Smart Dust: Communicating with cubic millimeter computer

Technical Seminar Report

Submitted to M S Ramaiah Institute of Technology (Autonomous Institute Affiliated to VTU, Belgaum) in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of

BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING in TELECOMMUNICATION ENGINEERING For the Academic Year 2012-13

Submitted By Shivani Prasad 1MS09TE049

DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATION ENGINEERING, M.S.RAMAIAH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, (Autonomous Institute affiliated to VTU), BANGALORE 560054 April 2013

M.S.RAMAIAH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (Autonomous Institute Affiliated to VTU) Vidya Soudha, Jnana Gangothri MSR Nagar, Bangalore- 560 054, Karnataka Department of Telecommunication Engineering

CERTIFICATE This is to certify that the Project work entitled Smart Dust: Communicating with cubic millimeter computer carried out by Shivani Prasad, the bonafide student of M.S.Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bangalore, in partial fulfillment for the award of Bachelor of Engineering in Telecommunication Engineering, of the Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belgaum during the year 2012-2013. It is certified that all corrections/suggestions indicated for Internal Assessment have been incorporated in the Report. The Seminar Report has been approved as it satisfies the academic requirements in respect of Seminar work prescribed for the said Degree.

Internal guide: Parimala P. Asst. Professor, TC Dept, MSRIT Dr.Vijay Kumar B.P. Professor and Head, TC Dept, MSRIT

DECLARATION

I, Shivani Prasad student of B.E., Telecommunication Engineering, M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bangalore-560054, hereby declare that the Seminar Report entitled Smart Dust: Communicating with cubic millimeter computerhas been carried out

independently by me in M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bangalore-560054 under the guidance Parimala P., Asst. Professor, Dept of Telecommunication Engg, MSRIT, Bangalore.

I declare that the work submitted in this report is my own, except where acknowledged in the text, and has not been previously submitted for the partial fulfillment of the degree at the Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belgaum or any other Institution/University.

Place: Bangalore Date: 19.04.2013 Shivani Prasad Dept of TC, MSRIT, Bangalore- 5600

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

No work is complete with due recognition being given to persons who made it possible. My seminar is no exception. I would like to place on record, profound gratitude for those who have mattered the most in the successful completion of the project. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Prof. P. Parimala the internal guide and the contact faculty for her constant encouragement, continuous feedback and sparing her valuable time for discussion. I am grateful to Dr. Vijay Kumar B P, Prof. and Head, Dept of Telecommunication Engineering for his moral support given at various stages. I wish to express my gratitude to the seminar coordinator, Mr.Venu K.N.. I also wish to express my sincere thanks to our principal ,Dr. S Y Kulkarni for his inspiration and support at various stages . Lastly I would also like to thank our staff members, all those who have helped me in the completion of the seminar.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. 2.

INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................6 THE MEMS TECHNOLOGY IN SMART DUST..........7 SMART DUST COMPONENTS.......8 OPERATION OF THE MOTE.......9 MODE OF COMMUNICATION..10 LISTENING TO A DUST FIELD....15 APPLICATIONS OF SMART DUST..18 CURRENT ADVANCEMENTS..18 CHALLENGES....19

3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

10. CONCLUSION.20 References .......21

1. INTRODUCTION

Berkeleys Smart Dust project, led by Professors Pister and Kahn, explores the limits on size and power consumption in autonomous sensor nodes. Size reduction is paramount, to make the nodes as inexpensive and easy-to-deploy as possible. The research team is confident that they can incorporate the requisite sensing, communication, and computing hardware, along with a power supply, in a volume no more than a few cubic millimeters, while still achieving impressive performance in terms of sensor functionality and communications capability. These millimeter-scale nodes are called Smart Dust. It is certainly within the realm of possibility that future prototypes of Smart Dust could be small enough to remain suspended in air, buoyed by air currents, sensing and communicating for hours or days on end.

'Smart dust' sensor-laden networked computer nodes that are just cubic millimetres in volume. The smart dust project envisions a complete sensor network node, including power supply, processor, sensor and communications mechanisms, in a single cubic millimetre. Smart dust motes could run for years, given that a cubic millimetre battery can store 1J and could be backed up with a solar cell or vibrational energy source.

The goal of the Smart Dust project is to build a millimeter-scale sensing and communication platform for a massively distributed sensor network. This device will be around the size of a grain of sand and will contain sensors, computational ability, bidirectional wireless communications, and a power supply. Smart dust consists of series of circuit and micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) designs to cast those functions into custom silicon. Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) consist of extremely tiny mechanical elements, often integrated together with electronic circuitry.

2. THE MEMS TECHNOLOGY IN SMART DUST

Smart dust requires mainly revolutionary advances in miniaturization, integration & energy management. Hence designers have used MEMS technology to build small sensors, optical communication components, and power supplies. Microelectro mechanical systems consists of extremely tiny mechanical elements, often integrated together with electronic circuitory. They are measured in micrometers, that is millions of a meter. They are made in a similar fashion as computer chips. The advantage of this manufacturing process is not simply that small structures can be achieved but also that thousands or even millions of system elements can be fabricated simultaneously. This allows systems to be both highly complex and extremely low-cost.

Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) is the integration of mechanical elements, sensors, actuators, and electronics on a common silicon substrate through microfabrication technology. While the electronics are fabricated using integrated circuit (IC) process sequences (e.g., CMOS, Bipolar processes), the micromechanical components are fabricated using compatible "micromachining" processes that selectively etch away parts of the silicon wafer or add new structural layers to form the mechanical and electromechanical devices. MEMS realizes a complete System On chip technology.

Microelectronic integrated circuits can be thought of as the "brains" of a system and allow microsystems to sense and control the environment. Sensors gather information from the environment through measuring mechanical, thermal, biological, chemical, optical, and magnetic phenomena. The electronics then process the information derived from the sensors and through some decision making capability direct the actuators to respond by moving, positioning, regulating, and filtering, thereby controlling the environment for some desired purpose. Because MEMS devices are manufactured using batch fabrication techniques similar to those used for integrated circuits, unprecedented levels of functionality, reliability, and sophistication can be placed on a small silicon chip at a relatively low cost. The deep insight of MEMS is as a new manufacturing technology, a way of making complex electromechanical systems using batch fabrication techniques similar to those used for integrated circuits, and uniting these electromechanical elements together with electronics. Historically, sensors and actuators are the most costly and unreliable part of a sensor-actuator-electronics system. MEMS technology allows these 7

complex electromechanical systems to be manufactured using batch fabrication techniques, increasing the reliability of the sensors and actuators to equal that of integrated circuits. The performance of MEMS devices and systems is expected to be superior to macro scale components and systems, the price is predicted to be much lower.

3. SMART DUST COMPONENTS

Integrated into a single package are :1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. MEMS sensors MEMS beam steering mirror for active optical transmission MEMS corner cube retroreflector for passive optical transmission An optical receiver Signal processing and control circuitory A power source based on thick film batteries and solar cells

This remarkable package has the ability to sense and communicate and is self powered.

Smart dust employs 2 types of

transmission schemes:-passive transmission using

corner cube retro reflector to transmit to base stations and active transmission using a laser diode & steerable mirrors for mote to mote communication.

The photo diode allows optical data reception

Fig.3.1 Structural Components of a Smart Dust Mote 4.OPERATION OF THE MOTE

The Smart Dust mote is run by a microcontroller that not only determines the tasks performed by the mote, but controls power to the various components of the system to conserve energy. Periodically the microcontroller gets a reading from one of the sensors, which measure one of a number of physical or chemical stimuli such as temperature, ambient light, vibration, acceleration, or air pressure, processes the data, and stores it in memory. It also occasionally turns on the optical receiver to see if anyone is trying to communicate with it. This communication may include new programs or messages from other motes. In response to a message or upon its own initiative the microcontroller will use the corner cube retro reflector or laser to transmit sensor data or a message to a base station or another mote.

The primary constraint in the design of the Smart Dust motes is volume, which in turn puts a severe constraint on energy since we do not have much room for batteries or large solar cells. Thus, the motes must operate efficiently and conserve energy whenever possible. Most of the time, the majority of the mote is powered off with only a clock and a few timers running. When a timer expires, it powers up a part of the mote to carry out a job,

then powers off. A few of the timers control the sensors that measure one of a number of physical or chemical stimuli such as temperature, ambient light, vibration, acceleration, or air pressure. When one of these timers expires, it powers up the corresponding sensor, takes a sample, and converts it to a digital word. If the data is interesting, it may either be stored directly in the SRAM or the microcontroller is powered up to perform more complex operations with it. When this task is complete, everything is again powered down and the timer begins counting again.

Another timer controls the receiver. When that timer expires, the receiver powers up and looks for an incoming packet. If it doesn't see one after a certain length of time, it is powered down again. The mote can receive several types of packets, including ones that are new program code that is stored in the program memory. This allows the user to change the behavior of the mote remotely. Packets may also include messages from the base station or other motes. When one of these is received, the microcontroller is powered up and used to interpret the contents of the message. The message may tell the mote to do something in particular, or it may be a message that is just being passed from one mote to another on its way to a particular destination. In response to a message or to another timer expiring, the microcontroller will assemble a packet containing sensor data or a message and transmit it using either the corner cube retroreflector or the laser diode, depending on which it has. The laser diode contains the onboard laser which sends signals to the base station by blinking on and off. The corner cube retroreflector , transmits information just by moving a mirror and thus changing the reflection of a laser beam from the base station.

This technique is substantially more energy efficient than actually generating some radiation. With the laser diode and a set of beam scanning mirrors, we can transmit data in any direction desired, allowing the mote to communicate with other Smart Dust motes.

5. MODE OF COMMUNICATION

Primarily, two technologies can be used for Communication between the motes and the BASE station Transceiver (BST), they are as follows: 5.1 Radio Frequency transmission:

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It is based on the generation, propagation and detection of electromagnetic waves with a frequency range from tens of kHz to hundreds of GHz. It could be used to function as both the uplink and the downlink. Since RF transceiver typically consists of relatively complex circuitry, it is impossible to achieve the required low power operation using such an approach in a smart dust system. When large numbers of motes are involved in smart dust, RF links may employ alternative multiplexing techniques: time, frequency or code-division multiplexing. Their use leads to modulation, bandpass filtering, demodulation circuitry, and additional circuitry, all of which needs to be considered based on power consumption. RF communication can be used for smart dust communication but it poses following problems: Size of the antenna: Since the size of the antenna should be of the carrier wavelength, if we reduce the size of the antenna (which is very difficult to achieve) the wavelength of the carrier wave will decrease, thus requiring high frequency transmission. This system will no longer comply with low power consumption requirement of the small dust. RF communication can only be achieved by using time, frequency or code division. Multiplexing (TDMA, FDMA, or CDMA) each having their own complications. For TDMA mote should transfer at high bit rate (as high as aggregate uplink capacity) in absence of other transmission. Beside this, mote should coordinate their transmission with other mote. In FDMA, the accurate control of oscillator frequency is required. Since CDMA operates for a relatively extended time interval, it requires high-speed digital circuitry and it consumes excessive power. Both FDMA and CDMA should avoid coordination between dust motes and they require dust motes to be preprogrammed with unique frequencies or codes in order to prevent such coordination.

5.2 Optical Transmission Technique:

5.2.1 Passive Laser based communication:

The Smart Dust can employ a passive laser based communication scheme to establish a bidirectional communication link between dust nodes and a base station transceiver (BST). For downlink communication (BST to dust), the base station points a modulated laser beam at a node. The latter uses a simple optical receiver to decode the incoming message. For uplink 11

communication (dust to BST), the base station points an un-modulated laser beam at a node, which in turn modulates and reflects back the beam to the BST. For this, the dust nodes are equipped with a Corner Cube Retro Reflector (CCR).

5.2.1.1 Corner Cube Retro-Reflector

Fig.5.2.1 Corner-Cube Retro-reflector (CCR)

CCR comprises three mutually perpendicular mirrors of gold-coated polysilicon. The CCR has the property that any incident ray of light is reflected back to the source (provided that it is incident within a certain range of angles centered about the cubes body diagonal). If one of the mirrors is misaligned, this retro-reflection property is spoiled. The micro-fabricated CCR includes an electrostatic actuator that can deflect one of the mirrors at kilohertz rates. It has been demonstrated that a CCR illuminated by an external light source can transmit back a modulated signal at kilobits per second. Since the dust mote itself does not emit light, the passive transmitter consumes little power. Using a micro-fabricated CCR, we can achieve data transmission at a bit rate up to 1 kilobit per second, and over a range up to 150 meters, using a 5milliwatt illuminating laser. One should note that CCR-based passive optical links require an uninterrupted line-of-sight path. Moreover, a CCR-based passive transmitter is inherently directional; a CCR can transmit to the BTS only when the CCR body diagonal happens to point directly toward the BTS, within a few tens of degrees. A passive transmitter can be made more omni-directional by employing several CCRs oriented in different directions, at the expense of increased dust mote size. If a dust mote employs only one or a few CCRs, the lack of omni-directional transmission has important consequence on feasible network routing strategies.

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Fig.5.2.2 Free Space Optical Network

Figure 4 illustrates a free-space optical network utilizing the CCR-based passive uplink. The BTS contains a laser whose beam illuminates an area containing dust motes. This beam can be modulated with downlink data, including commands to wake up and query the dust motes. When the illuminating beam is not modulated, the dust motes can use their CCRs to transmit uplink data back to the base station. A high frame-rate CCD video camera at the BTS sees these CCR signals as lights blinking on and off. It decodes these blinking images to yield the uplink data. This uplink scheme achieves several kilobits per second over hundreds of meters in full sunlight. At night, in clear, still air, the range should extend to several kilometers. Because the camera uses an imaging process to separate the simultaneous transmissions from dust motes at different locations, we say that it uses space-division multiplexing. The ability for a video camera to resolve these transmissions is a consequence of the short wavelength of visible or near-infrared light. This does not require any coordination among the dust motes, and thus, it does not complicate their design. This type of design implies a single-hop network topology, where dust nodes cannot directly communicate with each other, but only with a base station. The base station can be placed quite far away from the nodes, since the employed laser communication works over a range of hundreds of meters, provided a free line-of-sight between the BST and the nodes. Communication may suffer from significant and highly variable delays if the laser beam is 13

not already pointing at a node that is subject to communication with the BST. Smart Dust nodes can be highly mobile, since nodes are small enough to be moved by winds or even to remain suspended in air, buoyed by air currents.

5.2.2 Active Laser based Communication:

Active optical communication typically uses an active-steered laser-diode based transmitter to send a collimated laser beam to a base station. This system contains a semiconductor laser, a collimating lens and a beam-steering micro-mirror as shown in Figure 2. Active optical communication is suitable for peer-to-peer communication, provided there exist a line of sight path between them. Using MEMS technology, the components of the active communication network can be made to be small enough to fit into the smart dust motes. One of the disadvantages of the active transmitter is its relatively high power consumption. This leads to the use of active optical communication for short duration burst-mode communication only. In order to minimize the power consumption, the active transmitter should have some protocol to aim the beams toward the receiver, for example, using directional beam and an active beam-steering mechanism. These components would make the design of the dust mote more complicated. Active communication has the advantage of high power density. This provides capable for optical wireless communication over enormous distances. Using active optical

communication one can form multi-hop networks. Burst-mode communication provides the most energy-efficient way to schedule the multi-hop network. The active laser-diode transmitter operates at up to several tens of megabits per second for a few milliseconds.

5.2.3 Fiber-optic communication:

Fiber-optical communication employs semiconductor laser, fiber cable and diode receiver to generate, transfer and detect the optical signal. Its most of the characteristics matches with that of passive optical communication. The relatively small size of the optical transceiver is employed with low-power operation. Each dust mote does not need to have an on board light

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source to transmit the data. By the using MEMS technology, Corner cube retro-reflector is employed on each dust mote to modulate uplink data to base station. For downlink, a single laser transmitter in base station generates an on-off-keyed signal containing downlink data and commands. The beam splitter divides the interrogating signals into the fibers that are connected to each dust mote. After passing through optical isolator, the signals go into directional coupler. Directional coupler divided them into two fibers. One of them will be passed while the index-matching material blocks the other. Finally, after passing GRIN-rod lens, the signals reach to the receivers of each dust mote. On the uplink, each dust mote is equipped with a CCR. CCR modulates interrogating beams from the base station and reflects these signals back to fiber cable. The directional coupler divides the signals into two fibers. The signals in the fiber that is connected to the optical isolator will be blocked, and the signals in the other fiber will reach to the receiver in the base station.

Fig.5.2.3 Fiber-optic Communication Setup Fiber-optic communication has advantages and disadvantages over a passive free-space optical communication. Since optical fiber communication employs fiber cables to transfer and receive optical signals, it does not require the unbroken line-of-sight, the link directionality, and human eye safety from laser is maintained. Each dust mote does not need to employ more than one CCR, and the communication between dust motes and a base station can be guaranteed. In addition, it has a longer range of communication link than that of a free space passive optical communication.

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However, fiber-optic communication has a limitation on the application. The optical fiber cables restrict the mobility of dust mote. Since a base station should employ several optical components for fiber connection to each dust mote, it may complicate base station design.

6. LISTENING TO A DUST FIELD

Many smart dust applications rely on direct optical communication from an entire field of dust motes to one more base stations. These base stations must therefore be able to receive a volume of simultaneous optical transmissions. Communication must be possible

outdoors in bright sunlight. Using a narrow band optical filter to eliminate all sunlight, except the portion near the light frequency used for communication can only partly solve this problem.

6.1 Imaging receivers

Imaging receivers can overcome both the above challenges. Light from a large field of view can be focused ino an image, as in our eyes or in a camera. Imaging receivers utilize this to analyze different portions of the image separately to process simultaneous transmissions from different angles. This method of distinguishing transmissions based on their originating location is referred to as space division multiple access (SDMA). In contrast, most radio- frequency antennas receives all incidents radio power in a single signal, which requires using additional tactics, such as frequency tuning or code division multiple access (CDMA), to separate simultaneous transmissions.

6.2 Video camera

A video camera is a straight forward implementation of an imaging receiver. If each member in a colony of smart dust motes flashes its own signal at a rate of a few bits per seconds, then each transmitter will appear in the video stream at a different location in the image. Using a high speed camera and a dedicated digital signal processor to process the video signal achieves higher data rates. With modern cameras and DSPs, processing video at about 1000 frames per second should be feasible. This allow communication at a few 16

hundred bits per seconds, which is acceptable for many applications. An alternative receiver architecture provides a more elegant solution at much higher data rates, avoiding the need for computationally intense video processing and very high speed cameras.

6.3 Smart Pixel Imaging Receivers

This is a fully integrated CMOS imaging device that receives data upto a few megabits per second. The receiver leverages the power of shrinking integrated circuits and recent developments in CMOS Smart pixel sensors to create a microchip similar to a digital

camera sensor, but with a complete asynchronous receiver circuit integrated into every pixel in the imaging array.

During the receivers operations, each pixel autonomously monitors its own signal, looks for a transmission, decodes it, and transmits the data off chip when it receives a valid data packet. Each pixel in the imager requires a photosensor and circuits to perform analog signal processing and amplification, analog-to-digital conversion and an asynchronous serial receiver. Such a receiver should be able to receive transmissions of only a few milliwatts in strength up to a few megabytes per second over a distance of several kilometers.

Fig.6.1 Imaging receiver concept

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Fig.6.2 Basic components of a smart pixel in an integrated imaging receiver

7. APPLICATIONS OF SMART DUST

Not only does the Smart Dust remain suspended in the air for hours, the air currents can also move them in the direction of flow. It is very hard to detect the presence of the Smart Dust and it is even harder to get rid of them once deployed. Moreover it does not cost much so can be densely deployed. Due to the above-mentioned features, Smart Dust can be used in varied application fields. These are as follows:

Chemical or biological sensors. Weapons stockpile monitoring. Defense related sensor networks. Inventory controls. Land or space communication networks. Monitoring environmental conditions that affect crops and livestock. Building virtual keyboards. Providing interfaces for the disabled. Product quality monitoring. Internal space craft monitoring.

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8. CURRENT ADVANCEMENTS

Microbotics

Add legs or wings to smart dust and we get micro robots. Like smart dust, these synthetic insects will sense, think, and communicate. In addition they will have the ability to move about and interact physically with their environment. Micro machining can be used to build micro actuators and micro mechanisms, forming legs and wings, which are integrated with other smart dust components.

The crawling microbot consume only tens of micro watts of power; the motors can lift more than 130 times the robots own weight. The flying microbot have a wing span of 10 25 mm and will sustain autonomous flight. Developers folded 50 micron thick stainless steel into desired shape to create the wings and exoskeleton. Piezoelectric motors attached to the exoskeleton actuate the wings. These legged and winged microbots will consume a total power of less than 10 milliwatts, provided by onboard solar cells.

Fig.8.1 Crawling microbot

Fig.8.2 Flying microbot

9. CHALLENGES

A major challenge is to incorporate all functions while maintaining very low

power consumption, thereby maximizing operating life; given the limited volume available for energy storage. The functionality envisioned for smart 19

dust can be achieved only if total power consumption of a dust mote is limited to microwatt levels, and if careful power management strategies are utilized.

With devices so small, batteries present a massive addition of weight. Privacy issues Though smart dust can be used as a total surveillance device,
abuse of such technology can cost us our privacy.

An unbroken line of sight of path should be available for free space optical
links.

10. CONCLUSION

There are many ongoing researches on Smart Dust, the main purpose of these researches is to make Smart Dust mote as small as possible and to make it available at as low price as possible. Miniaturization effort could help solve one of the most pressing economic problems of the day run away energy costs. Once attached to buildings walls, the sensors would form a network relaying data about each rooms temperature, light and humidity to central computer that would regulate energy usage for a fraction of the cost of current climate control systems. The emerging smart energy technologies potentially could save nations on electricity costs, as buildings drain away more than a third of the total energy supply. Costs have been dropping rapidly with technological innovations, bringing individual motes down to a very low rate. Soon we will see Smart Dust being used in varied application from all spans of life.

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REFERENCES

Brett Warneke, Matt Last, Brian Leibowitz, Kristofer S.J Pister, Smart DustCommunicating with a cubic millimeter computer IEEE Journal- Computer. January 2001

An Introduction to Microelectromechanical System Engineering: Nadim

Maluf, Kirt William

J. M. Kahn, R. H. Katz, K. S. J. Pister: Next Century Challenges: Mobile

Networking for Smart Dust

http://www.coe.berkeley.edu

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