This project, developing a prototype integrating trace-gas sensing platform to overcome the biggest barriers (sensor performance, integrated networked platforms, and at-scale deployments), explores the development of sensor technologies, sensor platforms, networking, data analysis, and control in one integrated platform. The PHOTOnic Networked Sensors (PHOTONS) platform, developed from the ground-up, enables researchers, developers, and commercial organizations to rapidly experiment with never-before-possible trace-gas sensing applications in security, and industrial and environmental monitoring in an affordable, portable, power-efficient manner. The key innovations of PHOTONS include advanced sensor technologies, system platform development, and a framework to accelerate development of novel applications such as . Sensor Miniaturization . Three-tier System Platform, and . Open-access Collaborative Development. Planned is the development of a novel trace-gas sensor at least two orders of magnitude smaller, lower cost, and lower power than any commercially available and a three-pier platform consisting of sensor node, new networking primitives, and application toolbox permitting flexible control. This architecture allows the node, the network, of the application to control sensor's sensing accuracy and corresponding energy consumption at fine granularity. The PHOTONS open-access repository provides a standard set of hardware, software, and application libraries, along with complete characterization of performance metrics at multiple granularities.
Broader Impacts: The platform provides the basic mechanism to establish an interdisciplinary, global community with academic and industrial collaborators that may have far-reaching impact on national security. Open-access collaborative development will be combined with a multi-pronged education and dissemination program, seeds new collaborations, promotes open experiments, and provides standardization for scientific comparisons. Furthermore, the platform provides educators and students with technologies for cutting edge research in many disciplines.
