Eric James Anderson

CSE 591 Wireless Sensor Networks

Project Proposal
Wireless Temperature Distribution
Wireless sensor networks can be defined as autonomous, ad hoc systems consisting of a
collective of networked sensor nodes designed to intercommunicate via wireless radio.
They are currently one of the more predominant topics of interest throughout the
computer science and engineering community, and an ideal topic for study, research and
project experimentation.
For my project this semester, I would like to propose the topic of wireless temperature
distribution over a fixed wireless sensor network. Specifically, I would like to use Mica
Mote sensor nodes to document temperature distribution over a measured area of
enclosed living space in my 1700 square foot house. I suggest a four phased approach to
completing this project. First, I would need to setup and configure a development
environment in my home office that could accommodate the efforts needed to develop an
application for use with Mica Mote sensor nodes. Mica Motes are sensor nodes
manufactured by CrossBow and run on the TinyOS operating system. Each mote is
equipped with a sensor unit, power unit, transceiver unit, ADC unit, and processor. I
would then need to install TOSSIM, the Mica Mote emulator, on my home office
workstation and ensure that the software is functioning correctly.
The second phase of my project involves installing the NesC libraries on my home
workstation. NesC is a procedural language based loosely on ANSI C that is used to
program the CrossBow devices. Once the environment is configured, I can begin the
process of writing the code that will allow the sensor nodes to gather temperature data
and report this information back to the base station at set time intervals. All software
tests will need to be run on the TOSSIM emulator, since I will not yet have access to
actual Mica Mote nodes. Once the sensor node software has been completed and tested
on the emulator, I would need to write a Java-based application that will interface with
the Mica base station and collect sensor node temperature readings via the serial port.
This data would be catalogued in real-time and sent to an SQL database.
The third phase of my project involves borrowing a Mica Mote base station module and
four MTS300CA sensor nodes from Doctor Guptas research laboratory at Arizona State
University. I would take laser measurements of the living space of my 1700 square foot
house and map the air volume of each of the four areas where sensors are to be located.
The nodes would then be placed appropriately in each of the 4 main living areas as to
heighten sensor accuracy and location distribution. Once the sensors are in place and the
NesC code has been uploaded into the flash memories, I will measure temperature
distribution throughout my house at steady intervals over a 72 hour period. At every
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interval each sensor node will report individual temperature readings to the centralized
base station. The base station will then transmit this information via the serial port to my
workstation which will capture the packets in the Java application and log the data to the
SQL database for reporting purposes.
The fourth phase of my project would involve graphing the data reported by each sensor
node and documenting the overall findings of my research in the project report. This
report will include location analysis; temperature deviation; minimum, maximum and
mean average over specified time frames; outside temperature; internal thermostat
readings; and documentation as to why any deviations might have occurred.
The motivation behind my choice of project is a personal one. For almost two years now
I have lived in my current house. Unfortunately, I have never been able to understand
why the temperature of each room has varied so much. All the vents are open, and yet,
some of the rooms constantly remain cooler or hotter than other rooms. To further
complicate matters, the temperature discrepancy of each room is not consistent over time.
Although the result of my project research will not solve the temperature distribution
problem, I hope to have a better understanding of the deviations between each
temperature. It is my goal that this information will lead to steps taken to close the
appropriate vents so that I can ultimately maintain a consistent temperature throughout
the entire home.

References
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http://www.cs.uno.edu/~golden/MobileBook/
http://shamir.eas.asu.edu/~mcn/
http://webs.cs.berkeley.edu/tos/tinyos-1.x/doc/tutorial/
http://www.tinyos.net/
http://webs.cs.berkeley.edu/tos/mobisys2003.html

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