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)
Hibernets:
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)