MIS TERM PAPER

on
SMART DUST
THE MIGHTY MINIATURE

KODATI SOUJANYA
VGSOM, IIT KGP
MBA 2010-12
10BM60039
 ABSTRACT

Most of us think dust is allergic but time has now come where dust will be smart like a fully functioning
computer. Smart Dust, the future mobile wireless sensor networks technology is making its way from
the research laboratory into the enterprise. Smart dust is the combination of digital circuitry, laser-
driven wireless communication technology and tiny wireless microelectromechanical sensors and can
be distributed in large numbers over an area to monitor everything from light to vibrations .This mainly
focuses on reduction of power consumption, cost and size. Smart dust nodes are also known as
motes which are usually the size of a grain of sand. Owing to such small dimensions, these motes
enable a lot of applications like military, climatic and environment control, building safety and
automation, security systems and many others.
 INTRODUCTION

The basic idea of Smart Dust emerged with the miniaturization of conventional sensors and unison of
wireless-communications technology to form self-organizing, dynamic network devices that can used
for the delivery of a stream of data from the sensors. The objective of the Smart Dust devices or
motes lies in integrating the power-supply, sensor , computing and communication functions into a
single silicon platform that can analyze, collect and store data and then create an intelligent response.
This is of ultra low volume and light in weight such that it can remain suspended in air like any other
particle. The energy required in transmitting and processing the data is quite less, in the order of nano
Joules.

The advancements made today in the field of hardware technology and engineering design have
made it possible to integrate three key areas of technologies: digital circuitry, laser-driven wireless
communication and Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). Mobile wireless sensor networks are
becoming very important for a variety of future applications. Future applications include tracking
enemy movements or source of a gunshot in military operations, battlefield surveillance, treaty
monitoring, transportation monitoring, scud hunting, IEDs detection, factory instrumentations, climatic
control, environmental monitoring of nerve gas like sarin or chemical spill, building safety and
automation, security systems. Others include virtual keyboard, inventory control, product quality
monitoring, smart office spaces, and interface for the disabled.

TECHNOLOGY REQUIREMENTS

Smart Dust technology comprises a single package with the components listed below integrated into it
- MEMS sensors, semiconductor laser diode, and MEMS beam– steering mirror for active optical
transmission, a MEMS corner-cube retro reflector for passive optical transmission, an optical receiver,
signal-processing and control circuitry, and a power source based on thick-film batteries and solar
cells. Each dust mote consists of one or more sensors, a power supply, digital and analog circuitry,
and a system for reception and transmission of data.

The proposed architecture should suffice the following requirements. Between the several dust motes
and the central transceiver , the mode of communication should be simplex, duplex or full duplex. The
downlink broadcast transmission rate from the central transceiver to dust motes should have a bit rate
in the order of several kbps. The uplink transmission from the motes to transceiver must allow each of
1000 dust motes to convey within one second about 1 kb of data, an aggregate throughput of 1 Mbps.
The central transceiver should have the capability to resolve the position of each dust mote with an
angular resolution of the order of 1/100 of the field of view. The operating range of the link should be
at least several hundred meters. The transceiver of the mote should consume an average power not
exceeding 1uW and occupy a volume of the order of 1 mm cube. The uplink and downlink should
have a low probability of interception.

Free-space optical transmission is considered to be the best alternative over radio frequency
transmission. In the near-infrared wavelength (400-1600nm) as well as in the visible region of the
spectrum, the free-space optical transmission would be an attractive alternative for the downlink and
uplink. Beyond low-power, passive communications, networking opportunities includes parallel read-
out, demand access and probe revisit rate. An on-off keyed signal is broadcasted to the collection of
dust motes by a single laser transmitter on the downlink. Each dust mote is equipped with a very
simple receiver consisting of a bandpass optical filter, and photodiode, a preamplifier, and a slicer.
This receiver would involve only low-speed baseband electronics, making it far simpler than radio
frequency (RF) counterpart. For the uplink, two alternatives for transmission exist offered by optics.
Each dust motes can equip with an active laser-diode-based transmitter.

A directional beam is employed and an active beam-steering mechanism is used by the dust mote for
the minimization of power consumption. The power can be efficiently managed alternatively, by
limiting the power consumption of each dust mote to microwatt level by powering on only when
necessary the various parts of the mote, and the solar cells could be used to consume as much
energy as possible in the presence of light. The optical links which have been well designed, using the
available LOS (line of sight) consume quite low energy per bit since the optical transceivers use
unsophisticated baseband analog and digital circuitry without modulators, demodulators and active
bandpass filters. These have short wavelength and a base station transceiver BTS along with a
compact imaging receiver which decodes the simultaneous transmissions from a large number of dust
motes at different locations within the receiver field of view. The corner-cube retroreflector (CCR)
which is a special MEMS structure enables the dust motes to use passive optical signals without the
supply of any optical power.

A free source operating system called TinyOS which is wireless is embedded into the sensor network
The various components of the OS include sensor drivers, network protocols and distributed services.
The event-driven execution model enable fine-grained power management besides allowing the
scheduling flexibility made necessary by the unpredictable nature of wireless communication and
physical world interfaces.A wide variety of sensor cards, and multiple hardware platforms are
supported which enable the development of smart sensor networks. It includes many-to-one collection
oriented, adhoc routing system.
TinyDB is a simple SQL like interface which specifies the data to be extracted along with rate at which
the data needs to be refreshed. It extracts the information from a network of TinyOS sensors. Data is
collected from the motes in the environment by it, and thereafter filters it and aggregates it together,
post which it routes it out to a PC. It accomplishes this through a power efficient in-network

Fig : Smart Dust mote containing micro fabricated sensors, optical receiver, active and passive optical

transmitter signal-processing and control circuitry and power sources. (Pister, 1998)

processing algorithms. A simple Java API is provided for writing PC applications which enable the
querying and extracting data from the network. It uses a simple graphical query builder and displays
the result using the API. It has several features like Metadata management, multiple and high level
queries, network topology and incremental deployment via query sharing .

An ad hoc network is deployed wherein the structure of the network changes through time. The
network can be set up arbitrarily and the motes being autonomous, self assemble easily into a
network of sensors. A one-to-many spanning tree root topology occurs mostly at the base station’s
interface to the sensor network. Information collected by the sensor is propagated to the base station.
Either raw sensor readings need to be collected or aggregate function values should be computed
over a set of sensor information which may be required ny certain applications. Intermediate nodes
help distant nodes in reaching the base station with the use of a multi hop network.

APPLICATIONS

Military and commercial applications:

Depending on the applications, individual dust motes may be affixed to objects that one wish to
monitor, or a large collection of motes may simply be dispersed and float at random throughout an
environment. The sensor readings are recorded and when queried thereupon, the readings are
reported via the optical mechanism. In military, the dust motes which contain magnetic, acoustic and
vibration sensors could be distributed across many square miles of territory to monitor the passage of
vehicles. The sensors could be delivered to the area by unmanned air vehicles UAV, artillery, or
distributed like seeds from moving vehicles. They could be interrogated by manned air vehicles (MAV)
or soldiers with modified binoculars. Chemical and biological sensor could be incorporated into the
dust motes to detect the use of chemical or biological agent in combat. Both military and commercial
could use to monitor the performance of critical parts of aircraft, vehicles, and manufacturing
equipment. This could dramatically reduce cost of maintenance. It could be deployed for stealthy
monitoring of a hostile environment for verification of treaty compliance. Acoustic vibrations or
magnetic field sensors could detect the passage of vehicles and other equipment. It could be used for
perimeter surveillance, or to detect the presence of chemical or biological agents on a battlefield.
They can track source of a gunshot in military operations, scud hunting, IED detection, battlefield
surveillance, nerve gas detection and chemical spill, and haul munitions.

Geological and Biological Research :

Smart Dust can be used over a region to record data for geophysical, meteorological or planetary
research. It may be employed to perform measurement in environments where wired sensors are
unusable or lead to measurement error. Examples include instrumentation of semiconductor
processing chambers, rotating machinery, wind tunnels and anechoic chambers. In biological
research, the movement, habits and environment of insects or other small animals can be monitored.

Measurement of Humidity :
The humidity in a nuclear waste repository can be measured because the mote is so small and can
operate for longer periods without wires and send data from locations where large device would not
be possible.
Automation:

It can be used in building

automation like
monitoring light control,
heat, ventilation and air
conditioning and energy
management. Computers
will turn off lights and
climatic control in empty
rooms. Air conditioners
that cool servers can be
automatically shut off and
turned on again when the
servers get too hot during
peak energy usage
times. Motes can be
attached to every
electrical wire throughout
an office building and the
induction sensor can
detect power
consumption on that
individual wire and down
to the individual outlet
can be observed.

Without human
intervention, the
monitoring of the
condition of essential
equipments on a
continuous basis will
provide critical data
collection in industrial
automation by installing
motes at critical points.
The motes can be
applied for the reduction
of downtime and enhancement of safety in a chemical plant that utilizes pipes to transport acidic or
abrasive liquids,. To prevent accidental chemical releases, plant operators must routinely inspect
pipes and this is labour intensive for pipes covered with insulation and pipes located in confined
areas. Several corrosion-detecting motes would be placed on the piping throughout the plant and they
would send data to a central monitoring station. The plant manager is benefitted by having up-to-date
status information of all piping and can have the advantage of avoiding cost of manual inspection.

Agriculture :

In agriculture sector, the temperature of air can be monitored across a vineyard, which helps in
protecting the crops from frost damage. Motes sensitive to temperature would be scattered on the
vineyard and produce long-term data, which will help the farmer to target specific plants for frost
control measure such as misting the plants with water. Grapes can be harvested more productively
and use of pesticides and fungicides would be reduced, over watering can be avoided, precision
harvesting will be enhanced, and plants’ growth and disease resistance will be monitored closely . It
can be used to monitor humidity and temperature to assess the freshness of foods stored in the
refrigerator or cupboard. It can monitor and capture irrigation needs data, soil pH and salinity levels .
Foodstuffs could be dusted with motes sensitive to moisture or acidity, which reports it when the food
is past it “best by” date.

Security :

In the field of security, motes could be used for surveillance, port tracking and container security.
Manufactured items like tiles, walls, and furniture can be embedded with smart dust to monitor and
collect information. It could be fitted with miniaturized microphones or tempest attack technology - a
tempest attack being an attempt to detect the distinct electromagnetic signal a computer gives out
each time a key is pressed used in undetectable spying devices.

Entertainment :

Motes also find vast variety of application in games and other forms of entertainment. A mote can be
glued on each fingernail in a virtual keyboard and accelerometers in the motes will sense the motion
and orientation of each of the fingertips and talk to the computer. The same idea could be extended to
the case of playing the piano or gesturing in sign language, wherein the handheld computer translates
hand gestures into music and speech.

Seismology :

It can be used for modelling earthquake damage. The motes provide information about collapse
potential, on-going information about the structural condition and early warning of inadequate safety
from a variety of causes. It can be used to monitor an area which is seismically active (like Dead Sea
which has seismic behaviour below sea level). It can also monitor archaeological preservations like
the Meseba site in Israel by scattering swarms of motes around large pieces of the mountain that
could fall off on people.

Forest Fires evasion :

It can also be used to detect fires. Forest service personnel would drop the motes from an airplane
and the motes self-organize into a network. In the event of a fire, the unusual temperature rise in its
zone is noticed by a mote which alerts neighbouring motes that will in turn notify other motes in the
network. The motes will then notify a central monitoring station of the fire and the location of the mote
that sensed it. This information provided to the fire fighters well within time along with the approximate
location helps them to combat the situation when the intensity of the fire is quite small.

Warehousing :

In a warehouse, motes can be used to have a container communicate with a box, which transmits
information to a palette. The palette sends the signals to a truck, and thereafter the truck sends the
information to a warehouse, which then relays the collective data to the Internet. In that way
companies can know about their products irrespective of time and location. The various assets in the
warehouse can be thus tracked.

Medicine :

In medicine it can be used to monitor the vital signs of elderly and sick people and also used for
tracking patients in a hospital room. Smart Dust will be placed throughout the body that will
continuously monitor the health of individuals, and in the bathroom to give physical examination every
day. When one brushes his or her teeth, the toothbrush takes the blood pressure and look for cavities.
When a person looks in the mirror, a little camera will look at the eyes to check for diabetes or
hardening of the arteries or any of the diseases that can be detected by looking at the eyes. By
putting the motes on the face of a quadriplegic’s it can monitor the eye movements and facial
gestures and assist them in operating a wheelchair or using computational devices. This will produce
a whole family of interfaces for the disabled. It can precisely and accurately monitor tiny muscular
movements in patients.

In biological research it is helpful to monitor the internal processes and movements of insects or other
small animals. A biologist can use mote that senses position and temperature by equipping an
endangered animal with a collar. The mote extracts data from the sensors when the animal moves
around. The data is then transmitted to the biologist through the ad hoc network formed by the motes
Others :

Other applications include factory instrumentations, climatic control, environmental monitoring of

chemical spill, building safety and automation, security systems, virtual keyboard, inventory control,
product quality monitoring, smart office spaces, and interface for the disabled

ISSUES AND CONCERNS

The development and use of Smart Dust raises some concerns. These include privacy issues,
potential system security weakness, the need for standards, and then environmental impact.

Privacy issues :

The issue mostly to be concerned about is the privacy issue, owing to its use for detrimental and
unethical purposes. Another concern is when individuals and governments use it to monitor people
without their knowledge. It might also fall a prey to corporate espionage.

Security issues :

Since smart dust motes on the network can be reprogrammed, they are prone to security concerns
similar to that of computers on the Internet. In spite of the mote identity verification algorithms in the
TinyOS operating system making it difficult, this mote software features could be exploited by hackers
and eavesdroppers. In applications where sensitive data is gathered, system designers should be
cautious of the risk of the data being compromised. Foreign governments, terrorist organization,
criminals, and industrial spies could use high tech motes to spy.

Environmental Issues :

The motes which fly around in the atmosphere can have a serious environmental effect and can
cause a serious problem. After motes are sprinkled in a remote or desolate area to accomplish a
monitoring function, it is not easily retrieved. If a mote fails and is consequently abandoned or lost,
there is an environmental impact. A mote’s environmentally unfriendly components include integrated
circuits, lithium battery and a printed circuit board. Some motes use radioactive power sources and
can cause environmental concerns. It is not assured that used motes with radioactive power sources
would be retrieved and disposed of properly. The society may raise a concern to living and working in
close proximity to radiation sources. The potential ill effects on the environment and health raise
concerns.
 CONCLUSION

The Smart Dust technology has applications where benefits and uses outweigh the concerns and
hazards. There is growing feeling among researchers of its huge impact on society. The motes could
be powered by solar light, barometric pressure and vibrations in the wall. The ecosystem that is
necessary for mainstream and industrial and business applications is being developed. Smart Dust
technology is progressing rapidly and working motes with reduced size and efficient power supply is
expected in couple of years. It is hoped that the objectives of the Smart Dust project will be realized,
and commercialization and subsequent use will be widespread throughout society. In the military for
example it could offer an alternative and cheaper way to monitor enemies by reducing cost, risk to
human life and performance. In the future there would be a time where millions of motes are
embedded in almost everything which would be able to sense, compute and communicate with each
other using ultra low power.
 REFERENCES

• Pister, K. S. J. Smart Dust Autonomous Sensing and Communication in a cubic

millimeters. http://robotics.eecs.berkeley.edu/~pister/SmartDust/

• Singer, M. Smart Dust Collecting in the Enterprise.

http://siliconvalley.internet.com/news/print.php/3098551

• Manjoo, F. Dust Keeping the Lights Off Retrieved

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/1,44101-0.html

• faculty.ed.umuc.edu/~sdean/ProfPaps/Bowie/T3-0506/Atuobi.pdf

• Nanotechnology Now. Your Gateway to Everything Nanotech (n.d.).

http://www.nanotech-now.com/smartdust.htm

• Brain, M. (n. d.). How Motes Work.

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/mote.htm