Development of A Radio-Frequency Sensor Wake-up Method for Wireless Aerial-Ground Sensing

Energy efficiency in wireless sensing networks (WSN) is the last-mile challenge when deploying a WSN for field-based monitoring task to environmentally hard-access, remote, and geospatial large or complex spaces. In this paper, we propose a novel aerial-ground and energy efficient sensing network for meeting the need of geospatial field monitoring by using an aerial UAV as the mobile gateway to wireless sensor nodes in the ground (or in ground structures). Then the focus of this paper is on achieving energy efficiency for ground sensor nodes. In this paper, the authors develop an active radio-frequency (RF) based wake-up mechanism for data transmission in the aerial-ground sensing network. To prove the energy efficiency, several sensor wake-up solutions are physically implemented and evaluated. The results show that the RF-based wake-up mechanism can potentially save more than 98.4% of the energy that the traditional duty-cycle method would otherwise consume, and 96.8% if an infrared-receiver method is used.

Download Full-text

Development of Radio-Frequency Sensor Wake-Up with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles as an Aerial Gateway

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s19051047 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 19 (5) ◽

pp. 1047 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Jianfei Chen ◽

Zhaohua Dai ◽

ZhiQiang Chen

Keyword(s):

Energy Efficiency ◽

Radio Frequency ◽

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles ◽

Autonomous Navigation ◽

Engineering Practice ◽

Opportunistic Sensing ◽

Aerial Vehicles ◽

Frequency Sensor ◽

Sensing Platform ◽

Radio Frequency Sensor

The advent of autonomous navigation, positioning, and general robotics technologies has enabled the improvement of small to miniature-sized unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, or ‘drones’) and their wide uses in engineering practice. Recent research endeavors further envision a systematic integration of aerial drones and traditional contact-based or ground-based sensors, leading to an aerial–ground wireless sensor network (AG-WSN), in which the UAV serves as both a gateway besides and a remote sensing platform. This paper serves two goals. First, we will review the recent development in architecture, design, and algorithms related to UAVs as a gateway and particularly illustrate its nature in realizing an opportunistic sensing network. Second, recognizing the opportunistic sensing need, we further aim to focus on achieving energy efficiency through developing an active radio frequency (RF)-based wake-up mechanism for aerial–ground data transmission. To prove the effectiveness of energy efficiency, several sensor wake-up solutions are physically implemented and evaluated. The results show that the RF-based wake-up mechanism can potentially save more than 98.4% of the energy that the traditional duty-cycle method would otherwise consume, and 96.8% if an infrared-receiver method is used.

Download Full-text

A Radio Frequency Sensor For Measurement Of Small Dielectric Property Changes

Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications ◽

10.1080/09205071.2012.710566 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 26 (8-9) ◽

pp. 1180-1191 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

W.-N. Liu ◽

Y. Yang ◽

K.-M. Huang

Keyword(s):

Dielectric Property ◽

Radio Frequency ◽

Frequency Sensor ◽

Radio Frequency Sensor ◽

Property Changes

Download Full-text

Optimizing Power Consumption for the Wireless Sensor Node

Applied Mechanics and Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.738-739.107 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 738-739 ◽

pp. 107-110

Author(s):

Hui Lin

Keyword(s):

Power Consumption ◽

Radio Frequency ◽

Power Saving ◽

Sensor Nodes ◽

Wireless Sensor ◽

Wireless Sensor Node ◽

Wireless Sensor Nodes ◽

Cycle Times ◽

Current Consumption ◽

Saving Effect

A Wireless Sensor Network is composed of sensor nodes powered by batteries. Thus, power consumption is the major challenge. In spite of so many research works discussing this issue from the aspects of network optimization and system design, so far not so many focus on optimizing power consumption of the Radio Frequency device, which consumes most of the energy. This paper describes the digital features of the Radio Frequency device used to optimize current consumption, and presents a practical approach to measure current consumption in static and dynamic scenarios in details, by which we evaluates the power saving effect. The results demonstrated that according to cycle times and application characteristics choosing appropriate features can prolong the lifetime of wireless sensor nodes.

Download Full-text