2018 International Conference on Sensing, Diagnostics, Prognostics, and Control
Design of an Interactive Smart Refrigerator Based on
Embedded System
Wang Zhongmin
School of Mechanical Engineering
Tianjin University of Technology and Education
Tianjin, China
wzmin86@126.com
Abstract—Because of new and advanced technologies,
embedded system-based application is more and more widely
used and the people’s needs for smart home system is increased.
Based on the embedded system, an interactive intelligent system
for smart refrigerators is designed and established, which fully
considers the characteristics of existing refrigerator and people’s
demand. The system consists of data acquisition module, voice
recognition module, wireless transmission module, embedded
module and display module. By optimizing the original function
of refrigerator, its utilization frequency is improved and its
monitoring and management level for food is enhanced. This
system also has expandable applications on mobile equipment
and other household items, which improves effectiveness and
convenience.
Keywords—embedded system, smart refrigerator, data
acquisition, wireless transmission
I. INTRODUCTION
With the rapid development of intelligent technology,
people’s demand for smart products as well as their
dependency on technology equipment is increasing, instead of
being satisfied with current life state [1-3]. All of these
successful applications are contributed to a high quality of life
and comfortable environment. Among intelligent equipment,
refrigerator within its intelligent control performance and
intelligent management is the necessity of modern life. Due to
its more popular humanization, the intelligent refrigerator has
been gradually applied and promoted in the high-end residence.
Sensor is a kind of detection devices, which could measure
various physical quantities in smart refrigerator and display it
on screen, including temperature, humidity, gas characteristics,
food weight and position. Usually these intelligent sensors are
connected to internet using wireless communication. Due to
low power characteristic and low network charges of wireless
sensors, wireless and Bluetooth technology becomes more
popular. Motivated by the discussion above, in this paper, a set
of intelligent refrigerator system is designed with the
combination of embedded technology, sensor, wireless
communication and mobile communication to increase
friendly user behaviors.
II. ANALYSIS OF SYSTEM
Through investigation, intelligent demand for refrigerator
978-1-5386-6057-7/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/SDPC.2018.00113
Yu Yanan
School of Information Technology Engineering
Tianjin University of Technology and Education
Tianjin, China
zhaohongli@sportechs.cn
mainly includes the following aspects. Inside temperature
detecting and displaying on screen. Weight measuring and
displaying, when food weight is lighter than setting limit, the
reminder is also automatically given on display screen.
Internal gas composition detecting, food stored monitoring and
warning. Egg number testing, when the number is less than
setting limit, the reminder is automatically given on display
screen. The function of drawing, picture storage and picture
library. Management function of document and chart, which is
able to set parameters of all kinds of food and record their
freshness. The function of electronic photo album. The
function of music player. Dual reminder function that the
dynamic data is not only displayed on screen but also
transferred to other mobile equipment. The function of voice
recognition and control. In order to realize the functions
discussed above, the proposed system adopts various sensors.
The block diagram of proposed system in this paper is
shown in Fig. 1. STM32 family microcontrollers based on
Arm Cortex-M3 processor is specially designed for embedded
applications with high performance, low cost and low power
consumption. The temperature measurement of DS18B20
digital sensor is in the range of-30°~125°. It has the
characteristics of wide collection range, single bus data
transmission and low cost. DHT11 sensor is responsible for
the collection of environmental humidity. It uses single bus
transmission to connect with embedded system and its
humidity measurement is in the range of 20% to 90%. ZP07
air quality module adopts advanced thick film semiconductor
gas sensor, which is connected to A/D port of the embedded
system to realize information conversion from analog voltage
to digital voltage.
Air quality sensor
R232
Embedded
system
R232
Pressure
R232
Infrared sensor
R232
Touch
R232
Temperature
R232
Humidity sensor
Fig. 1. Dagram block of system
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 The touch module is developed based on android system
with optimal performance and sensitive multi-touch. The
abundant interfaces and open source database makes the touch
module have expandability to add another module simply.
CZL-A pressure transducer is a type of resistance strain. It is
composed of elastomer, resistance strain gauge and cable. SG-
2BC of KODENSHI CORP. is a kind of diffuse optical
coupling reflection type photoelectric switch.
III. HARDWARE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION
A. Chip Selection
Embedded chip as the control core plays a significant role.
At present, there is a variety of ARM processors in the market
to choose, from the basic 16-bit ARM to the high-end 64-bit
ARM. Firstly, considering the function in the design, there is
no need to use a high-end ARM processor because of the
relatively simple systematic function. Secondly, considering
the cost requirement, 32-bit ARM has more price advantage
than 64-bit to achieve the same function design. So 32-bit
ARM processor is preferred. At last, the operability and
practicability of program compilation and debugging is also
considered in the design process. For the above reason,
popular 32-bit STM32F103 is selected as the systematic
processor. STM32F103 has two channels 12-D/A converters.
The module without additional A/D simplifies the peripheral
circuit design and also reduce design cost.
Fig.2. Diagram of systematic circuit Gas Detection
ZP07 air quality module adopts advanced thick film
semiconductor gas sensor. It is used in this paper and the
principle is shown in Fig. 3. Gas sensor inside ZP07 converts
the gas composition detected into an electrical signal and
transfer the signal into embedded chip through its D2 pin.
Embedded chip receives the signal and judges the current gas
composition and concentration according to the signal value.
ZP07 detection module could identify 10 levels of gas
concentration [4].
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B. Embedded Minimum System
Minimum system is the control core of the whole system.
The minimum system contains STM32F103 ARM chip,
crystal oscillator circuit and reset circuit. The circuit design
principle is shown in Fig. 2.
As shown in Fig. 2, STM32F103 has a high gain inverting
operational amplifier to build an internal oscillator. Pin
OSC_IN and Pin OSC_OUT is the input and output of the
amplifier respectively, both of which are used to connect to
external crystal oscillator Y1. 8MHz crystal oscillator
frequency is convenient to calculate single chip operating
cycle. Capacitors C2 and C3 at both sides of the oscillator are
fixed in the feedback loop of the amplifier to build a parallel
oscillation circuit. C2 and C3 are ceramics capacitors, which
capacitance will affect the oscillation frequency, the
performance and the stability. 20pF±10pF capacitance is
recommended if using Quartz crystal.
STM32F103 ARM usually supports three types of reset,
including systematic reset, power-on reset and backup area
reset. In the process of minimum system circuit design,
making sure that STM32F103 ARM can be reset when the
power turns on. At the same time, when the system runs into a
dead cycle, the ARM can be reset through corresponding
buttons. So, the proposed system needs to have both of power-
on reset and key reset mode. Reset circuit design is shown in
Fig. 2 and S1 is a reset button.
Fig.3. Chip ZP07 pin mapping
C. Weight Detection
The principle of resistance strain type pressure transducer
is composed of elastomer, resistance strain gauge and cable.
Internal circuit uses Huygens bridge that elastomer deforms
under load. As the conversion element, the resistance value of
resistance strain gauge will change after tensile or compression
deformation. The value’s increasing or decreasing will break
the balance of the bridge and cause the bridge to generate
corresponding differential signal for subsequent circuit
measurement and processing [5]. Principle of the sensor
operation is shown in Fig. 4.
Fig.4. Schematic diagram of sensor principle
As shown in Fig. 4, when a vertical positive pressure P is
applied to the beam, deformation is produced. The resistance
value of resistance strain gauge R1 and R3 is increasing under
their tensile deformation. While, the resistance value of
resistance strain gauge R2 and R4 is decreasing under their
compression deformation. The bridge is out of the balance
then and yields unbalanced voltage U, which value is
proportional to the positive pressure P on the beam. This
process realizes the conversion from non-electric input into
electric output. Wight sensor is connected with embedded chip
through A/D module, which module converts analog value to
digital value. The signal data transferred will be displayed on
the screen. The principle is shown in Fig. 5.
Fig.5. Schematic diagram of principle
D. Touch System
Capacitive touch screen LS530H-A8 is based on most
popular android system, which has the characteristics of high
density, fast speed, low voltage and low power consumption.
The interface of the touch screen is rich. Its power supply
voltage is the same as that of the refrigerator control board,
both of which is 12V. LS530H-A8 has the function of weather
display and WIFI data source [6].
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IV. SOFTWARE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION
A. Underlying System Implementation
The initialization of each individual component is
completed at first when the system is running. The parts that
need to be initialized mainly includes ARM processor, touch
screen, all kinds of sensor and input/output [7].
After the systematic initialization, all kinds of sensors will
be started to collect environmental parameters. The collected
raw data will be processed and displayed by ARM processor [8-
10]
.
B. APP Implementation
Due to the large number of systematic software modules,
an application program is needed to manage these functions so
that more convenient human-computer interaction could be
achieved. Each module is relatively independent. But in a
software interface, these modules can be managed uniformly
or separately. APP framework is shown in Fig. 6. The main
function of each software module will be discussed
respectively.
1) Temperature and Humidity Display
The temperature and humidity of the storeroom and
freezer is always displayed in real time. And the parameters
can also be adjusted and set according the family requirement.
2) Wake-up Function
x Voice wake-up. When the touch screen goes into
hibernation, a special sound could be set to wake up it
if the user wants to check the state of food in the
refrigerator.
x Touch wake-up. When the touch screen goes into
hibernation, it could be waked up by touching if the
user wants to check the state of food in the refrigerator.
3) Food Reminder Display
x In the program, firstly, warning value is set, including
weight and number of eggs. When actual parameters
detected by pressure transducer and infrared sensor is
lower than that value, system program starts its
reminder function and displays related information at a
preset frequency. At the same time, the warning
message is transmitted to the bound mobile equipment
by wireless network.
x In the refrigerator, if the gas concentration detected by
air quality sensor is above 5, APP will automatically
send food rot warning signal to touch screen and
mobile equipment.
4) Food Detection Data Display
When food is detected by pressure transducer and infrared
sensor, the corresponding test value will be transferred to
ARM processor. And then ARM will pass this value to APP
to display on the touch screen.
5) Memo Function
The abundant interfaces and open source database makes
the touch module have expandability to add another module
simply. Users can record useful information on a notepad. It
also includes graffiti function that people can draw and save 7) Edit Function
anything to interact. Pictures and tables are editable. The pictures could be
6) Electronic Photo Album Function food pictures and self-defined pictures.
Users can store and display photos and music on touch
screen.
Touch screen
function

Temperature Food reminder Electronic photo

Wake-up Food detection Memo Edit
and humidity display album and music
data display
display player

Graffiti Record and Picture Table

Voice Touch
remind
wake-up wake-up
Food Self-defined
picture picture

Fig.6. Diagram of System Functions

V. CONCLUSION
The proposed system in this paper realizes an intelligent
refrigerator design. Internal sensors are added to accurately
manage the food state, effectively improve the food utilization
frequency and avoid or reduce food expiration. By the way of
data monitoring, it is easy to understand whole family food
intake and food categories, and further to establish family
nutrition health archives to avoid overeating. Touch screen
operation increases interaction and entertainment between
human and equipment. Reminder function added on mobile
equipment makes user have more intuitive food control.
Humanized operation provides people life more reference data
and operation methods. This system achieves an interactive
way for future development of smart home and provides a
reliable systematic form for intelligent system.
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