Self-aware distributed embedded systems

Distributed embedded sensor networks are now being successfully deployed in environmental monitoring of natural phenomena as well as for applications in commerce and physical security. Distributed architectures have been developed for cooperative detection, scalable data transport, and other capabilities and services. However, the complexity of environmental phenomena has introduced a new set of challenges related to sensing uncertainty associated with the unpredictable presence of obstacles to sensing that appear in the environment. These obstacles may dramatically reduce the effectiveness of distributed monitoring. Thus, a new distributed, embedded, computing attribute, self-awareness, must be developed and provided to distributed sensor systems. Self-awareness must provide the ability for a deployed system to autonomously detect and reduce its own sensing uncertainty. The physical constraints encountered by sensing require physical reconfiguration for detection and reduction of sensing uncertainty. Networked Infomechanical Systems (NIMS) consisting of distributed, embedded computing systems provide autonomous physical configuration through controlled mobility. The requirements that lead to NIMS, the implementation of NIMS technology, and its first applications are discussed here.