standard deviation of ±0.10°C in cold condition and ±0.05°C in hot condition, the pH sensor has a standard deviation of ±0.14 and the TDS sensor has a standard deviation of ±4.06 ppm, indicating stable and consistent sensor performance. Field testing at TARUMT swimming pool confirmed successful real-time data transmission and GPS tracking. The system provides an alternative to conventional fixed monitoring stations for preliminary lake water quality assessment.