I-Corps: Extremely compact, low-power sensing nodes that may fulfill the promise of smart dust

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是探索新型无线连接传感器的应用。这项拟议的技术为物联网(IoT)、智能灰尘或边缘智能(EI)设备提供了一种超低功耗传感器设备。相对于目前的传感器，拟议的技术可能会在全面覆盖和电池寿命方面的成本提高100倍，几乎消除了电池更换和传感器维护的成本。农业中的应用实例包括预防性、成本效益和持续监测温度、降雨量、风向、土壤湿度、病虫害和疾病，以便做出明智的决策。其他应用可能包括预防/治疗医疗保健、动物福利、环境监测、交通运输和工业监测。这个I-Corps项目研究了一种新型的具有端到端计算的片上系统(SoC)在异步流数据路径上的转换，它由用于采集传感器数据的异步Sigma-Delta调制器(ASDM)、用于流的计算核心、无时钟无线接口和模拟存储器组成。SoC能效的关键是独特的数据表示--ASDM将模拟数据映射到1和0的异步流，而不是数字数字。流被发送到由乘法器和加法器等处理元件组成的计算核心。流的乘法器可以用单个AND门和2：1多路复用器的加法器来实现，与典型的方法相比，实现了高达90%的功率和面积节省。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to explore applications of new wirelessly connected sensors. The proposed technology advances a an ultra-low-power sensor device for the Internet of Things (IoT), smart dust, or edge intelligence (EI) devices. Relative to current sensors, the proposed technology may create 100-fold improvements in the cost of thorough coverage and battery life, virtually eliminating the cost of battery replacement and sensor maintenance. Example applications in agriculture include preventive, cost-effective, and continuous monitoring of temperature, rainfall, wind direction, soil moisture, pests, and illness for informed decision-making. Other applications may include preventive/therapeutic healthcare, animal welfare, environmental monitoring, transportation, and industrial monitoring.This I-Corps project investigates translation of a novel system-on-chip (SoC) with end-to-end computing on asynchronous streams data-path that is composed of Asynchronous Sigma-Delta Modulators (ASDM) for acquiring sensor data, a computing-core for streams, a clock-less wireless interface and an analog memory. The key for the SoC power efficiency is the unique data representation - the ASDM maps analog data to asynchronous streams of 1s and 0s instead of digital numbers. The streams are sent to the computing-core composed of processing elements, such as multipliers and adders. A multiplier for streams may be implemented with a single AND gate and an adder with a 2:1 multiplexer, achieving savings in power and area of up to 90% compared with typical approaches.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.