Smart Dust

MAHARISHI MARKENWESHWAR UNIVERSITY MULLANA (AMBALA)

SEMINAR REPORT
ON SMART DUST

SUBMITTED TO: MS. SHAILJA SHARMA (Lect. IT Deptt.)

SUBMITTEDBY: MANISH CHAWLA 11080609 IT-B

Smart Dust

Index
Contents
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. I. II. a) b) c) 8. 9. 10.

Page No

Introduction. 3 Background. 4 Smart Dust Structure... 5 Corner Cube Retro-Reflector (CCR).. 7 How It Works. 9 Challenges... 10 Communication Technique. 12 Radio Frequency Transmission.. 12 Optical Transmission Technique... 13 Passive Laser based Communication 13 Active Laser based Communication.. 14 Fiber Optic Communication.. 15 Application of Smart Dust.. 20 Conclusion.. 24 References.. 25

Smart Dust

1. Introduction:
Smart dust is a tiny dust size device with extra-ordinary capabilities. Smart dust is a nano-structured silicon senor which can spontaneously assemble, orient sense and report on their local environment, which can be used in a number of applications. Main purpose is to collect and relay information. Smart dust combines sensing, computing, wireless communication capabilities and autonomous power supply within volume of only few millimeters and that too at low cost. These devices are proposed to be so small and light in weight that they can remain suspended in the environment like an ordinary dust particle. These properties of Smart Dust will render it useful in monitoring real world phenomenon without disturbing the original process to an observable extends. Presently the achievable size of Smart Dust is about 5mm cube, but we hope that it will eventually be as small as a speck of dust. Individual sensors of smart dust are often referred to as motes because of their small size. These devices are also known as MEMS, which stands for micro electro-mechanical sensors. The current ultra modern technologies are focusing on automation and miniaturization. The decreasing computing device size, increased connectivity and enhanced interaction with the physical world have characterized computing history. Recently, the popularity of small computing devices, such as hand held computers and cell phones; rapidly flourishing internet group and the diminishing size and cost of sensors and especially transistors have accelerated these strengths. The emergence of small computing elements, with sporadic connectivity and increased interaction with the environment, provides enriched opportunities to reshape interactions between people and computers and spur ubiquitous computing researches. Smart dust is tiny electronic devices designed to capture mountains of information about their surroundings while literally floating on air. Nowadays, sensors, computers and communicators are shrinking down to ridiculously small sizes. If all of these are packed into a single tiny device, it can open up new dimensions in the field of communications. The idea behind 'smart dust' is to pack sophisticated sensors, tiny computers and wireless communicators in to a cubic-millimeter mote to form the basis of integrated, massively distributed sensor networks. They will be light enough to remain suspended in air for hours. As the motes drift on wind, they can monitor the environment for light, sound, temperature, chemical composition and a wide range of other information, and beam that data back to the base station, miles away.

Smart Dust There are thousands of different ways that motes might be used, and as people get familiar with the concept they come up with even more. It is a completely new paradigm for distributed sensing and it is opening up a fascinating new way to look at computers.

2. Background:

Smart dust was conceived in 1998 by Dr. Kris Pister of the UC Berkeley. He set out to build a device with a sensor, communication device and small computer integrated into a single package. The defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) funded the project, setting as a goal the demonstration that a complete sensor system can be integrated into a cubic millimeter package. In the early stages of the project the team gained experienced by building relatively large motes using components available off the shelf. One such mote is named RF mote has sensors for temperature, humidity, light intensity, barometric pressure, tilt and vibration, and magnetic field, and was capable of communicating distances of about 60 feet using radio frequency communication. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has been funding Smart Dust research heavily since the late 1990s, seeing virtually limitless applications in the sphere of modern warfare. So far the research has been promising, with prototype smart dust sensors as small as 5mm.But further scaling down needs advance technological changes. Costs have been dropping rapidly with technological innovations, bringing individual motes down to as little as $50 each, with hopes of dropping below $1 per mote in the near future.

Smart Dust

3. Smart Dust Structure:

A smart dust particle is often called motes (Fig. 1). One single mote has a Micro Electro Mechanical System (MEMS), a semiconductor laser diode, MEMS beam steering mirror for active optical transmission, a MEMS corner cube retro-reflector for passive optical transmission, an optical receiver, a signal processing and control circuitry, and a power source based on thick-film batteries and solar cells. A major challenge is to incorporate all these functions while maintaining very low power consumption and optimizing the operating life of the mote. The structure of a single moat is shown in Figure 2.) Smart dust motes consist of a passive optical transmitter with a micro fabricated corner- Cube Retro-reflector (CCR). This CCR contains three mutually perpendicular mirror fabricated of gold- coated poly-silicon (fig. 3). The CCR reflects any ray of Mote Fig 1.Smart Dust light within a certain range of angles centered about the cube diagonal back to the source.

Smart Dust

Fig.2 Structural Components of a Smart Dust Mote

The power system consists of a thick-film battery or a solar cell, or both with a chargeintegrating capacitor (power capacitor). The thick film battery of sol or gel V2O3 provides as a backup in darkness, while solar cells generate energy from sunlight. Depending on its objective, the design integrates various sensors, including light, temperature, vibration, magnetic field, acoustic, and wind shear, onto the mote. Active transmitters make possible peer-to-peer communication between dust motes, provided there exists a line-of-sight path between them.

4. 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 Fig.3 Corner-Cube Retro-reflector (CCR) micro-fabricated CCR includes an electrostatic actuator that can deflect one of the mirrors 6

Smart Dust 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 microfabricated 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 lineof-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.

Figure 4 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.

Smart Dust 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.

5. HOW IT WORKS

The Basic Idea The "mote" concept creates a new way of thinking about computers, but the basic idea is pretty simple:

The core of a mote is a small, low-cost, low-power computer. The computer monitors one or more sensors. It is easy to imagine all sorts of sensors, including sensors for temperature, light, sound, position, acceleration, vibration, stress, weight, pressure, humidity, etc. Not all mote applications require sensors, but sensing applications are very common.

Smart Dust

The computer connects to the outside world with a radio link. The most common radio links allow a mote to transmit at a distance of something like 10 to 200 feet (3 to 61 meters). Power consumption, size and cost are the barriers to longer distances. Since a fundamental concept with motes is tiny size (and associated tiny cost), small and low-power radios are normal

Motes can either run off of batteries, or they can tap into the power grid in certain applications. As motes shrink in size and power consumption, it is possible to imagine solar power or even something exotic like vibration power to keep them running. All of these parts are packaged together in the smallest container possible. In the future, people imagine shrinking motes to fit into something just a few millimeters on a side. It is more common for motes today, including batteries and antenna, to be the size of a stack of five or six quarters, or the size of a pack of cigarettes. The battery is usually the biggest part of the package right now. Current motes, in bulk, might cost something on the order of $25, but prices are falling. It is hard to imagine something as small and innocuous as a mote sparking a revolution, but that's exactly what they have done.

6. Challenges:

The hardware design has to face many challenges due to the small size of the Smart Dust. First of all, it is hardly possible to fit current radio communication technology into Smart Dust both size wise and energy wise. The present radio communication has large antennas and thus requires larger space. The energy requirements are also high. So, a more size and power efficient passive laser based communication schemes have to be adopted. But it also has its share of disadvantages. Another factor of concern is the energy consumption by the Smart Dust. With devices so small, batteries present a massive addition of weight. It is therefore important to use absolutely minimal amounts of energy in communicating the data they collect to the central hubs, where humans can access it. 9

Smart Dust

CPU Size Considerations

RISC processors employed due to their small die size, and their ability to run in low power modes. Code density is of crucial importance The ARM7TDMI is a 32 bit processor with an additional 16 bit instruction set The instruction set can be switched by the software to adapt to current circumstances

Problems with Programming

Mass programming Smart Dust networks may involve thousands of nodes Programming them individually is not practical Embedded systems solution Update firmware Wirelessly Automatically When update available Manufacturing costs increase as size decreases with computer chips Large scale networks The cost of each mote must be very small for costs of a practical system to remain realistic Predictions are $1/mote within 5 years

Problems with Cost

Environmental Impact
A lot of people seem to be worried about environmental impact. Not to worry! Even in my wildest imagination I don't think that we'll ever produce enough Smart Dust to bother anyone. If Intel stopped producing Pentium and produced only Smart Dust, and you spread them evenly around the country, you'd get around one grain-of-sand sized mote per acre per year. If by ill chance you did inhale one, it would be just like inhaling a gnat. You'd cough it up post-haste.Unpleasant, but not very likely. Consider the scale - if I make a million dust motes, they have a total volume of one liter. Throwing a liter worth of batteries into the environment is certainly not going to help it, but in the big picture it probably doesn't make it very high on the list of bad things to do to the planet.

10

Smart Dust

7. Communication Technologies:

Primarily, two technologies can be used for Communication between the motes and the BASE station Transceiver (BST), they are as follows: I. Radio Frequency Transmission II. Optical transmission technique a) Passive Laser based Communication b) Active Laser based Communication c) Fiber Optic Communication All of them have their relative advantages and disadvantages.

11

Smart Dust

I. Radio Frequency transmission:

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 codedivision 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: a) 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. b) RF communication can only be achieved by using time, frequency or code division. c) 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 d) 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.

II. Optical Transmission Technique: a) Passive Laser based communication:

The Smart Dust can employ a passive laser based communication scheme to establish a bi-directional 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 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). The CCR has the property 12

Smart Dust that any incident ray of light is reflected back to the source under certain conditions. If one of the mirrors is misaligned, this retro reflection property is spoiled. The Smart Dust CCR has an electrostatic actuator that can deflect one of the mirrors at kilohertz rates. Using this actuator, the incident laser beam is on-off modulated and reflected back to the BST. 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 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. Advantage of optical links: a) Optical transceivers require only simple baseband analog and digital circuitry; no modulators, active bandpass filters or demodulators are needed. b) The short wavelength of visible or near-infrared light (of the order of 1 micron) makes it possible for a millimeter-scale device to emit a narrow beam (i.e., high antenna gain can be achieved). c) A base-station transceiver (BTS) equipped with a compact imaging receiver can decode the simultaneous transmissions from a large number of dust motes at different locations within the receiver field of view, which is a form of spacedivision multiplexing. d) The CCR makes make it possible for dust motes to use passive optical transmission techniques, i.e., to transmit modulated optical signals without supplying any optical power. Requirements for Passive Laser-based Transmission: a) Successful decoding of these simultaneous transmissions requires that dust motes not block one anothers line of sight to the BTS. Such blockage is unlikely, in view of the dust motes small size. b) A second requirement for decoding of simultaneous transmission is that the images of different dust motes be formed on different pixels in the BTS imaging receiver. For example, suppose that the BTS views a 17-meter by 17-meter area containing Smart Dust, and that it uses a high-speed video camera with a 256 by 256 pixelimaging array. Each pixel views an area about 6.6 centimeters square. Hence, simultaneous transmissions can be decoded as long as this distance separates the dust motes.

b) Active Laser based Communication:

13

Smart Dust

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.

c) 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 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.

14

Smart Dust

Figure 4: Fiber-optic Communication Setup Fiber-optic communication has advantages and disadvantages over a passive freespace 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. 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.

15

Smart Dust

DUST MOTE DEPLOYMENT

Army Alpha deploys an unmanned aerial vehicle

-Ejects tens of thousands of various kinds of rice sized motes o Terrestrial o Air based o Water based Motes automatically form a sensor field

-Light, temperature, vibration, radar, magnetic, acoustic, seismic or a miniature camera. An airplane flies over the area and scatters thousands of motes, each one equipped with a magnetometer, a vibration sensor and a GPS receiver. The battery-operated motes are dropped at a density of one every 100 feet (30 meters) or so. Each mote wakes up, senses its position and then sends out a radio signal to find its neighbors.

16

Smart Dust All of the motes in the area create a giant, amorphous network that can collect data. Data funnels through the network and arrives at a collection node, which has a powerful radio able to transmit a signal many miles. The motes that detect it transmit their location and their sensor readings. Neighboring motes pick up the transmissions and forward them to their neighbors and so on, until the signals arrive at the collection node and are transmitted. This concept of ad hoc networks -- formed by hundreds or thousands of motes that communicate with each other and pass data along from one to another -- is extremely powerful.

17

Smart Dust

18

Smart Dust

DUST MOTE MOBILITY

If dust mote mobility is desired it can be achieved in several ways. The simplest approach is merely to slow the descent rate to keep the sensors in the air, either as long as possible or until they see something of interest. Using a Samara or mapleseed-like approach, descent rates of well under 1 m/s are possible. With control inputs on the airfoils, and auto-rotator could direct its descent, or possibly even ride thermals. Using micromachined nozzles and combustion chambers, dust motes could lie dormant for long periods of time and then shoot into the air under rocket power. Recent results with HTPB/AP based solid fuels indicate that flights of tens of seconds and distances of hundreds of meters should be possible.

19

Smart Dust

8. Application 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: 1) Environmental protection (identification and monitoring of pollution). 2) Habitat monitoring (observing the behavior of the animals in there natural habitat). 3) Military application (monitoring activities in inaccessible areas, accompany soldiers and alert them to any poisons or dangerous biological substances in the air). 4) Indoor/Outdoor Environmental Monitoring 5) Security and Tracking 6) Health and Wellness Monitoring (enter human bodies and check for physiological problems) 7) Power Monitoring 8) Inventory Location Awareness 9) Factory and Process Automation 10) Seismic and Structural Monitoring 11) Monitor traffic and redirecting it

Defense-related sensor networks o battlefield surveillance, treaty monitoring, transportation monitoring, scud hunting, ... Virtual keyboard o Glue a dust mote on each of your fingernails. Accelerometers will sense the orientation and motion of each of your fingertips, and talk to the computer in your watch. QWERTY is the first step to proving the concept, but you can imagine much more useful and creative ways to interface to your computer if it knows where your fingers are: sculpt 3D shapes in virtual clay, play the piano, gesture in sign language and have to computer translate, ... o Combined with a MEMS augmented-reality heads-up display, your entire computer I/O would be invisible to the people around you. Couple that with wireless access and you need never be bored in a meeting again! Surf the web while the boss rambles on and on. Inventory Control

20

Smart Dust The carton talks to the box, the box talks to the palette, the palette talks to the truck, and the truck talks to the warehouse, and the truck and the warehouse talk to the internet. Know where your products are and what shape they're in anytime, anywhere. Sort of like FedEx tracking on steroids for all products in your production stream from raw materials to delivered goods. Product quality monitoring o temperature, humidity monitoring of meat, produce, dairy products Mom, don't buy those Frosted Sugar Bombs, they sat in 80% humidity for two days, they won't be crunchy! o impact, vibration, temp monitoring of consumer electronics failure analysis and diagnostic information, e.g. monitoring vibration of bearings for frequency signatures indicating imminent failure (back up that hard drive now!) Smart office spaces o The Center for the Built Environment has fabulous plans for the office of the future in which environmental conditions are tailored to the desires of every individual. Maybe soon we'll all be wearing temperature, humidity, and environmental comfort sensors sewn into our clothes, continuously talking to our workspaces which will deliver conditions tailored to our needs. No more fighting with your office mates over the thermostat. Interfaces for the Disabled (courtesy of Bryndis Tobin) o Bryndis sent me email with the following idea: put motes "on a quadriplegic's face, to monitor blinking & facial twitches - and send them as commands to a wheelchair/computer/other device." This could be generalized to a whole family of interfaces for the disabled. Thanks Bryndis!
o

21

Smart Dust

The Dark Side

o

Yes, personal privacy is getting harder and harder to come by. Yes, you can hype Smart Dust as being great for big brother (thank you, New Scientist). Yawn. Every technology has a dark side - deal with it. [this was my original comment on "dark side" issues, but it made a lot of people think that we weren't thinking about these issues at all. Not true.] As an engineer, or a scientist, or a hair stylist, everyone needs to evaluate what they do in terms of its positive and negative effect. If I thought that the negatives of working on this project were larger than or even comparable to the positives, I wouldn't be working on it. As it turns out, I think that the potential benefits of this technology far far outweigh the risks to personal privacy.

22

Smart Dust

THE FUTURE
In March, 2003, researchers managed to cram all of the parts needed for a mote onto a single chip less than 3 millimeters on each side. The total size is about 5 square millimeters, meaning that you could fit more than a dozen of these chips onto a penny. The chip contains all of the components found in a mote: a CPU, memory, an A/D converter for reading sensor data and a radio transmitter. To complete the package you attach the sensor(s), a battery and an antenna. The cost of the chip will be less than a dollar when it is mass produced.

"S pec" pictured beside the tip of a ballpoint pen.

23

Smart Dust

9. 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. Soon we will see Smart Dust being used in varied application from all spans of life. Smart dust is the power of pc in a dust particle. Extent of miniaturization Can help us to lead a better life, in our own beautiful environment Early adopters have used motes on oil tankers, in vineyards, and grocery stores Eventually, motes will likely be smaller, cheaper, and have longer lives This will make dust motes feasible for more applications

10. References:

24

Smart Dust

1. Yunbin Song: Optical Communication Systems for Smart Dust 2. J. M. Kahn, R. H. Katz, K. S. J. Pister: Next Century Challenges: Mobile Networking for Smart Dust 3. An Introduction to Microelectromechanical System Engineering: Nadim Maluf, Kirt William 4. B.A. Warneke, M.D. Scott, B.S. Leibowitz: Distributed Wireless Sensor Network 5. http://www.coe.berkeley.edu/labnotes

25