02/2004

Center for Embedded Networked Sensing demonstrates critical new technologies in support of biological, geo, and environmental sciences

The Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS), an NSF Science and Technology Center (STC) headquartered at the University of California, Los Angeles, has recently demonstrated what the BBC referred to as “The hi-tech Tarzan of the robot world, nicknamed Treebot, … the first of its kind to combine networked sensors, a webcam, and a wireless net link.” BBC News, 12/29/03, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3340057.stm.

Sensor networking capabilities are urgently required for some of our most important scientific and societal problems in understanding the international carbon budget, monitoring water resources, and safeguarding public health. This is a daunting research challenge requiring distributed sensor systems operate in complex environments while providing assurance of reliable and accurate sensing.

Under the direction of PI Professor William Kaiser (UCLA), a recent ITR award has enabled the development of Networked Infomechanical Systems (NIMS). NIMS adds essential new architectural tiers to the sensing system ecology. By combining fixed and mobile nodes with infrastructure, the remote sensing system may be sustainable; the sensor network may now collect and distribute energy, introduce new sensors, reposition communication devices, and also calibrate sensing systems. A particularly important new attribute enabled by NIMS is self-awareness that will provide sensor networks with the ability to probe their own comprehensive sensing performance and ultimately adjust physical configuration to optimize and maintain sensing performance. NIMS introduces a new form of infrastructure-supported mobility that enables sensor nodes to explore and characterized complex, three-dimensional environments. NIMS cableway systems provide low energy, sustainable, motion with an elevated and adjustable perspective. The availability of logistics permits continuous, autonomous update of node position to adapt to characteristically unpredictable environmental events.

The first NIMS system deployment at the James Reserve in the San Jacinto mountains was filmed by Discovery Channel and will appear on The Science Channel in March of 2004. Planned applications include the study of carbon flux, water quality, and climate change impact on biodiversity.