Wireless sensor network implementation for industrial linear position metering

This paper presents the design and performance measurements of a prototype wireless sensor network (WSN) for industrial linear position metering. Design includes two different prototype platforms and a user application. Prototypes combine energy efficient commercial off-the-shelf components including a 2.4 GHz radio, and the custom TUTWSN communication protocols resulting high robustness, autonomous operation and very low power consumption. The user application displays sensor data graphically and enables further data analysis. Measurements contain component power analysis and prototype performance measurements. The measurements indicate 200 μW to 400 μW average node power consumption, as 16-bit sample is measured with 1 Hz sample rate, and routed to a WSN gateway with 1 s latency per hop and 512 bps throughput between nodes. Predicted lifetime of implemented WSN is 2 months with a small rechargeable battery or over 2 years with two AA batteries.