Some interesting WSN Class Projects

 

Introduction to Wireless Sensor Actuator Networks is intended to provide a hands-on learning experience for students in the areas of embedded systems and distributed computing. Over the last 3 years, many interesting projects have been demonstrated by students in this course. Most of these have developed into M.S. thesis projects, Ph. D. dissertation topics or senior design projects. The following is a list of some of these projects along with a brief description. If you are interested in more details, please send me an email.

 


EZTrack: An indoor zonal tracking system

EZTrack is a proximity-based indoor tracking system that features portability and ease-of-setup by not requiring a separate training phase in every new environment. The system uses measured radio signal strength on IEEE 802.15.4 radios to infer proximity but self-calibrates its parameters in different environments thus making it easy to setup. The system was demonstrated in The Village at heritage Point, a senior center in Morgantown WV, for tracking elderly people in the facility and ensuring their safety. The system was shown to have an accuracy of about 5 feet in tracking.

Students: Chet Tobrey (Senior undergraduate) and Ashok Selvaraj (Masters in CS)

 

 

 


image011Hibernets: Energy-efficient sensor networks using analog signal processing

Wide-scale deployment of sensor networks for these applications has been inhibited by the inability to last for long durations on small power sources, such as batteries and energy-harvesting systems. In this project, an ultra-low power analog circuit for spectral decomposition was interfaced with a Telos mote to enable energy-efficient sensor network implementations. The analog circuit was shown to perform spectral analysis at 3micro-watts, far lower than that of a Telos mote in sleeping mode. Spectral decomposition is a crucial first-step for many sensor network applications such as acoustic or seismic based object classification, event detection, and vibration monitoring in bridges. Therefore, these analog circuits hold great promise for use in wireless sensor networks (WSNs).

Students: Brandon rumberg (Ph.D in EE) and Anvesh Singireddy (Masters in EE)

 


Self-configuring synchronization over a multi-hop wireless network

The objective of this project was to design a self-configuring protocol for a set of nodes connected by a wireless multi-hop network to perform some periodic operation in synchrony. The protocol was implemented and demonstrated on Telos motes. The motes were shown to synchronize with each other and blink their LEDs in complete synchrony. The motes follow the oldest clock in the system to achieve synchrony. The motes retain the synchronization despite the oldest clock leaving the system and with new motes joining the system. I find this to be a very useful demonstration to showcase the concepts of distributed computing and self-configuration to visiting high school students and undergraduate students. It can also be used as an example of nature inspired computing by providing an analogy to fireflies lighting themselves in synchrony.

Students: Ahmed Ammar (Masters in EE) and Patricio Terrazos (Masters in mining)

 


Self-stabilizing, O (1) time, uniform de-synchronization over a single hop

The objective of this project was to design a self-configuring protocol for a set of nodes connected by a wireless network to uniformly desynchronize themselves over a given time period. In other words, given a period T and N nodes, each node should fire at equally spaced times within the period T. The protocol was implemented and demonstrated on Telos motes connected by a single hop.  The protocol stabilizes in the presence of addition and deletion within a maximum of 2 rounds after the perturbations stop. This protocol has many applications in industrial control and TDMA systems. I find this also to be a very useful demonstration to showcase the concepts of distributed computing and self-configuration to visiting high school students and undergraduate students.

Students: Cletis Nicklow, Zahra Ronaghi, Ke Feng

 


A human action guided embedded robot

The objective of this project was to create an autonomous robot system embedded with a camera, wireless card and a Beagleoard. The Create iRobot platform was used as the robot. The robot was programmed to navigate based on hand guided actions (waving left hand would cause it to turn left, waving right hand to turn right, waving both hands would cause it to move forward a few steps). Additionally, the robot was demonstrated to search for a red ball of given dimensions and then chase it. Now that 2 such camera equipped robots have been assembled, they can be used to test and demonstrate coordinated actuation applications, mobile sensor network applications and pursuer evader tracking applications.

Students: Gordon Christie (Senior undergraduate) and Srikanth Parupati (Masters in CS)

 

 


Camera network based parking lot guide on a handheld

It is often a big trouble to enter a parking lot and go aisle by aisle in search of an open parking space. Current parking lots are able to provide the number of empty parking spaces but not their location. The objective of this project is to use a network of cameras to gather information about location of empty parking spaces and make them available on a smart phone. The camera network system is trained to recognize empty and occupied parking spaces. Parking space data is updated periodically by the network to a server which then provided these updates to a requesting smart-phone. Since each parking lot is different, an xml based specification was created to describe parking lot structures that are downloaded to a smart-phone from a parking lot server. Parking lots already have surveillance cameras and this application simply piggybacks on that existing infrastructure. The system was demonstrated on an Android phone with a Logitech camera monitoring a small parking space.

Students: Rahul Kavi, Raja Abhinay and Samnvitha Ramayanam

 


Indoor home security system with remote monitoring

 

The objective of this project was to design a home monitoring system to check if a door is open or latched and to remotely unlock or lock a door. The system was demonstrated by integrating a TelosB mote with a servo-motor controlled door. A secure interface was provided on a handheld to monitor and control the status of a door. This project can be combined with a motion detection system to design a complete home monitoring system.

Student: Brian McQueen (Senior undergraduate)