A modular and reconfigurable sensing and actuation platform for smarter environments and drones

Abstract

There has been an immense growth in sensors, actuators, and smart devices in recent years, which enable us to better sense, actuate, and understand the physical world. Despite this growth, we have yet to achieve fully intelligent environments. This is, in part, due to the large number of different organizations creating smart devices with proprietary technologies and communication protocols that are not compatible with each other and require significant engineering to incorporate and adapt to specific applications. In this work, we present an easy-to-install and low-cost embedded platform that allows users to rapidly configure a mixture of sensors and actuators. The system is based on the commonly-used Raspberry Pi ecosystem, easily configurable, and does not require users to have prior knowledge of programming, which allows anyone, regardless of background, to use. We also introduce a battery-powered wireless extension module that is suitable for mobile drone applications, where a chord-powered Raspberry Pi is not suitable. We demonstrate the impact our system has on enabling drones with flexible sensing modalities and creating smarter environments by integrating our platform into a variety of intelligent home applications. CCS CONCEPTS• Computer systems organization → Sensor networks; Sensors and actuators.