Al Fansome
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 Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2008 12:44 am Post subject: 'Smart' Robotic Sensors Monitor Activity at Mount St. Helens |
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'Smart' Robotic Sensors Monitor Activity at Mount St. Helens
Columbian (WA) (10/27/08) Raftery, Isolde
U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist Rick LaHusen, Washington State
University Vancouver computer science professor WenZhan Song, a group of
WSU Vancouver graduate students and NASA>s Jet Propulsion Laboratory are
working to create more robust wireless communication systems for Mount
St. Helens, which returned to dormancy in July following three years of
eruptions. Aided by a $1.63 million NASA grant, the researchers are
designing a dozen smart sensors that talk to each other and link to a
central information hub. NASA scientists are monitoring the research in
the hopes of using the technology to explore Mars. "The sensors are
always looking to see what the best route is in case an instrument has
some kind of catastrophic event--ice, snow burial, or the ash might blow
one way," LaHusen says. "They can relay data between themselves, making
short hops that are more energy efficient." The sensors performed
exactly as designed when they were recently deployed inside Mount St.
Helens' moonlike crater. The sensors can detect movements, relaying
information to the Johnston Ridge Observatory at the Mount St. Helens
visitor center. The ad hoc network the sensors create could have
applications in radio systems, which would make radios more reliable in
emergency situations, or create wireless nodes that could detect where a
network is broken to indicate, for example, the location of a mine collapse.
http://www.columbian.com/article/20081027/NEWS02/710274862 |
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