With different gaseous pollutants collectively responsible for an estimated 41,200 annual deaths in the U.S. air quality monitoring becomes an imperative for the health and well-being of the population. The project GENIUS (for Green sEnsor Networks for aIr qUality Support) aims at building a continuously operational pollution monitoring network through proposing advancements in sensor hardware, communication protocols, analytical models with the goal of realizing self-sustaining sensor nodes.
The design of an integrated sensor combining an on-demand wake-up radio and energy harvesting technologies is a key contribution of this research, enabling the deployment of energy neutral sensor networks for pollution monitoring that are virtually perennial. GENIUS revisits the network protocol stack in light of this new node architecture. Techniques for jointly optimizing duty cycles based on energy prediction, the choice of energy storage components, as well as finding routes that ensure the highest throughput for a given energy availability are being explored in this work. Moreover, Òpollution mapsÓ using novel spatio-temporal data modeling tools are integrated with the protocol design to improve the operational performance.Ê
Energy neutral sensor networks will impact many different applications, such as environmental, structural, and patient health monitoring, where deployed sensors are not easily accessible. The project also involves international collaboration with India, giving an opportunity for U.S. students and researchers to interact with their Indian counterparts, conduct joint experiments, and develop mutually beneficial research strategies to combat the global challenges posed by air pollution.
