Autonomous Ecosystem Surveillance

Stable diffusion of our project

Inspiration

The concept came in response to the horrific weather on the American West Coast and the need for active land surveillance. One particular source of inspiration was a failed phone company whose name I cannot remember nor find online. Their premise was that their phones could send and repackage data, eliminating the need for cell phone towers and cellular. The cost of the weather monitoring stations is thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars, however ours would help cut down on these incredibly large costs and potentially save lives.

What it does

These individual modules can take measurements of humidity and carbon dioxide levels, and send that data to the user without wifi. This promises an inexpensive and efficient method of large scale land surveillance, that doesn’t require any human intervention. What I think is the coolest part is the communication method. Instead of relying on Wi-Fi or cell service, which are location dependent, it would rely on radio signals going out to nearby signals and being repackaged and relayed to all the others, cutting down on costs significantly.

How we built it

We used applications of Arduino as a proof of concept, since we did not have access to much of the necessary materials (such as solar panels) to build a sufficient model. Also, we did not have radio transmitters and receivers.

Challenges we ran into

The main problem was the deployment of the modules. It’s incredibly time-consuming to place them by hand, and parachutes are great, but not biodegradable (at least yet), might block sensors on landing, and also could let the modules drift far from their desired placement spot.

What's Next

Given more time, we could build actual modules of this and perhaps even make some of these, and who knows? Maybe someone will see this and make these modules.