9761168 Hoang This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will develop a rugged low-cost, reliable, general purpose data acquisition and control system for autonomous remote platforms to collect and disseminate meteorological and environmental data harsh environments. An objective is to communicate with a variety of instruments and sensors at high data rates via analog-to-digital converter board and digital input/output ports and at low data rates via standard serial lines. The data acquisition design concept is to let the scientific users adapt specific sensors to the system without modification to the system hardware and software (plug-and-play-approach). The innovation of this data acquisition system is to use advanced low-earth orbit satellites for telecommand/control and data retrieval from remote sites through commercially available electronic mail or the world-wide-web. Potential applications include simplified communications for business professionals and reporters, for television networks, construction engineers, geologists, people living in thinly-populated areas, disaster relief operations, and in the shipping, air transport and trucking industries.
