TiltGuard is a compact, item-level anti-theft monitoring system developed as part of a Small Embedded Systems coursework project.
It uses motion sensing, visual indicators, and a local Wi-Fi status interface to detect unauthorised item movement in real time.
The system is designed to be low-power, event-driven, and self-contained, making it suitable for protecting individual high-value or theft-prone items.
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Finite State Machine–based control logic
- IDLE (disarmed)
- MONITORING (armed)
- ALARM (unauthorised movement detected)
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Motion-based theft detection using an MPU6050 accelerometer
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RGB LED status indication
- Blue: IDLE
- Green: MONITORING
- Red: ALARM
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Local Wi-Fi status page hosted on the ESP8266
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Single-button control for arming, disarming, and alarm reset
- Microcontroller: Adafruit Feather HUZZAH (ESP8266)
- Motion sensor: MPU6050 accelerometer
- Output: RGB LED
- Input: Push button
- Power: USB / regulated supply
- On power-up, the system enters the IDLE state.
- Pressing the button arms the system, calibrates the accelerometer baseline, and enters MONITORING mode.
- While monitoring, motion exceeding a predefined threshold triggers the ALARM state.
- The alarm can be cleared using the button, returning the system to IDLE.
- SSID:
group16SES - Password:
group16SES - URL:
http://192.168.4.1
The web interface displays the current system state and alarm status and refreshes automatically.
- The firmware follows an event-driven architecture to minimise power consumption.
- Motion detection is delegated to the accelerometer, reducing continuous polling by the microcontroller.
- System behaviour is modelled using a finite state machine (FSM) for clarity and reliability.
- Interrupt-based motion detection
- RFID-based authorised reset
- Remote notifications via Wi-Fi
- Migration to a lower-power microcontroller
Developed by Group 16
Small Embedded Systems Coursework