The development of a novel minaturized modular platform for wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks are collections of autonomous devices with computational, sensing and wireless communication capabilities. Research in this area has been growing in the past few years given the wide range of applications that can benefit from such a technology. In this paper, the development of a highly modular and miniaturized wireless platform for sensor networks is described. The system incorporates a radio transceiver (in the 2.4 GHz ISM Band) with embedded protocol software to minimize power consumption and maximize data throughput. Additional input capability for sensor and actuator integration can be incorporated seamlessly due to the modular nature of the system. The total system is packaged in a modular 25 mm cubed form factor. A smaller, (10 mm cubed), prototype is currently under development. Ongoing development of highly miniaturized nodes is discussed.