Pervasive micro-sensing and actuation may revolutionize the way in which we understand and manage complex physical systems: from airplane wings to complex ecosystems. The capabilities for detailed physical monitoring and manipulation offer enormous opportunities for almost every scientific discipline, and it will alter the feasible granularity of engineering. We identify opportunities and challenges for distributed signal processing in networks of these sensing elements and investigate some of the architectural challenges posed by systems that are massively distributed, physically-coupled, wirelessly networked, and energy limited. 1.

This paper introduces Robomote, a robotic solution developed to explore problems in large-scale distributed robotics and sensor networks. The design explicitly aims at enabling research in sensor networking, adhoc networking, massively distributed robotics, and extended longevity. The platform must meet many demanding criteria not limited to but including: miniature size, low power, low cost, simple fabrication, and a sensor/actuator suite that facilitates navigation and localization. We argue that a robot test bed such as Robomote is necessary for practical research with large networks of mobile robots. Further, we present a preliminary analysis of Robomotes' success to this end.

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Abstract – Fine-grained geographic localization of nodes is essential for an extensive range of distributed sensor applications. To compute geographic coordinates, localization algorithms commonly use pair-wise distance estimates between nodes. In this paper we present a noise tolerant acoustic ranging mechanism for wireless sensors that employs digital signal processing techniques on standard MICA hardware. We describe how noise canceling, digital filtering and peak detection can be applied to meet the severe resource constraints of the platform, yet yielding average range estimation errors below 10cm independently from the actual node-to-node distances.

OF THE DISSERTATION University of California, Los Angeles, 2002 Professor Deborah L. Estrin, Chair Recent technological advances have fostered the emergence of small, low-power devices that integrate micro-sensing and actuation with on-board processing and wireless communications capabilities. Through distributed coordination, pervasive networks of micro-sensors and actuators are expected to revolutionize the ways in which we understand and construct complex physical systems. Fundamental to such coordination is localization, or the ability to establish spatial relationships among objects.

Pervasive micro-sensing and actuation may revolutionize the way in which we understand and manage complex physical systems: from airplane wings to complex ecosystems. The capabilities for detailed physical monitoring and manipulation offer enormous opportunities for almost every scientific discipline, and it will alter the feasible granularity of engineering.