This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
The objective of this research is to advance inertial sensing in combination with remote RF interrogation technologies. This work will leverage developments in wireless devices, inertial sensors and system design to realize a new class of wireless sensors that are near-passive in energy needs. Synergistic design practices will be used to achieve sufficient activation/communication range and sensitivity in order to enable numerous embedded sensing applications. The approach is to employ less damped, more compliant, and self-reinforced diamagnetic levitation in inertial sensors to obtain superior performance while implementing high-efficiency transceivers based on narrowband harmonic re-radiation. The frequency discrimination and narrowband filtering avoids interference while enhancing the ability to detect lower power signals.
Much of the intellectual merit is devoted to the development of ultra-sensitive and robust inertial sensors, the employment of high-efficiency near-passive harmonic-coupled transceivers, and the investigation of a new wireless telemetry methodology that permits operation under harsh channel conditions by capitalizing on narrowband filtering and frequency discrimination. As a result, this work will enable a transformative change in embedded wireless inertial sensing.
The outcomes of the project will benefit wireless sensor system design, advance current state-of-the-art inertial sensing technology and yield fundamentally new approaches to remote sensing. The industry partnership will enable the research team to broadly disseminate results beyond the academic community. At both institutions there are synergistic center activities which will benefit from the results of the investigation. The project will also impact curriculum at both universities, while leveraging ongoing programs that attract underrepresented students to engineering.
