Design and implementation of non-autonomous mobile wireless sensor for debris flow monitoring

This demo presents a mobile wireless sensor system for debris flow monitoring. The objective of this system is to realize long-term and effective debris flow surveillance using low cost wireless sensors. In the system, a set of robust wireless sensors are designed to deploy on riverbed and cooperatively observe the moving debris flows. Our mobile sensors are intended to be carried along by the debris flow. As the sensors move along, they are able to measure the internal parameters, such as vibration frequency, amplitude, moving direction and velocity, of the debris flow. By utilizing the proposed energy-saving mechanism on the WSN platform, the mobile sensors can continuously operate up to six months with merely two alkaline D cell batteries. The proposed system provides the abilities to collect high-fidelity data for civil engineering applications to analyze and determine the occurrence of debris flows, as well as estimate the damage.