CSR: Small: Self-sustainable Solar-powered Emergency Mesh Design

自然紧急情况和灾害情景是具有深远影响的不幸事件。除了人员伤亡外，自然灾害还会破坏电网、电话网络和移动电话塔。其结果是，没有办法向幸存者传播重要的最新信息，如疾病和安全警报、位置和方向。上述问题是由于缺乏为自然灾害后的生存和服务而设计的网络系统的结果。为了解决这个问题，该项目正在设计、实施和部署一个太阳能供电的自我可持续应急网络，为幸存者和救援人员提供关键的通信基础设施。这项工作采用了节能和自我可持续的网格架构。它依靠太阳能等可再生能源为网格节点提供近乎永久的生命周期，同时为幸存者提供关键的更新。由于可再生能源的回收是出了名的不可预测，该项目为节点使用了一种全新的低功耗硬件和软件系统设计。此外，在自然灾害发生后，由于可再生能源清除固有的可变性和极端环境条件导致节点故障时，网格会自动重新分配故障节点上的数据，以保持足够的冗余。最后，网状设计使用常见的无线技术，如Wi-Fi和轻量级的基于网络的服务，以兼容现成的笔记本电脑、移动电话和灾难幸存者携带的pda。这个项目的最终目标是拯救人类的生命。有了网格基础设施，灾后时期的人员伤亡可以降到最低。此外，在非紧急情况下，该系统可用于发布“警察警报”和“疾病警报”（如猪流感），使个人充分了解情况并保持警惕。除了广泛的社会影响外，该项目还通过教育课程为本科生和毕业生提供构建移动、嵌入式和地理空间系统的实践经验。

Natural emergency and disaster scenarios are unfortunate occurrences with far reaching after effects. In addition to human casualties, natural calamities can destroy the power grid, telephone networks, and mobile phone towers. The result being, there is no alternative for disseminating critical updates such as disease and safety alerts, locations, and directions to survivors. The above problem is an outcome of the lack of network systems that are designed to survive and serve after natural disasters. In order to remedy this problem, this project is designing, implementing, and deploying a solar powered self-sustainable emergency mesh to provide critical communication infrastructure to survivors and rescue personnel. This work employs a mesh architecture that is energy-efficient and self-sustainable. It relies on renewable energy sources such as solar to provide near-perpetual lifetime to mesh nodes while serving critical updates to survivors. Since renewable energy scavenging is notoriously unpredictable, this project uses a clean-slate low power hardware and software systems design for the nodes. Additionally, in the event of node failures due to variability inherent in renewable energy scavenging and extreme environmental conditions during the aftermath of a natural calamity, the mesh automatically redistributes the data on the failed nodes to maintain sufficient redundancy. Finally, the mesh design uses common wireless technology such as Wi-Fi and light weight web-based services for compatibility with off-the-shelf laptops, mobile phones, and PDAs carried by disaster survivors. The culminating goal of this project is to save human lives. With the mesh infrastructure in place, human casualties during post-disaster times can be minimized. Additionally, during non-emergency scenarios, the system can be used to disseminate \police alerts" and \disease alerts" (e.g. swine-flu) that keep individuals well informed and cautious. In addition to a broad societal impact, this project, through educational courses provides hands-on experience to undergraduates and graduates in building mobile, embedded, and geospatial systems.