Sensor Web

• US 20110196651A1
• Filed: 04/11/2011
• Published: 08/11/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/09/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: California Institute of Technology
• Original Assignee: California Institute of Technology
• Inventors: Delin, Kevin A., Jackson, Shannon P.
• Granted Patent: US 9,385,825 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/178
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 21/00 Measuring or testing not otherwise provided for
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/0641 Change of the master or reference, e.g. take-over or failure of the master
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/24 Connectivity information management, e.g. connectivity discovery or connectivity update
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/001 Synchronization between nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A Sensor Web formed of a number of different sensor pods. Each of the sensor pods include a clock which is synchronized with a master clock so that all of the sensor pods in the Web have a synchronized clock. The synchronization is carried out by first using a coarse synchronization which takes less power, and subsequently carrying out a fine synchronization to make a fine sync of all the pods on the Web. After the synchronization, the pods ping their neighbors to determine which pods are listening and responded, and then only listen during time slots corresponding to those pods which respond.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

deploying a plurality of sensor pods having a specified hardware characteristic;

activating said sensor pods to carry out a specified operation at each of a plurality of spaced locations; and

evolving the Sensor Web by adding more sophisticated sensor pods which have an additional hardware characteristic by and said specified hardware characteristic.

2. A method as in claim 1, further comprising:

synchronizing said plurality of spaced Sensor pods such that said spaced Sensor pods each include a synchronized clock; and

using said synchronized clock to synchronize said spaced Sensor pods to determine a parameter at times that are based on said synchronized clock.

3. A method as in claim 2, wherein said using comprises causing said sensor pods to each determine the parameter at precisely the same time but at said different locations.

4. A method as in claim 2 wherein said synchronizing comprises first carrying

out a coarse synchronization which coarsely synchronizes said sensor pods while minimizing an amount of consumed power, and second carrying out a fine synchronization which more finely synchronizes said sensor pods.

5. A method as in claim 2, further comprising sharing information among all of said sensor pods such that all of said sensor pods receive information about all of the parameters sensed at each of the spaced locations.

6. A method as in claim 2, further comprising a ping routine, during which each of the sensor pods determine which other sensor pods exist, and time slots during which said sensor pods communicate, and listening only during said time slots during the sensor pods exist.

7. A method as in claim 2, further comprising sharing data between the plurality of sensor pods, such that each of the sensor pods receives data from each other Sensor pod.

8. A method as in claim 7, further comprising processing the data from the plurality of sensor pods in the sensor pods, to determine information from the data.

49. A method as in claim 48, wherein the information from the data is vector information related to a value of parameters to sensed at different locations.

50. A method as in claim 42, further comprising adding another Sensor pod to the Sensor Web during operation of the Sensor Web.

51. A method as in claim 50, further comprising, after adding said another Sensor pod, the synchronizing a clock within said another Sensor pod with said synchronized clock.

52. A method as in claim 42, wherein said synchronizing comprises carrying out a first, coarse synchronization at reduced power consumption, and subsequently carrying out a second, fine synchronization, at a higher power consumption.

53. A method as in claim 42, further comprising using said synchronized time base to carry out a main processing loop in each of said plurality of sensor pods which both starts and ends at substantially the same time.