Experiences and Lessons Learned From Making IoT Sensing Platforms for Large-Scale Deployments

This paper shares experiences and lessons learned from designing and developing the bespoke Internet of Things (IoT) sensing platforms of a sensor platform for healthcare in a residential environment (SPHERE). These IoT platforms, which include a wrist-worn wearable sensor, a room-level environmental sensor, and a dual-radio gateway, constitute integral parts of the SPHERE system that is currently getting deployed in up to 100 houses of volunteers for up to 12 months. This paper is focused on sharing several years’ worth of insight and experiences from making IoT sensing platforms for large-scale academic deployments, providing information that can accelerate the development and deployment of prototypes and enable timely research in the space of IoT.