An Overview of the Use of Remote Embedded Sensors for Audio Acquisition and Processing <s> Packaging and System Integration <s> We overview or recent development and testing of the FIDO rover, an advanced technology prototype for long range mobile planetary science. <s> BIB001 </s> An Overview of the Use of Remote Embedded Sensors for Audio Acquisition and Processing <s> Packaging and System Integration <s> A broad range of embedded networked sensor (ENS) systems for critical environmental monitoring applications now require complex, high peak power dissipating sensor devices, as well as on-demand high performance computing and high bandwidth communication. Embedded computing demands for these new platforms include support for computationally intensive image and signal processing as well as optimization and statistical computing. To meet these new requirements while maintaining critical support for low energy operation, a new multiprocessor node hardware and software architecture, low power energy aware processing (LEAP), has been developed. The LEAP architecture integrates fine-grained energy dissipation monitoring and sophisticated power control scheduling for all subsystems including sensor subsystems. This paper also describes a new distributed node testbed demonstrating that by exploiting high high energy efficiency components and enabling proper on-demand scheduling, the LEAP architecture may meet both sensing performance and energy dissipation objectives for a broad class of applications. <s> BIB002
Packaging refers to all of the mechanical aspects of an embeddable node, while system integration refers to the process of selecting appropriate components and modules and integrating them into a working system. Because these tend to be less technical issues, they are often glossed over in research reports, despite the fact that they comprise some of the most time-consuming elements of building an embedded sensing system. In addition, the decisions made in this process ultimately determine the scope of features that a system can support. When developing a new design for remote deployment, there are a number of design requirements to take into consideration: Form Factor. The size and weight of the system, as well as the number of separate components, all make a tremendous difference in the amount of effort required to deploy the system. This is especially important for systems that must be deployed and removed rapidly. Environmental Conditions. Difficult weather conditions such as moisture, extreme temperatures, wind, dust, immersion in water, or high pressure will require special packaging. The activity of animals can present problems; e.g., animals destroying cabling, antennas, or microphone wind screens. For many remote applications, protection from human tampering or theft is also required. Mechanical Sensor Configuration. Holding the sensors in a solid mechanical frame will provide higher reliability and enable more repeatable experiments. For sensor arrays, the ideal size and shape may depend on the application. Lifetime. Remote systems are often costly to visit for maintenance, and in some cases maintenance visits are impossible BIB001 . Routine maintenance such as replacement of batteries and local storage media can be planned based on maintenance costs. On-site maintenance caused by failures is generally difficult to predict without experience and extensive testing to work out bugs. Computational Capacity. Local computation can be used to implement real-time responses at the sensor, as well as data reduction to maximize the utility of limited storage and network capacity. Some designs, such as LEAP BIB002 support a low-power always-on "preprocessor" that can wake a main processor when events of interest occur. The specific algorithms to be used determine the requirements in terms of RAM and processing power. Local processing increases the software complexity of the system as well as energy and heat dissipation requirements. Storage Capacity. Large-capacity persistent storage can archive raw data, eliminating the need for local data reduction or real-time network transfer. Flash drives have smaller capacity than hard drives, but are more mechanically robust and energy-efficient. We will see throughout this paper that these choices have a significant impact across many aspects of building a remote embedded sensing system. In practice, many of these choices are dictated by component availability and resources, both in terms of time and funding. The task of assembling a platform is a difficult compromise between cost, capability, and flexibility in the face of unknown future requirements.