The objective of the proposed research is to understand and model data transmission performance of wireless sensors on industrial rotating structures for manufacturing plant floor monitoring. Key research activities include 1) modeling and verifying the effects of antenna directive gain, Doppler shift, and time-variant multipath fading as well as the coupled effects of the aforementioned radio phenomena on rotating wireless sensors' data transmission performance, and 2) validating the proposed data transmission performance model using a designed wireless torque sensor.
The intellectual merit includes: 1) understanding of the effects of multipath fading, Doppler shift, and antenna directivity on signal transmission, 2) systematic experiment approach to decouple and characterize environment factors and data transmission performance, and 3) methodology for predicting data transmission performance based on rotation and sensor placement parameters.
The broader impacts involve: 1) providing a research foundation for wireless sensor network enabled manufacturing plant floor monitoring research and applications, 2) improving manufacturing competitiveness by advocating wireless technologies, 3) broadening participation of underrepresented groups and community students, and 4) establishing cross-disciplinary education via wireless sensor network curriculum.
