Abstract—In this paper, we present an inoculated combination of technologies to facilitate and advocate education in Rural India. A combination of open-sourced Arduino, single board-processors like Raspberry Pi are used to develop infrastructure to empower education in remote and rural parts of India. Being a self-contained system, the dependencies on external factors is reduced as it might not be possible to operate regular computers without grid-connected supply. The whole system is powered using renewable energy (RE) source viz., Solar PV. This implies that the system is an independent green computing device. Further, this enables commerce while augmenting education facilities for the underserved population residing in remote and rural areas where energy is still a challenge today. The Ardunio is used to perform various systemic operations like motioning the load, calculating the ambient light etc. The Raspberry Pi is the core processor unit of the system which typically acts like a computer that runs on a Linux-based Kernel Operating System (OS). The System-on-Chip (SoC) is then connected to a HDMI display periphery hub which switched between multiple displays. The supply to all of this sub-system is powered by a Solar PV. A charge control is implemented to over-look the charging process of the storage battery.
Keywords— Educational technologies; Green design; Arduino; Raspberry Pi; HDMI, TinyOS
I. INTRODUCTION iven the significant socio-economic development, the rural parts of India continue to face poverty and environmental challenges. Education for rural
people still remains a key policy that needs to be addressed. Though globalization and technological development has brought about much-touted augmentation in development, it has also marginalized and ostracizes a large number of people from overall development, and typically among the rural poor. Further to this, it has forged serious environmental degradation, rendering the rural environment, in particular, even less productive and impoverished. Owing to this fact, the
loss in productivity and degradation of the social fabric has further meant increasing the possibly of migration by rural poor to higher-valued urban-based economic cities thereby causing an imbalance in the ecosystem of population.
To India, the push towards increasing productivity has meant placing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) at the forefront of rural education programs. India is the second largest economy in the world ranking 88th in terms of Education. The goal now should be to create a ‘knowledge-based economy’ as this will supplement sustainable development in this country.
As a result of the rural shortcomings, the increased expense for education of rural people is clear. In spite of the fact that, rural areas encompass a mixed population a single commonality is evident- the expense of educating the rural masses is relatively higher than that of providing education in urban areas. In this paper, we address this particular issue in the Indian context, by proposing a Green Educational Device – GreenEduComp. As mentioned earlier, this device is powered using renewable sources and low-cost fabrication is possible as the technologies used here are open-sourced. The schematic of the proposed system is shown in figure 1.
II. LITERARY SURVEY India has the world’s largest population in the age group of
5-24 years estimated about 450 million and about 501 million in the 25-59 age bracket which constitutes the working population [1]. Literacy in India is among the primary deterrents to socio-economic progress of India. The Indian literacy rate currently is at 74% when compared to the world average literacy rate of 84%, and India’s has the largest illiterate population. The present illiteracy is provided in the Table I. It is clear that, as India moves ahead on the path of sustainable development, it needs overhaul its educational system and practices to service the demand.
III. PROBLEM STATEMENT The relevance of basic education is a major concern in rural
areas of developing India. When community schools are relevant and educate the right target, the process of rural development can occur relatively much faster; when schools either don’t exists or service their purpose. The problem of education and relevance in rural areas needs to be recognized and addressed immediately through strategies, useful policies and technologies. There is strong proof for the fact that education can increase the productivity and commerce of the locality.
In attempt to expand basic education to reach more learners in rural areas need to be complemented by ICT to ensure that the content, quality, delivery, and relevance of education is effectively meet the learners’ needs. To initiate a firmly rooted and sustainable process of rural education good technologies must be used to administer this process and allow a progressively the general population to participate in the process of economic transformations.
TABLE I. CURRENT LITERACY LEVELS
Level of Education Population in millions* Illiterate 432
Eligible Illiterate 274 Children (0-6 years) 158
Literate 778 School – up to Grade 5 234 School – up to Grade 9 358 School – Grade 10 to 12 108 Graduate and above 78
Total 1210 *Source: Indian Education Sector Outlook Report 2012 [1]
IV. METHODOLOGY We combine powerful credit-card sized computer with an
open sourced single-board microcontroller in attempt to propose the GreenEduComp. This device is a combination of Arduino and Raspberry Pi that handle operational and computational processes respectively. A charge control unit is the interface between the Solar PV and these boards. The output of this device is obtained on the LCD Screen as shown in figure 1.
A. Arduino – Operational Unit The Arduino is a single-board microcontroller consisting of
open source hardware designed around an 8-bit Atmel microcontroller. This board can be cloned to suit a specific need thereby reducing the fabrication cost drastically. The layout of the Arduino UNO board proposed for this device is shown in Fig. 2. The Arduino board monitors the operational process of the GreenEduComp device. It regulates the supply, tracks the ambient light through sensors and is an interface between the SoC and the Charge Control Circuit (CCC). The technical specification of the Arduino board is given in Table II.
The Arduino is interfaced with the Raspberry Pi through a Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (URAT) cable. These two processors work in tandem. The primary role of this part of the device is to regulate and overlook the functionality of the GreenEduComp. The inclusion of the Arduino board in our design philosophy is backed by the fact that, sensors and shields like the Xbee/Wifi can be integrated seamlessly into the system. The ATMega 328 microcontroller can be programmed using standard language (Embedded C and Java), compilers (Arduino IDE) and a boot-loader that executes on the microcontroller. The cost of a pre-assembled board is USD 25 but when fabricated to meet this specific need, the cost may reduce to about USD 12-15 on a large scale.
B. Raspberry Pi – Computational Unit The Raspberry Pi is a card sized system on chip (SoC)
running on an ARM processor clocked at 700 MHz. The purpose of using a Pi board in the proposed system is because it has a dedicated GPU. Additionally, the board has 512 MB of RAM which make it a suitable for meeting the computational needs of a rural school. The detailed specification of the Pi board is given in Table III.
The Raspberry Pi board is run on an event-based operating framework called TinyOS. The TinyOS is open sourced, BSD-licensed operating system designed for low-power devices. Typically, it is a work-scheduler and collection of drivers for processors and microcontrollers. This OS can be booted from external devices like hard drives (HDD), secure digital (SD) cards and flash drives. The Pi board has a HDMI – High Definition Multimedia Interface. This HDMI port is used to connect to a hub switch that in turn connects multiple display
Figure 1. Schematic of the proposed system
units like LCD screens. The pin out diagram for the Pi board is shown in Fig. 3.
TABLE II. TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS OF ATMEGA328
TABLE III. TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS OF PI BOARD
C. HDMI Hub Switch The primary function of the HDMI switch is to allow multiple HDMI cables to be connected to a device that has limited number of inputs. There are many types of HDMI switches available in the market off the shelf. For the proposed system we use a 3×1 switch. This will allow three components to be connected through a single input.
HDMI switching enables the rural learner to enjoy the learning experience from a number of HD sources without the need to swapping connections. This equipment will also help reduce the total cost of operation by eliminating the need to upgrade the existing equipment. HDMI technology is improving rapidly. HDMI switching allows for the rural learners to enjoy advanced technology while keeping cost low and increasing their learning potential for the future.
The ADV7511 is a 225 MHz HDMI switch. This is a low-cost high performance transmitter. The ADV7511 schematic is shown in Fig. 4.
Legend Value Microcontroller (Type) PIC16F877A Voltage of Operation 5 Volts Input Voltage Range 2-5.5 Volts Reset & Delays POR, BOR Flash Memory (14-bit) 8K Data Memory 386 bytes EEPROM Memory 256 bytes Interrupts 15 I/O Ports 5 (Ports A, B, C, D, E) Timers 3 PWM Modules 2 Serial Communication USART Parallel Communication PSP ADC Module 8 Channel 10-bit Package 40-Pin PDIP
Legend Value SoC Broadcom BCM 2835 CPU 700 MHz ARM 111 family GPU OpenGL ES 2.0 (MPEG-2, MPEG-4
AVC) Memory 512 MB Video Inputs Camera Interface-CSI input connector Video Outputs 1-channel composite (PAL, NTSC),
HDMI, LCD via Digital serial Interface
Audio Output 3.5 mm jack, I2S audio Onboard Storage SD/MMC/SDIO Peripherals 8 GPIO. UART, I2C Bus Power ratings 300-700 mA / 1.5-3.5W Power source 5 V via MicroUSB
Figure 2. Layout of Arduino UNO
Figure 3. Pinout diagram of Raspberry Pi
D. Solar PV – Renewable Source The proposed system is a standalone device. The
GreenEduComp does not require a grid-connected supply for its operation. The device meets is energy requirements from the power generated by the solar modules.
The solar PV is made of amorphous silicon which is very rigid with high thermal stability. The solar module is placed on the roof top of the community school in spot where there is optimum ambient light. As shown in Fig. 1 multiple solar modules are used to make the device self-sustained and reduce external dependencies. This makes GreenEduComp robust and operational in rural and remote locations.
E. Charge Control Circuit Unit The function of the Charge Control Circuit (CCC) is to
monitor and regulate the power flowing from the Solar PV into a rechargeable battery and load. The primary objective is to make the proposed system independent with analog simplicity, high efficiency and reliability. A 12V solar panel with 10 A is considered for the design of the GreenEduComp device.
Charge controllers intended for solar modules work by monitoring the battery voltage, and once fully charged, the controller simply switches between the solar PV and the battery. As long as the batteries are charging a red LED can be seen glowing. Once the trip voltage is reached the red LED goes out and a green LED glows. The power is shunted to the different components of the device like Arduino, Raspberry pi boards. A typical schematic diagram of the CCC unit is shown in Fig. 5.
The CCC is a DC current switch the +/- terminals of the PV and storage battery. The diode D1 prevents the flow of reverse current. When there is sufficient ambient light, the PV voltage
is equal to the reverse-breakdown voltage of the zener diode D2 which turn on the active load, transistor Q2. This transistor Q2 regulates power to the rest of the circuit. When the battery voltage is below the required voltage and needs to be charged, comparators turn on and activate Q3 and Q4, this allows the current from the solar PV to flow into the battery. Q3 is a P-channel MOSFET having common ground for Solar PV and battery. As the battery reaches full charge, Ub1 as a comparator based Schmidt trigger oscillator which switches the current from Solar PV on/off.
The red/green charging/full LED is driven between the outputs of comparators U3d and U3a. Pin 5 of U1b requires an approximate center point to operate as an on/off comparator; it is connected to the varying U1a through Pin 2 as it doesn’t require another reference divider circuit.
F. Battery – Storage We propose to use a lead acid battery as a charge storage
device. Factors for choosing Lead-acid batteries: • Cheap. • Easily available in the market. • Maintenance is low. • Long lasting electrodes. • Less storage space.
V. APPLICATION AND TARGET USER The GreenEduComp device fits many criteria for a rural
education devices like:
• Doesn’t require knowledge of computer as the interface is very simple.
• Advanced technologies combined to provide low-cost solutions to rural education.
• Robust physically.
• Stable design philosophy.
This device is modeled specifically for the rural learners. Unlike other rural education devices, the content is not embedded and requires not authority to change. The design is an attempt to incorporate the possibility of changing/adding new content through external devices.
The proposed system is rural-specific and not age/group specific. Unlike many commercial devices available in the market, viz. LeapFrog [10].
In developing countries like India, there exist primarily two issues:
1. Lack of grid-connected supply to power a general purpose computer.
2. The average income level is very low which makes it hardly possible to afford a general purpose computer.
Additionally, a user requires some technical information to operate a PC. Complex user interface is another issue. Our design philosophy is a new “digitally intelligent” device that is target-specific and highly intuitive for rural learners.
Figure 4. Schematic of the HDMI Transmitter Switch
VI. AN EVENTUAL PROTOTYPE After much considerations and deliberation, the system
components were chosen which are more advantageous than others due to:
• Easily available.
• Easy Interfacing.
• Easy configuration.
The conventional features of education devices are over come here. Constraints such as, fixed content, impossible upgrades are eliminated. The simple and cost-efficient implementation of the GreenEduComp is addressing and incorporating the solutions of various potential problems.
TABLE IV. COST OF IMPLEMENTATION
Functional Block Component Used Cost per part in USD (US $)
Solar Panel Solar PV 100.00 Storage Battery 100.00
Operational Unit Arduino 25.00 Computational Unit Raspberry Pi 35.00
Charge Control CCC Unit 10.00 Switch HDMI Hub 10.00
Total(US $) 280.00 ~ 300.00
The approximate cost of implementation is given in Table IV below.
VII. SOFTWARE ASPECT The system is proposed run on TinyOS, which is open-
sourced under the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) and available at no cost. More specifically it is designed for low-powered wireless devices like a Pi. The TinyOS supports multiple platforms like Linux RedHat 9.0, Windows 2000 and Windows XP and hence make its easy and simple to run educational software required by the target uses group.
There are many Indic language specific software that can be successfully run in the above-mentioned configurations. Hence, the content is delivered to the target users through interface that is locale specific.
VIII. CONCLUSION In this paper, we present a combination of innovative
technologies to develop and enhance the state of rural education in India. Such regions typically have no access to grid-connected supply which even when present is unreliable. Hence operations a general purpose PC is prohibitively expensive even from a energy requirement stand point. Thus the challenge present is to recreate a limited purpose computing device that can service specific computing needs
Figure 5. Charge Controller Unit
with minimal capital costs and that can self-sustain its operation without dependence on external energy source. This has been the crux of the design philosophy being the GreenEduComp.
The design is such that it is independent and has no external dependencies, is low cost, is constituted of low power systems and can be used by a large populace with no exposure to computing with little or no training. Further the design provides for additional system upgrades/add-ons like cloud enablement, GPRS enablement as the as applications and use cases are developed. The use of open source technologies like Arduino makes it easy to replicate while maintain a low fabrication cost. The implementation of powerful SoC like the Pi board gives advanced computing facilities at very low operational costs. This device is termed green as it generates its own power to remain operational.
IX. FUTURE WORK The GreenEduComp holds a lot of potential in servicing
and taking low cost computing so rural people without access to even energy and can prove to be a game changer. With the penetration of wireless telecom services in even remote parts of India and such other countries like Saharan Africa, South East Asia etc. The design of the GreenEduComp allows for easy cloud enabling, more efficient content handling, making it an interactive device for video and e-learning there by enhancing possibilities. The design of GreenEduComp is modular and allows all these to be integrated into the system with incremental additional costs and as extras much in line with the open source hardware philosophy.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors would like to thank the IEEE Madras Section
Special Interest Group on Humanitarian Technology (SIGHT) for the opportunity and support extended to through the “SIGHT Camp 2013” by serving the Irular Community at Oragadam Village, Chengalpattu, TN India. Thanks to the anonymous reviewers for helpful comments.
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