Smart Campus Assistance Kiosk Robot

Abstract

Large institutional campuses such as colleges, hospitals, and corporate offices face persistent challenges in providing visitors and new entrants with timely navigation assistance and facility information. Traditional approaches, including staffed reception desks, static signage, and mobile applications, suffer from limited availability, high staffing costs, inability to update content dynamically, and dependency on smartphone installation. This paper presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of a Smart Campus Assistance Kiosk Robot, an ESP32-based stationary intelligent service terminal that provides automated campus assistance through a self-hosted web interface. The system employs the ESP32-WROOM-32 dual-core microcontroller operating as a Wi-Fi access point and HTTP server, serving a single-page responsive web application directly from flash memory. Users connect to the kiosk’s Wi-Fi network and interact through a browser-based interface without requiring any application installation. The kiosk supports eight configurable service modes mapped to a 4-channel relay module that controls peripheral devices including an LCD display, speaker unit, and indicator outputs. A four-layer firmware architecture comprising a hardware abstraction layer, communication layer, application logic layer, and presentation layer ensures modularity and maintainability. Safety mechanisms including a hardware watchdog timer, relay auto-off timer, and automatic Wi-Fi reconnection provide unattended operational reliability. Experimental evaluation over a continuous 7-day deployment demonstrated 99.2% system uptime, sub-150 ms web response latency, relay timing accuracy within 93 ms of programmed durations, and a mean user satisfaction score of 4.6 out of 5 from 20 participants with 100% first-attempt task completion. The total hardware cost of under INR 3,000 represents a reduction exceeding 96% compared to commercial kiosk alternatives, establishing the system as a viable, scalable, and cost-effective solution for smart campus assistance.

Introduction

The paper presents the design and implementation of a Smart Campus Assistance Kiosk Robot, an IoT-based interactive information system developed to improve navigation and information access in large educational campuses. Traditional methods such as reception desks, static signboards, mobile applications, and commercial kiosks have limitations including high operational costs, lack of interactivity, maintenance issues, and dependency on external software or internet connectivity. To overcome these challenges, the proposed system uses a low-cost ESP32 NodeMCU microcontroller to create a self-contained, Wi-Fi-enabled kiosk that provides campus assistance without requiring app installation or cloud services.

The proposed kiosk operates as an autonomous Wi-Fi access point with a browser-based interface hosted directly on the ESP32’s flash memory. Users can connect through smartphones or laptops and access services such as department information, navigation assistance, event details, and emergency information. The system integrates hardware components including a 16×2 LCD display, speaker, buzzer, status indicators, and a 4-channel relay module to control different service functions.

The main contributions of the system include a modular embedded firmware architecture, a self-hosted responsive web application, safety mechanisms such as watchdog monitoring, relay auto-off timers, and Wi-Fi reconnection, along with a low-cost hardware design costing less than INR 3,000. Performance evaluation demonstrates high reliability with 99.2% uptime, response latency below 150 ms, and positive user feedback.

The literature review highlights previous IoT-based campus automation systems, interactive kiosks, and smart education solutions. Existing approaches often suffer from high costs, limited scalability, dependency on external servers, or lack of complete integration. The proposed system addresses these gaps by combining embedded computing, IoT communication, web technologies, and automation in a single affordable platform.

The methodology includes four major components:

1. Hardware Design:
   The system uses the ESP32-WROOM-32 module as the central controller, connected with relay modules, LCD display, speaker, buzzer, and power supply. The relay system enables control of multiple service functions while ensuring safe operation.
2. Firmware Development:
   The firmware is developed using Arduino C++ and follows a four-layer architecture:
   • Hardware Abstraction Layer for device control
   • Communication Layer for web server operations
   • Application Logic Layer for service management
   • Presentation Layer for the web interface
3. Web-Based User Interface:
   A single-page web application stored in ESP32 memory provides an interactive interface accessible through any browser. It supports responsive design, real-time status updates, service selection, and emergency shutdown features.
4. Safety and Reliability Features:
   The system incorporates hardware watchdog protection, automatic relay deactivation, and Wi-Fi recovery mechanisms to support continuous unattended operation.

The system architecture consists of input, processing, output, and feedback modules. Users provide input through the Wi-Fi web interface, the ESP32 processes requests and activates required services, outputs are provided through LCD, audio, and connected devices, and real-time feedback is displayed through the web interface and kiosk display.

Conclusion

This paper presented the design, implementation, and evaluation of a Smart Campus Assistance Kiosk Robot built around the ESP32 NodeMCU microcontroller. The system operates as a self-contained Wi-Fi service terminal that delivers campus navigation assistance and facility information through a browser-based web interface, eliminating the need for application installation, external servers, or internet connectivity. The four-layer firmware architecture—hardware abstraction, communication, application logic, and presentation—provides clean separation of concerns that facilitates maintenance, customization, and portability. The self-hosted single-page web application stored in ESP32 flash memory delivers a responsive interface accessible from any device with a web browser and Wi-Fi capability. The 4-channel relay module enables physical peripheral control for LCD display, audio output, and indicator management. Experimental evaluation over a 7-day continuous deployment demonstrated 99.2% system uptime with automatic recovery from network disruptions. Web response latency remained consistently below 150 ms, and relay timing accuracy stayed within 93 ms of programmed durations. User evaluation with 20 participants yielded a mean satisfaction score of 4.6 out of 5 with 100% first-attempt task completion, confirming interface intuitiveness and practical utility. The total hardware cost of under INR 3,000 represents a reduction exceeding 96% compared to commercial kiosk alternatives priced at INR 80,000 to 3,00,000. The open-source Arduino-based firmware, documented wiring configuration, and accessible development environment enable any institution with basic technical staff to replicate and customize the system for their specific requirements. Future development phases will focus on three areas. Enhanced connectivity through cloud integration with Firebase or AWS IoT will enable centralized management of multiple kiosk units deployed across campus, along with Over-the-Air (OTA) firmware updates and MQTT protocol implementation for real-time event broadcasting. Enriched user interaction will be achieved through DF Player Mini integration for multilingual MP3 audio announcements, QR code display for simplified access, and capacitive touch panels for smartphone-free interaction. Intelligence and analytics features including microSD-based usage logging, PIR motion sensor integration for wake-on-approach, and Google Dialogflow integration for natural language query processing will further enhance the system’s capability and administrative utility.

References

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Copyright

Copyright © 2026 Yasmeen Begum D, Yuvasree P, Swetha Fastyna A. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.