ACT5: Networked Infomechanical Systems

Author(s): Richard Pon; Lisa Shirachi; Bill Kaiser | Abstract: Rapidly growing stress on the natural environment has created an urgent demand for new environmental exploration systems that operate remotely and autonomously. As sensor networks are applied to this critical environmental monitoring problems, a series of new requirements have emerged for extensive characterization of dynamic phenomena in three-dimensional environments. The unpredictable presence of obstacles to sensing and the inherent temporal evolution of events create limitations for optimal deployment of sensors in the environment. Networked Infomechanical Systems (NIMS) technology has been developed to introduce precise and sustainable actuation for distributed sensing.