Design and Performance Analysis of a Low-Cost IoT-Based Smart Water ATM System

Abstract

Water scarcity and unequal access to safe drinking water have become major challenges in both rural and urban regions due to rapid population growth, inefficient distribution systems, and increasing water wastage. This paper presents the design and performance analysis of a low-cost Internet of Things (IoT)-based Smart Water Automated Teller Machine(ATM) system developed for controlled and transparent water distribution. The proposed system integrates Radio-Frequency Identification(RFID) authentication, ESP-based embedded control, flow sensing, relay switching, and cloud-based IoT monitoring to automate water dispensing and minimize manual intervention. Experimental evaluation demonstrated a dispensing accuracy of 96.4% with a flow measurement error maintained within ±1.8%. The developed prototype reduced water wastage by approximately 32% compared with conventional coin-operated dispensing systems and achieved an average transaction response time of 1.7s. Power consumption analysis showed that the system operated efficiently at 18.6 W under continuous dispensing conditions. In comparison with traditional vending methods, the proposed model improved monitoring capability, user transparency, and operational reliability while maintaining low implementation cost. The obtained results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed Smart Water ATM system under laboratory-scale operating conditions. Further field deployment studies are required to evaluate long-term reliability and large-scale community adoption.