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

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目旨在证明智能传感器阵列的高级图形编程环境的可行性。理想情况下，应用程序开发人员应该能够在高抽象级别（例如，“控制电机速度”、“监控轴承”、“监控泵”）。 此外，还必须为他们提供工具，以便在此高级别上获取系统描述并将其映射到特定的硬件集。 “映射”工具的开发对于成功至关重要，因为典型的应用程序开发人员（例如，工业工程师或过程控制工程师）将不具有手动执行此操作所需的所有特定专业知识。他们将无法回答这样的问题：我应该有多少个处理器？ 哪些传感器应该连接到哪些处理器？ 将算法映射到传感器网络涉及编程和软件方面的专业知识，分析所需的算法知识，以及对传感器网络分布式特性的理解。 本研究的目标是开发一套工具，使应用专家能够定制智能传感器阵列的行为，以解决他们的真实的世界问题。正在工业中使用的传感器正在从模拟接口过渡到数字接口。 虽然数字接口可以非常强大，但由于缺乏标准的通信协议，该市场上出现了60种专有总线。 为了解决这个问题，电气和电子工程师协会（IEEE）为这些传感器创建了一个标准，即IEEE 1451智能传感器标准。通过定义标准接口，IEEE 1451将允许来自各种制造商的工业传感器更容易联网。 行业采用此标准的原因是强制性的，然而，一个高级软件接口，如这里提出的，是至关重要的。

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.