THE “SMART GUARD” STREETLIGHT & UTILITY FAULT DETECTOR

Abstract

In many residential areas, failures in public infrastructure such as non-functional streetlights, damaged utility poles, and underground water pipe bursts often go unnoticed for extended periods due to reliance on manual inspection and public complaints. This leads to delayed repairs, safety risks, and unnecessary resource wastage. To overcome this limitation, the proposed IoT Infrastructure Monitor is a compact, low-power monitoring device that can be mounted on utility poles to continuously observe infrastructure conditions. The system uses a Light Dependent Resistor (LDR) to detect whether streetlights are operating correctly during nighttime and an ADXL345 accelerometer to sense abnormal vibrations caused by events such as vehicle impacts or nearby pipe bursts. Sensor data is processed and transmitted to a monitoring platform, where alerts are automatically generated upon detecting abnormal conditions. This solution enables proactive fault detection, reduces dependence on manual reporting, and supports efficient maintenance, making it suitable for smart city applications.