This paper examines a particular methodology of teaching engineering design to undergraduate engineering students, which relies on Lego ® Mindstorms ™ . A number of important issues are addressed, including the timing of the design module within the programme, prior knowledge required and assessment components. The module, which has been running for three years, was found to have many positive attributes, not only in relation to the core design activity, but also in generating good team-building and engaging students with the degree programme.
__________________________________________________________________________________________This paper presents the design of a new approach to networking a housing community, through the use of a mesh sensor network that consists of both wireless infrastructural mesh nodes and wireless sensor nodes. One key issue with such networks is the development of a suitable Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol for the purpose of transferring data from the sensor nodes to the infrastructural nodes. Here, we use a MAC protocol based on Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) and propose the use of the Rugby MSF broadcast as a synchronisation signal. This novel technique is investigated and some preliminary analysis is outlined.
This paper investigates the development of a suitable Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol for a housing community wireless network that consists of both wireless infrastructural mesh nodes and wireless sensor nodes. In this network, transmit-only sensor nodes are employed in order to obtain a low cost, easy to deploy and low power solution. However, such sensor nodes have no way of verifying successful data transfer and it is, therefore, imperative that the associated MAC protocol provides a high level of confidence for transferring this data. In this paper, we examine methods of packaging and transmitting sensor node data in order to obtain such a MAC protocol for the aforementioned housing community wireless network. Microchip's rfPIC is used as the platform for the sensor node. Some preliminary analysis and results are presented within.
Abstract-Wireless mesh sensor networks typically consist of a cluster of intelligent radio nodes which transfer data between each other directly in a hop, or indirectly through two or more hops via adjacent nodes. These nodes contain one or more sensors. Wireless mesh sensor networks provide a solution in monitoring and controlling the physical world around us and offer far reaching potential applications. This paper presents a novel design, implementation and prototype realization of one such potential application, namely the use of a wireless mesh sensor network to monitor the events and activities in a housing community environment. In this network, transmit-only sensor nodes are employed in order to obtain a low cost, easy to deploy and low power solution. A small-scaled version of the proposed network is deployed in a controlled environment, allowing for practical testing and verification of the final design. The results obtained are presented and discussed within.Keywords -Wireless mesh sensor networks, transmit-only sensor nodes, housing community sensor network.
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