Embedded wireless sensing system

Solving today's environmental challenges requires an understanding of environmental systems. What is the source and fate of mercury contamination in rice paddies? How do we manage fresh water stores to balance environmental quality and human consumption? Environmental scientists, biologists, researchers, and engineers cannot answer such questions without tools for measuring environmental variation in space and time. Developed jointly by the Information Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California (USC) and UCLA Center for Embedded Network Systems, SensorKit is an open, embedded environmental sensor platform designed to help researchers and practitioners enable discoveries and manage natural resources.

Designed with the users in mind

A central design criterion is to create systems that are easy to install, troubleshoot, and use. With the technical guesswork out of the way, researchers and practitioners can focus on the data.

SensorKit is conceived as a way to make wireless sensor networks accessible to more people. By using readily available components and systems, researchers at the Information Sciences Institute have devised a scalable, cost-effective, highly configurable, and automated system for rapid deployment. By leveraging existing technologies, SensorKit enables scientists to achieve results rapidly and cost effectively. Moreover, with the SensorKit solution, users will be able to customize sensing equipment to tailor it to their needs. SensorKit is a powerful tool for sensor data collection that doesn't require advanced technological know-how.

By providing simple, tested configurations of commercially-available hardware, easy-to-use software, and step-by-step tutorials, we're aiming to make wireless sensor networks for environmental science as simple as possible. To learn more about SensorKit, please contact the SensorKit team for additional details.

What is SensorKit? Flexible. Powerful. Reliable.

SensorKit is a project focused on developing a set of robust and flexible tools for making and using environmental observations. The modular and extensible design lets building blocks be reused in various configurations. The system supports rapid deployment in remote locations, with different mechanisms for relaying data to central stores. To support a wide range of applications, SensorKit works with a wide variety of sensors types, from industry-grade products to research-specific prototypes. System status monitoring and extensive data caching ensure robust operation and recovery from failures without a loss of data.

SensorKit is developed via an iterative cycle of deployment-driven design, build, test, and revise working in close collaboration with environmental researcher. We are looking for researchers and sponsors to collaborate on new design requirements and deployment challenges.