Rapid prototyping for multi-application sensor networking

Abstract

Developing integrated hardware interfaces for different actuators allows rapid and easy integration into existing wireless networks.Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have become widely relevant in recent years, facilitating data collection through a large number of nodes measuring different physical parameters in various environments. Such networks require low power consumption in the individual sensors and adequate protocols for communication between the nodes. Effective platform hardware design is also crucial. Key features of the technology are the ubiquity of these systems, the need for transparency to the end user, and the variety of predicted applications. Because so many possible applications exist, using WSNs to their fullest potential depends on our ability to adapt new applications to existing platforms.Rapid prototyping can assist in the process of adapting applications to current platforms. However, one of the main obstacles to this approach is that sensors have heterogeneous interfaces. Some of the numerous different transducer (sensor/actuator) interfaces currently in existence, such as the inter-integrated circuit (I2C), are very popular. However, there will probably never be a single common interface for all types of transducer because of commercial interests and special features. Therefore, when adapting a new sensor, most of the work must be done from scratch, making it difficult to develop applications quickly. This is the problem we are trying to solve.Here we propose a very high speed integrated circuit (VH-SIC) hardware description language (VHDL) library for sensor and actuator interfaces. The purpose is to have a set of interfaces that accommodate the most common sensors and actuators, enabling rapid connections to new equipment. Moreover, the concept presented here may be used for new interfaces that can be easily developed. The VHDL implementation is independent of the final platform; any field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or application-specific integrated circuit may be used. This min- imizes redesign effort and makes rapid prototyping easier. The interfaces are installed in a hardware platform for sensor networks developed at our institution.Hardware node design becomes critical in WSNs for meeting the requirements mentioned above. Modular hardware nodes are often used to make rapid prototyping easier, as well as to allow for quicker redesign and the ability to reuse some of the hardware modules. [1][2][3] With this approach, it is easy to redesign the platform to adapt the system to different scenarios and applications. This concept was developed in our research group's previous work, and our modular platform is available for research and development. 4 Figure 1 shows the four-layer platform, the main features of which are modularity, low cost, medium size, and easy adaptation to different applications.This modular platform is divided into four functional layers: communication, processing, power supply, and sensing/actuating. The processing layer includes a microcontroller and an FP...