No abstract

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -This paper aims to describe the simulation, design, development and characterisation of antennas for wireless sensor networks operating in a variety of environments, including an under water submarine application and more usual "open air" deployments. Design/methodology/approach -The experimental test methodology, fixtures, conditions and results used to characterize the performance of these antennas (both state of the art commercially available and those developed in-house) are presented. Findings -The underwater test results show a near omni-directional pattern about the three principal axes, thus showing that a spherical field has been achieved for localisation purposes (with a certain loss of resolution). Originality/value -The paper focuses on the development of a new antenna scheme to enable under water communications between robotic agents.

Wireless Sensor networks (WSNs) are often viewed as providing solutions to the problems inherent in monitoring large areas over a long time-scale. As such they are often envisaged for use in unstable or harsh environments, such as outdoors or on factory floors. In such places the ambient temperature and/or humidity can often vary over time along with other environmental factors.Variations in these basic defining parameters of an environment may introduce problems to a WSNs performance due mainly to the possible effects on antenna performance. Given that the efficiency of the antenna has a dramatic impact on both range of operation and power usage, it is desirable that its performance be gauged over the entire range of expected environmental effects. The improvement or degradation of the performance of the antenna based on the environment is vital knowledge in the design of a power conscious system.Thus this paper will present the design, simulation and test of antennas designed for use in WSNs over a wide range of temperature and humidity values. The antenna model will be presented, with simulated results. The design of the test system will be discussed, and the performance of various antennas will be presented. The suitable conclusions on the performance of the various antennas in heterogeneous environments, and thus their suitability for WSNs, will be drawn.