Three-wired digital interface for a large number of hot-plugged sensors

To gather varied information about surrounding environment in more detail, a computer should handle a large number of sensors. It is, however, difficult to realize such a system by conventional sensor-to-computer interface. We propose a common bus interface to connect those sensors to a host computer. This interface is composed of serial data bus with power supply and link layer communication protocol. It also makes the sensor hot-swappable. Experimental results show that a sensor is attachable and detachable with keeping the other sensors working.