Wireless Sensor Data Acquisition Design for Engineering Applications

Wireless sensor data acquisition (WSDA) is preferred over its wired counterpart due to its easier deployment and simpler maintenance. These characteristics make WSDA attractive to a wide array of engineering applications. This article deals with a framework for WSDA comprised of both legacy sensors and modern sensors commonly found in the oil and gas sector. The framework includes three components: a wireless receiving and transmission (ReT) module, a signal conditioning and digitizing (CoD) module, and a management and control (MaC) module. One ReT module implementation based on TinyOS and Crossbow MICA2 motes has been completed with a goal to integrate different legacy sensors usually found in an oilfield via the aid of proper CoD module implementations. This framework design and its module implementations serve as the basis for fast WSDA prototyping that is key to the oil and gas sector. The WSDA framework is readily applicable to other engineering applications where legacy and modern sensors co-exist.