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Smart Baby cradle

Conference Paper · January 2018

DOI: 10.1109/ICSCET.2018.8537356

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 Smart Baby Cradle
An IOT based Cradle Management System.

Aniruddha Rajendra Patil Nitesh Janardan Patil Anjali Deepak Mishra

Bachelor of Engineering Student Bachelor of Engineering Student Bachelor of Engineering Student
Universal College of Engineering Universal College of Engineering Universal College of Engineering
Kaman, Mumbai. Kaman, Mumbai. Kaman, Mumbai.
rsd19anirudh@gmail.com niteshp113@gmail.com anjalimishra30794@gmail.com

Prof. Yogita Deepak Mane

H.O.D. Information Technology
Universal College of Engineering
Kaman, Mumbai.
yogita.mane@universal.edu.in

Abstract— Cradle is a device that is used to put babies to Such females need to rely on third person to take care of the
sleep. Cradle has a side- to-side rocking motion that eases the baby. Mother always worries about the well-being of the baby.
baby and put it to sleep. It takes lot of efforts from parent to
physically rock the cradle to generate swinging motion. When As we have seen in India or any other industrializing nation
baby is kept inside the cradle need to be constant monitoring that both parents need to go to work and also look after the
parent to keep to track of baby's activity. The proposed idea in baby which increases workload on both the parents. If a system
this prototype of smart cradle will allow the cradle to efficiently is developed that can help parents to keep an update about baby
integrate itself with a smartphone typically android device. An during illness or even during normal routine, can be great help
Arduino microcontroller will be used to assemble all the sensors to such families as they can worry less about the baby and
and hardware component required. Constant monitoring of the concentrate on work challenges. Also any unusual activity can
baby inside the cradle will be done. If any activity such as be instantly tracked and an alert will be issued about the
urination or baby waking up from sleep occurs a notification situation and can be immediately taken care of. In general
through an SMS will be sent to the parent’s device. The Smart condition baby cries when he/she is either hungry, not feeling
cradle will also have additional features such as rocking the baby well, awaken from sleep or need its diaper changed. So in this
automatically via geared motor mechanism. Also with some proposed prototype we put forward an idea of a cradle that is
additional features such as watching the baby live through smart enough to monitor the above mentioned activities, find
Arduino camera. Use of various sensors such as PIR (passive its cause and give an alert to the parents.
infrared) sensor to detect light level inside the cradle, and PCB
for sensing wet conditions etc. will only add to the efficiency of This proposed system will give the parents relaxing time
the cradle. The cradle is suitable for parents who are not able to and allow them to take less stress about well-being if the baby
invest all their time at home sitting near the baby. Other when they are away as they can get update about status of
applications of this cradle can be at a maternity hospital as an infant inside the cradle. The other advantage is that alert
assistant to the staff who are responsible to look after the baby. messages will be issued on occurrence of any activity that is
abnormal and detected by sensors. Communication will be
Keywords— Smart cradle; geared motor; PCB for wet sensing; done by GSM interface in which Short Messaging Services
micro controller; arduino camera; rocking motion; PIR(passive
(SMS) is an integral part. In this way we can keep track of
infrared) sensors; android device; Arduino microcontroller.
some biomedical parameters of the infant.
I. INTRODUCTION Further paper is divide into 8 sessions. Session 2 describes
In the past few decades there has been a significant rise to literature survey. Session 3 gives idea about components.
the number of female participation in force to industrialization. Session 4 has information about methodology, also contains
Due to which a large amount of female workers need to stay algorithms and results of modules that have been implemented.
away from home to work on daily basis. Due to which taking Session 5 describes advantages. Session 6 tells us about
care of infant has now become a challenge for such females. limitations. Session 7 lists the application of the smart baby
cradle. Session 8 contains future scope of the paper. Session 9 have any swing mechanism or rock motion. They have used
has the conclusion followed by the references. Wi-Fi module which can only be used for particular area.
II. LITERATURE SURVEY In Paper [4] the Author has designed an intelligent baby
care, which has ability to monitor baby movement, bed-wet
There are various health care and health management condition and body temperature. According to the researcher
system designed to look after health of adults and aged person. there are useful ways to pacify and calm the baby such as
They can monitor various health status, automatically send Suckle a baby, Rocking motion, singing a song. The hardware
alerts and also have many other features. But these system that is being used in the project are PIR sensor, Motor shield,
cannot be practically put under practice for infants as they need Arduino UNO, GPRS shield, Surface temperature sensor, Wet
to be used under caution. Unlike adults, infants require a sensor(designed on PCB), Power source (9 Volt rechargeable
complete different approach to healthcare as they are totally battery),Geared motor. The drawback are Sound detectors are
dependent on their parents. Infants cannot give feedback about not used therefore sound detections is not possible such as
health condition as their only way to express discomfort is by crying and other activities of baby. Camera and Toy is not
crying. Hence a specially designed healthcare system is needed present therefore video communication is not possible.
to take care of the infants. It would gradually decrease burden
over parents especially mothers. In support to above theory In Paper [5] the author suggest a design specification
authors have developed system which is based on commercial document describes the design details of the smart baby cradle
GSM network. Vital baby parameters such as body temperature prototype. The final smart baby cradle product will also follow
using LM35 sensor, heart rate using IR transmitter and this design document but the electronic components will be
receiver, respiratory rate by using Piezo sensor located on changed to more effective and integrated devices. In this
patient’s chest are sensed, filtered and given to microcontroller. document, all the designs will consider the customer and safety
A wet sensor to detect urine condition in the cradle and all requirements that were mentioned in the functional
other data is given to microcontroller. Authors also proposed specification. The requirement labels in this document
an idea of mounting a camera on the cradle, so the parents can corresponds to the functional specification requirement labels.
get live images of the infant inside the cradle when they are The limitation are Baby’s curiousness: Beside the risk of
away. A speaker communication system to help calm the baby electrical shock, the components may fall off or be broken by
by hearing the parent’s voice. Also a mobile toy over the baby the baby and the baby might even try to bite or eat the parts.
sleeping area to ease the baby. A remote subsystem with GSM Parents’ worries: Parents consider the safety issues much more
module receives data and sends it to microcontroller for than the features products.
processing.
In Paper [6] the Author has given mathematical calculation
In Paper [1] Author had made cradle to swing/oscillate for the rotation of the cradle. The author has calculated
without human Intervention /Automatic by the sensors. The rotational degrees, speed, all other input factor that are
Slider-crank mechanism is used to transform rotational motion responsible for swing movement and given a single
into translational motion by means of a rotating driving beam, mathematical formula. The author has taken into consideration
The lead-acid battery, A motion detector is a device that detects the design specification of the crib. The author has mentioned
moving objects, particularly people, Sound sensors that detects an idea to develop extra fencing for the crib to focus on
both decibels [dB] and adjusted decibel [dBA]. A decibel is a security of baby. The drawback of the project are it mainly
measurement of sound pressure. The limitation of this paper focuses on design specification and hence neglects all the other
are it creates more noise due to which baby gets disturbed. The factors of the cradle
proposed system is not skilled enough for handling sound.
In Paper [7] Author presents a design of a Baby Monitoring
In Paper [2] Author decided to make a Cradle that should System based on the GSM network. This system monitor vital
be controllable by a smart phone, as well as send data to it, parameters such as body temperature, pulse rate, moisture
such as video/audio stream. It should have an automatic way to condition, movement of an infant and using GSM network this
comfort the baby if the parent can’t get to the baby right away. information is transferred to their parents. Hardware
After coming up with a couple of features. They have used a components that were assembled are Temperature Sensor,
Micro-controller, Wi-Fi module shield, Router, Stepper motor, Pulse Rate Sensor, Moisture Detection Sensor, LCD screen,
Speaker, mic. The drawbacks of this paper are Baby’s GSM Module, Motion Sensor, Controller. The limitations are
curiousness: Beside the risk of electrical shock, the system does not have cradle or crib and no rock motion is used.
components may fall off or be broken by the baby and the baby It creates discomfort to the baby.
might even try to bite or eat the parts. Parents’ worries: Parents
In Paper [8] the author has provided the cradle, mechanism
consider the safety issues much more than the features
of automatic swinging when baby cries. To record babies
products.
temperature, to video record activities of baby, to detect facial
In Paper [3] the author proposed the idea is to design a expressions and automatically send massage weather baby is
smart cradle alarming system that will signal the parents of the safe or not. The drawbacks are it uses artificial intelligence to
baby’s activities. The gear will be such that it will fit most of sense emotions hence the system cost increases and
the common cradles or cribs. The system will comprise of development time is more it does not contains the crib and
sensors that will detect baby’s activities and alarm their components are mounted on the mattress. Another US Patent
parents. The limitation of this paper are this system does not no 6,43,747 (Altenhofen)[10] claims that parents can record
messages which can be transmitted to baby unit to soothe or F. Servo Motor
calm the baby. This motor is used to swing the cradle. This motor only
Our proposed system will be able to monitor when the baby rotates 180o to and fro in a semi-circular motion. It will give
urinates or when the baby is crying and sends alerts to parents. cradle its rotational movement.
It is also capable of capturing live baby images through
G. Arduino Camera
camera. It can also activate-deactivate the mobile toy and start-
stop the cradle swing. It is a camera module for Arduino micro-controller. It will
give parents the ability to watch the baby inside the crib. Baby
This a hybrid model which will integrate the ideas proposed can be watched from remote distance on a compatible device.
in the above papers.
IV. METHODOLOGY
III. COMPONENTS
The proposed prototype of smart baby cradle will monitor
The below Fig. 1 gives us a detailed description about the the activities of the infant. The cradle has motor which will
components of the cradle from Paper [4] and the detailed rotate the mobile toy. The smart baby cradle has noise
explanation of the components is as follows. detection which will sense the noise when the baby is crying or
making loud noise. A servo motor will rotate (swing) the cradle
up to an angle that is safe when infant is inside the cradle. A
camera will be used to track the baby inside the crib. A GSM
module to communicate with a remote device that is operated
by parents. And an Arduino microcontroller to control and
monitor the activities of the cradle.

The below algorithm describes the function of the smart baby

cradle.
A. ALGORITHM FOR SMART BABY CRADLE
STEP 1: Turn ON the cradle.
STEP 2: Monitor conditions of the cradle as well as baby.
Fig. 1. Component Diagram STEP 3: Issue alerts and activate-deactivate module.
STEP If urine is detected Arduino send message to
A. Arduino Uno 3.1.1: parent and alarm is activated.
It is a microcontroller board based on ATmega328P STEP Parents can send “start swing” message to
(datasheet). It has 14 digital input/output pins, 6 analog input, a 3.1.2: Arduino to start the swing motion.
16 MHz quartz crystal, a USB connection, a power jack an STEP To stop swing motion parents can send to
ISCP header and a reset button. 3.1.3: Arduino or the swing motion will stop
B. Wet Sensor automatically after 5 minutes.
It is used to detect wet condition in the crib. When the baby STEP If baby cries Arduino sends message to parents.
wets the crib due to urine, it will send the feedback to Arduino 3.2.1:
and Arduino will do the further processing STEP Parents can send “activate” message to Arduino
3.2.2: to start the baby toys.
C. GSM Module
A GSM module can be used to give smart cradle to be STEP Parents can send deactivate message to stop the
ability to be remotely controlled via GSM communication. It 3.2.3: baby toy.
can be used to give event feedback to parent and parent can The whole methodology is divided into following algorithms
also control the activities via messaging. whose explanation is given further.
D. Microphone
Microphone module allows you to detect when sound has 1) ALGORITHM FOR CRY DETECTION
exceeded a set point you select. Sound detection is done via a STEP 1: Start
microphone. We have used noise sensor to detect when baby is STEP 2: Detect for noise
crying. STEP 3: If noise is detected for longer duration (approx. 1
E. Motor minute) then send message to parent device and
A regular DC motor will be used to rotate the mobile toy. It glow LED
is a regular DC motor that rotates 360 o in circular motion. STEP 4: Switch off LED after 10 seconds.
When the baby is bored the parent can activate he mobile toy.
The algorithm describes the function of the cry detection.
 Fig. 2 below shows the connection for cry detection which V. ADVANTAGE
is configured for detecting baby’s cry. The board can operate on an external supply of 6-20 volts.
The recommended range is 7-12 volts. It is a good idea to
attach switch in series with this battery so that you can turn
your Arduino OFF or ON. It saves times as parent does not
have to look after child all the time as it sends timely alerts in
form of SMS and alarms. It is easy to use because it does not
needs any extra knowledge of hardware and software and also
it does not need any human interaction to rock the cradle.
It has easy interface and the cradle can be operated by GSM
messages. Due to smart cradle parents get free time and any
unusual activity of the baby will send alert message to parents

Fig. 2. Connection for cry detection

VI. LIMITATTION
2) ALGORITHM FOR URINE DETECTION It needs GSM connectivity throughout for sending alerts.
STEP 1: Start. The hygiene condition of the cradle should be taken care of by
STEP 2: Detect wet condition. the parent themselves. Although the cradle is capable enough
STEP 3: If noise is detected for longer duration (approx. 1 to monitor the baby but it does not comfort the baby as much
minute) then send message to parent device and as mother does. Components of cradle are fragile and it needs
activate alarm. to be handled carefully. Severe damage to the components of
STEP 4: Stop alarm after 10 seconds. the cradle may increase the risk of baby getting a shock. It is
unable to sense emotion of the baby, so noise sensor cannot
The above algorithm describes the function of the urine differentiate between baby’s laugh and cry.
detection module.
The Fig. 3 below shows the connection for wet sensor
VII. APPLICATION
which is configured for urine detection.
The Arduino is the heart of the system and it is used to
monitor all the activities the cradle can be used in maternity
hospital to take care of number of babies as it is difficult for
limited number of hospital staff to take care of all the babies, in
such scenario the smart baby cradle can be used to help the
hospital staff for taking care of babies. It can be useful for
parents when both mother can father are working.
It can also be used in metropolitan household as house
spaces are small and parents are within the reach of the cradle.
The cradle also helps in reducing risk related to babies. Any
activity of baby will send SMS alerts to the parents. Activity of
baby includes action like crying, urine and other movements
and also when the baby is awake from the sleep. It can also be
used in day care centers.
Fig. 3. Connection for urine detection
VIII. FUTURE SCOPE
B. Results for cry detection
Modules of noise detection and urine detection have been
A microphone was configured with Arduino
implemented. Our future scope includes modules of attaching a
microcontroller to detect when baby is crying. Initial reading
toy which can be used to ease the baby, when he is bored or
when there was no noise were approximately 0-100. But when
crying. A set of servo motors will be used to rock the cradle,
the noise of baby crying was detected reading value increased
Also a camera will be attached to see the movement of the
and LED on the Arduino glowed to indicate that the bay is
baby inside the crib. All the components of the cradle will be
crying.
synchronized with GSM modules which will be used to
C. Results for wet detection communicate with smart cradle and messaging will be used as
A water sensor was configured with Arduino micro- a medium of communication.
controller to detect urine condition for the baby. Initial reading IX. CONCLUSION
when the sensor was dry was approximately 200-500. A few
drops of water were put on the sensor to make it wet. After 10 Proposed idea of smart cradle is a less expensive and easy
seconds of wetting the sensor, there was an alarm tone and to use system. It can help improve the quality of infant care
LED on the Arduino glowed to indicate the wet condition. system. This system will provide parents assurance that their
infants is well taken care of. The constant capturing and
monitoring of various biomedical parameters of the baby helps
the mother to understand baby’s internal health status. As GSM
technology is used it makes the user communicate for longer
distance. It is a convenient system to monitor the baby health
care from any distance.

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