The Internet of Things (IoT) is a system of connected devices capable of collecting and transferring data. Different users of IoT devices may be interested in different types of data. A gardener might want to track the pH value of their soil and the air humidity. A city planner may look for a way to track pedestrian traffic in common spaces. A factory manager might look for a way to track the status of machinery and production rates.
IoT infrastructure has exploded in the past decade, so there are devices on the market to collect data for a wide variety of applications. But the wide variety of devices requires special considerations. A Wi-Fi 4K camera connects to a network much differently than a home thermometer. A motion detector may collect and transfer data in a different form than a pressure sensor.
So, despite progress in the IoT industry, it is still difficult to integrate different types of devices into a unified system. Chariot solves this problem. Chariot is a platform for IoT device management, data storage, and analysis. Users can add, remove, and configure a variety of devices on a single network. With Chariot, a gardener could purchase a pH and humidity IoT devices off the shelf and gather data from his soil and the air from one convenient interface.
Chariot offers:
- A platform to use heterogeneous IoT devices regardless of device protocols,
- Drop in, drop out device connection,
- Connection to powerful database engines,
- Modular addition of device adapters to expand Chariot's capabilities.
The Chariot core exposes a REST-ful API to manage devices, networks, and database connections. The following are required to set up and run the Chariot core:
- A *nix environment,
- Python 3.5+
- pip
- The venv Python module.
The Chariot GUI interfaces with the core API. The following are required to set up and run the Chariot GUI:
Use the *nix shell to install. Start by cloning this repository.
$ git clone https://github.com/chariot-dev/chariot.git
Navigate to the install directory.
$ cd path/to/chariot/install
To install both Chariot's core and GUI, run the install.sh script.
$ bash install.sh
To install just Chariot core, run the install-core.sh script.
$ bash install-core.sh
To install the Chariot GUI, run the install-gui.sh script.
$ bash install-gui.sh
To start Chariot's webserver and utilize its backend, navigate to the run directory and run the run-core.sh script.
$ cd path/to/chariot/run
$ bash run-core.sh
To start the Chariot GUI, run the run-gui.sh script.
This will attempt to connect to the local server, and must be performed after it is started.
$ bash run-gui.sh
To run the core and the GUI in a single command, run the run.sh script.
Chariot's server can be accessed via a terminal environment using utilities like curl. Below is an example usage to create a new network, add a device, and review that network and its device configurations.
(Creating a new network)
$ curl -i -X POST localhost:5000/chariot/api/v1.0/network -H "content-Type: application/json" -d '{"networkName":"test", "description":"this is my test network"}'
HTTP/1.0 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json
Content-Length: 22
Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
Server: Werkzeug/0.16.0 Python/3.8.1
Date: *Current Date and Time*
{
"success": true
}
(Adding a device to a network)
(Notice that the associated network must be specified by the `networkName` field.)
$ curl -i -X POST localhost:5000/chariot/api/v1.0/network/device -H "content-Type: application/json" -d '{"networkName":"test", "deviceID":"MyDevice", "deviceType":"Device", "ipAddress":"IP Address", "pollDelay":3, *Device Specific Configurations*}'
HTTP/1.0 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json
Content-Length: 22
Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
Server: Werkzeug/0.16.0 Python/3.8.1
Date: *Current Date and Time*
{
"success": true
}
Thanks to running as a web server, all endpoints can be accessed with curl commands like those demonstrated above. For documentation of all API endpoints please see the API_ENDPOINTS.md file.
All of Chariot's features can be utilitized through the GUI. This is an alternative to using the CLI. The features that are currently functioning are:
- Creating a network
- Creating a device
- Deleting a network
- Deleting a device from a network
- Modifying a network's properties
The features that are not fully functioning are:
- Authentication (creating an account and logging in with said account)
- Adding another device to existing network (a little buggy)
- Connecting to database to configure data collection
- Data collection from an actual device
- Modifying an existing device (a little buggy)
- Monitoring device status as data collection episode is in progress
- Performing data analysis
Please see the CONTRIBUTING.md file for instructions on how to set up a development environment and contribute to Chariot.
This project is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0. See the LICENSE file for details.
- Enioluwa Segun
- Ryan Hassing
- Juan Garcia-Lopez
- John Ho
- Medard Azandegbe
- Kamalludin Colaire
- Christopher Mak
The team would like to thank:
- Dr. Bill Mongan, for his guidance, as well as for the IoT Framework source code,
- Dr. Dandekar and Dr. Pano at the Drexel Wireless Systems Laboratory, for their guidance and the use of their facilities,
- Dr. Hislop, our Senior Design advisor, for his support and guidance.