PowerEmb

Power Aware System for Small Embedded Systems


Project Description: Exploiting the facilities offered by the processors/microcontrollers, in what concerns to power management, PowerEmb aims to incorporate methods that allow for better control of the energy consumption of small embedded devices.

The design of a platform node for Wireless Sensor Networks(WSN), which has in it's core the TI MSP430f5438 microcontroller unit (MCU), facilitates the implementation of the Dynamic Voltage Scaling method.

The MCU has an integrated Power Management Module that allows for core voltage scaling the MCU when running at lower frequencies.

Like in a common sensor network node, the platform to be designed, which is an upgrade of the previous MoteIST++2 platform, runs an Operating System (OS). The OS of choice by this group is TinyOS due to it's lightweight footprint, event-driven execution model and it's free.

TinyOS however, as an opensource OS is developed by a comunity of enthusiasts, university students, investigators, and companies in the area of WSN which choose to do so for the previous pointed reasons. The particular MCU to be used in this platform is a x5 series of the TI MSP430, and is not completly supported yet by the TinyOS OS. Contribuitions must be made to the working trees of msp430-int (msp430-integration branch) already being developed in order to support this series of the MCU. Github is the repository used in this developemnt and contribuition of code.

Active Period: 2010-Present

Project Funding: IT

Project Objective:

  • Design a new mote platform, MoteISTx5 with the fith series of TI's MSP430 MCU.
  • Contribute for TinyOS development in order to support the MCU.
  • Implement the Dynamic Voltage Scaling method, which has been proven to be efficient in several diferent embedded systems, but not yet in WSN, as far as the authors knowlege.
  • Design of an application to expose the obtained results of power consumption using the refered method.
  • Criticise whether or not it is a benefit to use such mechanism in WSN motes.

GEMS contribution:

MoteISTx5 is the contribuiton to GEMS. The mote can be used for deployment in the Tagus-SensorNet. It's production becomes of lower costs than those of buying comercial motes like Micaz and Telos.

GEMS team: João Gonçalves, José Catela, Prof. Rui Rocha, Prof. Carlos Almeida

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