After 911 1, the United States (U.S.) was suddenly pushed into challenging situations they could no longer ignore as simple spectators. The War on Terrorism (WoT) was suddenly ignited and no one knows when this war will end. While the government is exploring many existing and potential technologies, the area of irel less Sensor networks (WSN) has emerged as a foundation for establish future national security. Unlike other technologies, WSN could provide virtual presence capabilities needed for precision awareness and response in military, intelligence, and homeland security applications. The Advance Concept Group (ACG) vision of Sense/Decide/Act/Communicate (SDAC) sensor system is an instantiation of the WSN concevt that takes a "systems of systems";iew. Each sensing nodes will exhibit the ability to: Sense the environment around them, Decide as a collective what the situation of their environment is, Act in an intelligent and coordinated manner in response to this situational determination, and Communicate their actions amongst each other and to a human command. This LDRD report -provides a review of the research and development done to bring the SDAC vision closer to d reality.

The Hybrid Emergency Radiation Detection (HERD) system is a rapidly deployable ad-hoc wireless sensor network for monitoring the radiation hazard associated with a radiation release. The system is designed for low power, small size, low cost, and rapid deployment in order to provide early notification and minimize exposure. The many design tradeoffs, decisions, and challenges in the implementation of this wireless sensor network design will be presented and compared to the commercial systems available. Our research in a scaleable modular architectural highlights the need and implementation of a system level approach that provides flexibility and adaptability for a variety of applications. This approach seeks to minimize power, provide mission specific specialization, and provide the capability to upgrade the system with the most recent technology advancements by encapsulation and modularity. The implementation of a low power, widely available Real Time Operating System (RTOS) for multitasking with an improvement in code maintenance, portability, and reuse will be presented. Finally future design enhancements technology trends affecting wireless sensor networks will be presented.

Wireless sensor networks allow detailed sensing of otherwise unknown and inaccessible environments. While it would be beneficial to include cameras in a wireless sensor network because images are so rich in information, the power cost of transmitting an image across the wireless network can dramatically shorten the lifespan of the sensors. This paper investigates various compression techniques and what the cost of these algorithms would be to the lifespan of the sensor nodes. We further describe a new paradigm for cameras and wireless networks. Rather than focusing on transmitting images across the network, we show how an image can be processed locally for key features using simple detectors. Contrasted with traditional event detection systems that trigger a an image capture, this enables a new class of sensors which uses a low power imaging sensor to detect a variety of visual cues.

NOTICE This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government, nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, nor any of their contractors, subcontractors, or their employees, make any warranty, express or implied, or assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represent that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government. any agency thereof, or any of their contractors or subcontractors. The views and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government, any agency thereof. or any of their contractors.

This report examines the design process of a photovoltaic (solar) based power supply for wireless sensor networks. Such a system stores the energy produced by an array of photovoltaic cells in a secondary (rechargeable) battery that in turn provides power to the individual node of the sensor network. The goal of such a power supply is to enable a wireless sensor network to have an autonomous operation on the order of years. Ideally, such a system is as small as possible physically while transferring the maximum amount of available solar energy to the load (the node).Within this report, there is first an overview of current solar and battery technologies, including characteristics of different technologies and their impact on overall system design. Second is a general discussion of modeling, predicting, and analyzing the extended operation of a small photovoltaic power supply and setting design parameters. This is followed by results and conclusions from the testing of a few basic systems. Lastly, some advanced concepts that may be considered in order to optimize future systems will be discussed.