Design of a Wireless Sensor Network for Long-term, In-Situ Monitoring of an Aqueous Environment

Abstract

An aqueous sensor network is described consisting of an array of sensor nodes that can be randomly distributed throughout a lake or drinking water reservoir. The data of an individual node is transmitted to the host node via acoustic waves using intermediate nodes as relays. Each node of the sensor network is a data router, and contains sensors capable of measuring environmental parameters of interest. Depending upon the required application, each sensor node can be equipped with different types of physical, biological or chemical sensors, allowing long-term, wide area, in situ multi-parameter monitoring. In this work the aqueous sensor network is described, with application to pH measurement using magnetoelastic sensors. Beyond ensuring drinking water safety, possible applications for the aqueous sensor network include advanced industrial process control, monitoring of aquatic biological communities, and monitoring of waste-stream effluents.