SMART DUST

WAZIR KHAN
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
REGD NO.0701209244
 Overview
 What is Smart Dust?
History
Smart Dust Components
Smart Dust Networking
Applications
Conclusion

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 What is Smart Dust?
 “SMART DUST” is an autonomous sensing, computing,
communication and power source in a cubic millimeter
 Small devices that can collect information from on-board
sensors and transmit it over a wireless network that
automatically sets itself up
 Also called “Motes”
 Possible sensors include temperature, relative humidity,
illumination, acceleration, magnetic field, pressure, chemical
vapors, camera, microphone, …
 These “motes” have memories, microprocessor,
radio receiver and transmitter
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History

Conceived by Dr. Kris Pister of UC Berkeley

Funded by DARPA (Dept. of Defense) Kris Pister

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Smart Dust Components

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Contd…
 Thick film battery: 1mm^3, 1 J storage
 Power capacitor: 0.25mm^3, 1uJ storage
 Solar cell: 1x1x0.1mm^3, 0.1mW generation
 CMOS controller: 1x1x0.1mm^3
 Sensor: 0.5x0.5x0.1mm^3
 Passive CCR comm: 0.5x0.5x0.1mm^3, 10kbps, 1uW,
1km
 Active laser comm: 1x0.5x0.1mm^3, 1Mbps, 10mW,
10km
 Total volume: < 1.5 mm^3
 Total mass: < 5 mgm
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Smart Dust Networking
 A collection of motes is dispersed in an environment
 Motes use wireless communications to relay information to a
base station (gateway) over distances of 15-50 m.

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 How the communication occurs?
The smart dust mote is run by a microcontroller that not only
determines the task performed by the mote, but consists of
the power to the various components of the system to
conserve energy. Periodically the micro controller gets a
reading from one of the sensors, which measure one of a
number of physical or chemical stimuli and store it in
memory. It also turns on 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(CCR)
or laser to transmit sensor data or a message to a base
station or another mote.
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Contd…
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.

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Contd…
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.

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Communication ways
It can be in 3 ways

 Radio-Frequency Communications

 Optical Communication: passive dust mode transmitters

Optical Communication: active dust mode transmitters

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 Radio-Frequency Communications

 Radio frequency communication is one of the well-

developed communication systems.
 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.
 Radio-Frequency Communications
 Pros
Long range
Not severely affected by rain, fog or atmospheric
turbulence
 Cons
Antenna may be too large for dust motes
Requires modulator, demodulator, filtering (power
consumption)
Requires complex multiplexing scheme (TDMA,
FDMA, CDMA)
 Optical Communication
(Passive Dust Mote Transmitters)
M o d u l a t e d D o w n l i n k D a ta o r
U n m o d u la t e d I n t e r r o g a t io n
B e a m fo r U p l i n k

Lens P h o to -
D o w n lin k d e te c to r
Laser D o w n lin k
D a ta I n
D a ta O u t

S ig n a l S e le c t io n U p l in k
a n d P ro c e s s in g D a ta In
C C D C o rn er-C ub e
Im a g e L e n s R e t r o r e f l e c to r
S e n so r M o d u la t e d R e f le c t e d
A rray B e a m fo r U p l i n k
D u s t M o te
U p lin k U p li n k
D a ta . . . D a ta
O u t1 O u tN
B a s e -S ta t io n T r a n s c e iv e r

 Attractive communication option for uplink and downlink

 Corner Cube Reflector (CCR)
Top View of the Interrogator
Quarter-wave
Filter Polarizing Plate
Beamsplitter

CCD Camera Lens

0.25% reflectance
on each surface

Frequency-Doubled Beam
YAG Green Laser Expander 45o mirror
Contd...
Dust
M o te
Base
S t a t io n
T ra n s ce iv e r

Dust
T r a n s m i t t e r R a d ia n t I n t e n s it y M o te
R e c e i v e r L i g h t C o ll e c t i o n A r e a

Requires each dust mote to have a line-of-sight

path to the base station.
Uplink transmissions are multiplexed using
space-division multiplexing.
 (Active Dust Mote Transmitter)
Beam
S te e r in g
C o llim a tin g M ir r o r ( s )
Laser Lens
D io d e

Two-axis beam steering assembly Active dust mote transmitter

 It uses an active steered onboard laser diode based

transmitter to send a collimated laser beam to a station
Contd…
D ust
M ote

Base
S t a t io n
T ra n sc e iv er
Dust
M o te
T r a n s m i t t e r R a d ia n t I n t e n s i t y
D ust
R e c e i v e r L i g h t C o ll e c t i o n A r e a M ote

It consist of a laser diode, collimating mirror and beam

steering mirrors for the communication.
It is suitable for peer to peer communication.
 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’s location is the
approximate location of the
fire.
Image Sources: http://science.nasa.gov,
USDA Forest Service - www.fs.fed.us 19
 Spotting Pipe Corrosion

Benefits
• Inspect pipes without
crawling in tight spaces
• No need to remove
insulation to inspect
pipe
• Up to date status

Image Source: gettyimages.com 20

CONCLUSION
 Smart dust motes incorporate sensing, computation,
communications and power in a mm3 volume.
 Free-space optical communication offers advantages in
terms of size, power and network throughput.
 On the technology
• Software and hardware are open-source
• Many potential civilian and military applications
• Promising technology if cost goes down
 On regulatory aspects
• Investigate their impact on existing services
• Low power device
THANK YOU