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Discipline: Technology and Engineering
Subcategory: Environmental Engineering
Adaugo Anyamele - Howard University
The Saver Project is an interdisciplinary project with the goal of implementing wireless sensor nodes throughout buildings that will estimate the vulnerability of the buildings. This research is necessary because Mexico especially Puebla is very prone to earthquakes.The aim of this project is for the platform to be inexpensive yet efficient enough to provide all the necessary information so that the analysis of responses can help improve structural damage detection.
I spent the first week researching the concept of a lamp of emergency and how to implement this concept into the current model of the sensor node. The lamp of emergency is a concept in its most basic terms is that if an object is powered by a main power source and if a building were ever to lose electricity the circuit would then automatically turn on the secondary source of energy and the device can continue to run. The second week we decided to use a relay to implement the lamp of emergency concept. We made a prototype circuit that connected with the sensor node and a main power source via usb to usb connection. I then drew a schematic for the relay circuit to add to the sensor node. I also spent time learning to use the Mbed software. The third week I mostly worked with Mbed software familiarizing myself with how the software worked and how to implement the code with the hardware. This was also the week we tested the sensors on top of the main building at UPAEP. The last week we got back the data results for the sensor and found that they all output similar graphs even though they were reading from different parts of the building. Upon later examination of each of the sensor nodes one of the prototype nodes was found to not be working. The others were found to have all been wired differently so the fact that they all output similar graphs was intriguing. This week was also spent building the circuit for the relay that would be added to each sensor node. The rendered copies of the schematic were made and the components were soldered on but unfortunately there were not enough parts to complete a relay circuit for each node.
This month of research did not yielding a significant amount of results but it has pointed out some rather large problems with the current sensor nodes. We were able to find a way to make the sensor more efficient with the implementation of the relay circuit. We were also able to test out the nodes and get readings which led us to find that one of the nodes is not functioning properly. We were also able to now work on debugging the current issues with the sensor nodes and continue to improve the nodes so that they are efficient and reliable.
The proposed SAVER project is a great idea that can lead to the start of many solutions that can help people who live in earthquake prone areas. The wireless aspect of the project is a step in the right direction in creating more efficient way of giving people all of the necessary information so that the analysis of responses can help improve structural damage detection. Although in the month of research we were not able to see significant results we were able to find and begin fixing problems that could be large obstacles in the future as the research on this project continues.
Funder Acknowledgement(s): This study was supported, in part, by a grant from the National Science Foundation awarded to Lorraine Fleming, Ph.D., Wayne Patterson, Ph.D. and Mohamed Chouikha, Ph.D., Principal and Co-Principal Investigators of the Global Education, Awareness and Research Undergraduate Program (GEAR UP), Howard University, Washington, DC 20059.
Faculty Advisor: Stacie Lesure, stacie.lesure@Howard.edu
Role: I spent the first week researching the concept of a lamp of emergency and how to implement this concept into the current model of the sensor node. The second week we decided to use a relay to implement the lamp of emergency concept. We made a prototype circuit that connected with the sensor node and a main power source via usb to usb connection. I then drew a schematic for the relay circuit to add to the sensor node. I also spent time learning to use the Mbed software. The third week I mostly worked with Mbed software familiarizing myself with how the software worked and how to implement the code with the hardware. This was also the week we tested the sensors on top of the main building at UPAEP. The last week was mostly spent compiling data and reviewing it.
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