MACAQUE is an uncertainty-aware data collection system that provides energy- and bandwidth-efficient querying in resource-limited environments, such as sensor or other wireless networks. MACAQUE provides an SQL-like query interface for specifying when and where data should be acquired. Uncertainty information, represented as confidences or probability distributions, is provided as a part of the data model, and carried with every raw reading or processed result. By explicitly representing uncertainty, MACAQUE provides users with information and interfaces that enable them to better interpret the actual state of some environment even in the presence of lost data or failed sensing nodes. MACAQUE is developed as a suite of open source data management tools designed to allow the user's to capture data from wireless sensor networks and to answer queries about that data while taking into account imprecision and uncertainty. The project has a broad impact on the community by involving undergraduate and graduate students in database systems research at MIT as well as in forming a key component of a joint Civil Engineering/EECS undergraduate sensing laboratory. More information about MACAQUE, as well as pointers to source code, data sets, publications, presentations, and course materials (all of which are made freely available) are available on the project web site (http://db.csail.mit.edu/macaque/).
