SBIR Phase I: A Programming Environment to Enable Engineers Program Distributed Smart Sensor Networks

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This Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase I project seeks to demonstrate the feasibility of a high level graphical programming environment for Smart Sensor arrays. Ideally, application developers should be able to describe the desired behavior of their system at a high level of abstraction (e.g., 'control motor speed', 'monitor bearing', 'monitor pump'). In addition they must be provided with tools that take a system description at this high level and map it onto a specific set of hardware. The development of a 'mapping' tool is critical to the success of this, as the typical application developer (e.g., an industrial engineer or process control engineer) will not have all of the specific expertise needed to perform this manually. They will not be able to answer questions like: How many processors should I have? Which sensors should be connected to which processors? Mapping algorithms onto sensor networks involves expertise in programming and software, knowledge of the algorithms needed to analyze the, and an understanding of the distributed nature of the sensor network. The goal of this research is to develop a set of tools to allow application experts to customize the behavior of smart sensor arrays to solve their real world problems.Sensors that are being used in industry are transitioning from analog to digital interfaces. While the digital interface can be exceptionally powerful, the lack of a standard communication protocol has allowed for 60 proprietary busses to appear in this market. To remedy this, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) has created a standard for these sensors, the IEEE 1451 smart sensor standard. By defining a standard interface, the IEEE 1451 will allow easier networking of industrial sensors from a variety of manufacturers. The reasons are compelling for industry to adopt this standard, however, a high-level software interface, like the one proposed here, is critical.