NeTS: Small: Fundamentals of Assessing Occupancy Dynamics with Ubiquitous Wireless Signals

稳健和准确的占用评估是许多应用的关键。建筑供暖/制冷优化、智能照明、零售业务规划、智能家居应用、智能城市规划和疏散/应急规划只是其中的几个例子。本提案的总体目标是引入一种使用无处不在的无线信号进行占用评估的新范式。如今，不仅通信设备无处不在，而且大多数主要目的不是通信的智能设备（例如智能扬声器或恒温器）现在都配备了使用廉价通信收发器（如Wi-Fi或蓝牙）的通信功能。这开启了使用射频（射频）信号来感知和了解环境的可能性。该项目建议以一种非传统的方式使用无线链路：作为一种评估大区域内时空占用动态的传感机制。时空占用评估是指衡量人们如何移动和利用其空间的几个属性，如一个地区的总居住人数作为时间的函数，人们的平均速度和停留时间，以及几个地区之间的人口流动速度等因素。更具体地说，该项目将开发无处不在的射频信号占用评估的理论基础和设计工具，重点是了解基本能力和局限性。提出的框架不依赖于人们携带任何设备，具有穿墙感应能力，并保护隐私。使用日常通信信号进行准确和可靠的占用评估是相当具有挑战性的。拟议的努力有三个主要任务来解决潜在的挑战。第一个主要目标是对如何将单个链接转变为占用评估传感器的基本理解，其功能和局限性得到很好的表征。更具体地说，它提出了一个数学概率模型，揭示了占用动态的关键属性与无线测量的关键属性之间的关系。第二项主要任务建立在第一项任务的基础上，以开发作为占用评估传感器网络的多个链路的最佳联合处理的基础。第三个主要任务是开发数学工具，用于设计一个有效的占用评估系统，该系统由几个区域组成，只有少量无线链路。最后，对提出的理论基础和设计工具进行了广泛的测试，并在不同的地区，包括当地的百货商店进行了多次实验。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Robust and accurate occupancy assessment is key to many applications. Optimization of heating/cooling in buildings, smart lighting, retail business planning, smart home applications, smart city planning, and evacuation/emergency planning are just a few examples. The overall goal of this proposal is to introduce a new paradigm for occupancy assessment using ubiquitous wireless signals. Not only are communication devices ubiquitous these days, but most smart devices whose main goal is not communication (e.g., smart speakers or thermostats) are now equipped with communication capabilities using cheap communication transceivers such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. This opens the possibility of using RF (Radio Frequency) signals for sensing and learning about the environment. This project proposes to use wireless links in a non-traditional manner: as a sensing mechanism for assessing the spatio-temporal occupancy dynamics in a large region. Spatio-temporal occupancy assessment refers to measuring several attributes of how people move and utilize their spaces, such as the total number of occupants in an area as a function of time, the average speed and dwell time of people, and the flow rate of people in between several areas, among other factors. More specifically, the project will develop the theoretical foundation and design tools for occupancy assessment with ubiquitous RF signals, with an emphasis on understanding the fundamental capabilities and limitations. The proposed framework does not rely on people to carry any device, has through-wall sensing capabilities, and preserves the privacy.Accurate and robust occupancy assessment with everyday communication signals is considerably challenging. The proposed effort has three major tasks to address the underlying challenges. The first major goal brings a foundational understanding to how a single link can be turned into an occupancy assessment sensor whose capabilities and limitations are well characterized. More specifically, it proposes a mathematical probabilistic modeling that reveals the relationship between the key attributes of occupancy dynamics and the key attributes of the wireless measurements. The second major task then builds on the first one to develop the foundation of optimum joint processing of a number of links as an occupancy assessment sensor network. The third major task develops the mathematical tools for designing an efficient occupancy assessment system over a large region that consists of several areas, with only a small number of wireless links. Finally, the proposed theoretical foundation and design tools are extensively tested with several experiments in different areas, including local department stores.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.