Hardware Development
Techniques and algorithms developed by researchers in the Autonomous Systems Laboratory are designed to be deployed on real-world physical platforms, and so are implemented and tested on these platforms as part of the development cycle. Often this requires sensors and computing equipment to be miniaturised, weather-proofed, or otherwise designed and mounted so as to survive in harsh environments. Our Engineering Support team is fundamental in ensuring that our systems and equipment perform reliably under real-world conditions.
Engineering Support for Sensor Networks Research
The engineering support team designed and built a series of circuit boards for wireless sensor nodes. The range includes Fleck™ 1, 2 and 3, as well as two smaller coin-sized versions known as Fleck™ Nano and Pico. The Powercom Group in Tasmania have now been awarded the license to manufacture the Flecks in commercial quantities.
Flecks are low cost, low powered, robust sensor nodes with long range radio capabilities that operate (normally) using solar power. Their main use is in environmental monitoring, but the potential exists for the smaller Flecks to be used in the health-care or agricultural industries. The circuit boards have a range of different connectors available for daughterboards to be added to increase the functionality of the base unit.
The Engineering Support team has designed and built daughterboards to interface with audio detectors, stereo-cameras, soil moisture sensors, temperature sensors, Global Positioning (GPS) units, water quality sensors, and MP3 audio devices. Fleck boxes built by the team (and recently by the Powercom Group) are used to house the Fleck™ circuit board, daughterboards, and other peripheral devices like a Fleck CMOS camera. The complete Fleck node (including the electronics, sensors, and housing) must be sufficiently robust to survive for many years in all weather conditions, and withstand assault from insects and spiders who wish to make it their home.
Flecks have been incorporated into floating buoys on lakes and dams for wireless monitoring of environmental indicators such as temperature, wind direction, and water chemistry. The team also incorporated Flecks into cattle collars to track the movements of livestock. These collars include an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) to determine the animal's position and orientation in 3D space, a GPS unit which tracks the animal's global position, and actuator devices that help control animal behaviour via an auditory warning signal and an electrical device that administers a mild electrical shock.
Engineering Support for Robotics
Our engineering support team also provides critical support for our research in robotics. Learn more about this work here.
Key Staff
Publications
- Wen Hu, Peter Corke, Wen Chan Shih, Les Overs. "secFleck: a public key technology platform for wireless sensor networks." In: Rödig, U. and Sreenan, C. J., eds. Wireless Sensor Networks: 6th European Conference, EWSN 2009; Cork, Ireland. Springer; 2009: 296-311. (Lecture notes in computer science. v. 5432).
