CSIRO is developing novel sensors and sensor networks to increase the quality and reduce the cost of collecting environmental data.
Demand is growing for information about the environmental systems that support Australia’s agricultural, resource and process-based industries.
Additional information allows:
The cost of collecting data using current methods is labour intensive and expensive. The requirement for infrastructure, in particular, limits the area that can be monitored and the frequency at which measurements can be taken and transmitted.
Our research
Wireless sensor networks are a new technology for collecting data about the natural or built environment. They consist of low cost embedded sensory and computational devices with wireless capability forming ad hoc networks that provide information on an unprecedented temporal and spatial scale.
CSIRO’s information and communication technologies researchers aim to reduce the cost of data capture by a factor of 1000 and increase the spatial and temporal resolution by a factor of 1 000 within ten years.
Inside five years, we aim for our sensors and network technologies to be the dominant means of data collection in CSIRO and among our industry partners.
We’re working on making information easy to:
-
access
-
archive
-
visualise
-
query
-
manage
-
take action on.
Our work focuses on:
Inside five years, we aim for our sensors and network technologies to be the dominant means of data collection in CSIRO and among our industry partners.
Sensor nodes
We have already developed an environmental and industrial sensor platform.
The nodes of our platform technology are:
-
low cost and easy to produce
-
low power
-
suitable for deployment in large numbers
-
robust enough for remote and harsh environments
-
easily modified to measure almost any variable.
The nodes work independently to record environmental conditions. Each cooperates with its neighbours to wirelessly ransmit their readings via an ad-hoc network.
We are currently developing low-cost sensors that:
We’re also developing:
Network technologies
CSIRO has developed purpose-built networks which:
-
are low cost
-
provide wireless coverage over large areas
-
survive harsh conditions
-
operate continuously without connection to external power sources
-
include in-network computation of summary statistics and detection of anomalies.
We are currently scaling up our network technology and resolving issues associated with deploying large networks in challenging environments.
Our large networks include:
-
70 nodes at Elliott Research Farm in Tasmania, Australia
-
120 nodes at Lake Wivenhoe in Queensland, Australia.
By 2011, there will be 200 nodes in our network at Mt Springbrook in south east Queensland, Australia.
Applications
Use of wireless sensor networks is expected to expand rapidly within the next five years.
Applications include:
-
farming:
-
environmental management:
-
water quality (including pathogen and pesticide detection)
-
localised weather forecasting
-
changes in vegetation type and cover
-
field monitoring of seismic data and gas concentrations.
-
security and safety:
-
industry such as mining, manufacturing, process and construction:
Partners
Collaborators conducting field trials of our sensor nodes platform technology include:
-
South East Queensland Water
-
Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management
-
Australian Institute of Marine Science
-
Tasmanian Institute for Agricultural Research.
Read more of the technical details behind our technology in Sensor Networks [external link].
Site Map | Legal Notice and Disclaimer | Privacy | Copyright | Last updated: 21 April 2010
