Sensing and Actuation

Each DISCOVER node will be equipped with a set of sensors interfaced with the experimental node and accessible by user code. These sensors are implemented either as add-on boards designed for the DISCOVER node or as Arduino shields. To facilitate the development and deployment of the nodes, we have identified the following categories of sensing capabilities but we will add additional senors as requested by the experimenters: EnvSense for environmental monitoring: this category includes sensors that measure air temperature and relative humidity, solar radiation, and particulates. EmerSense for natural disaster and emergency monitoring: in addition to the sensors in EnvSense, this category includes sensors for measuring soil moisture and temperature. The data obtained by these sensors can be used for predicting, monitoring, and responding to disasters such as wildfires and floods. OptiSense for optical surveillance and monitoring: this is a pan/tilt camera that can provide still images and video streams at different qualities (resolution and frame rate). It is composed of a camera board designed for the experimental node’s MCU and a servo mechanism controlled by the MCU. The optical data can be processed on-board DISCOVER node or transmitted to the corresponding site server. Example research applications enabled by this sensing capability include visual surveillance, environment monitoring, disaster monitoring and response, edge and multi-agent computing, and distributed intelligence. The modular design of DISCOVER nodes allows for extensibility in sensing capability, where additional sensors can be easily added to an existing node to support new applications. The primary actuation capability of DISCOVER stationary nodes is user-code control of pan/tilt cameras on nodes equipped with OptiSense. In addition, the open design and implementation of DISCOVER allows plug-and-play custom nodes to be incorporated dynamically, which can extend the infrastructure with additional actuation capabilities. DISCOVER also includes mobile nodes as described in the next section.