What is smart dust

A tiny dust size device with extraordinary capabilities. Often called micro electro-mechanical sensors. Combines sensing, computing, wireless communication capabilities. autonomous power supply within volume of only few millimeters.

A single Smart Dust mote has:

A semiconductor laser diode and MEMS beam steering mirror for active optical transmission. A MEMS corner cube retro-reflector (CCR) for passive optical transmission. MEMS sensor An optical receiver. A signal processing and control circuitry. A power source based on thick-film batteries and solar cells.

Smart Dust components

Comprises of three mutually perpendicular mirrors of gold-coated poly-silicon.

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 cube's body diagonal

The micro-fabricated CCR includes an electrostatic actuator that can deflect one of the mirrors at kilohertz rates.

Thus the external light source can be transmitted back in the form of modulated signal at kilobits per second

PASSIVE

ACTIVE
Active

ACTIVE

semiconductor diode, collimating lens, beam steering micro mirror Comparatively high power usage Used only for short duration Inter mote communication present Long range ~ tens of km Higher bit rates ~ few mbps Base station commands &wake up the motes

PASSIVE

Uses corner cube retro reflector (CCR) Low power consumption Can be used for longer duration Inter mote communication absent Short range ~150 m Lower bit rates ~ few kbps Motes transmit periodic information automatically by CCR to base station

MAJOR CHALLENGES:
SIZE: BATTERY: ENERGY EFFICIENCY: PRICING: PHYSICAL SECURITY: UPGRADING:

It is a special class of sensor network Fine sensing granularity Applications :

Enemy troop monitoring Large scale Biology or Geology Smart office spaces Defense-related sensor networks Inventory Control Meteorological and geophysical monitoring

MILITARY APPLICATION:

The map showing the geographical location for the motes to dropped in Iraq for surveillance during war. Manned surveillance is almost impossible

Forest fire detection Implementation : drop smart dust from an airplane Motes self-organize into a network Usage A mote that detects a fire notifies central monitoring station The mote location is the approximate locatio n of the fire

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.