Design and characterisation of a wireless sensing node for natural-environment monitoring

Details

Supervisors

Bol, David ; Louveaux, Jérôme

Faculty

Ecole polytechnique de Louvain

Degree label

Master [120] : ingénieur civil électricien, à finalité spécialisée

Abstract

The world seems to catch fire every summer, with more and more reports of devastating wildfires and their consequences. Prevention and early detection of forest fires are key components of an efficient firefighting method. Wireless sensing networks are a promising technology in that field. However, experimental prototypes are needed to better learn and understand the specific constraints and limitations inherent to the particular forest environment. This work proposes such a prototype. After an informed study of the requirements and specifications, the ForestMEv2 device is designed and built. It responds to the need of having a means of characterising and evaluating different performance metrics linked to natural-environment monitoring. Several experiments are conducted in a laboratory as well as in a real forest environment to assess the power consumption, the fire detection ability and the LoRa communication performances of the prototype. Advantage is also taken of its modularity to create an extension board, which focuses on the monitoring of bat population as a bio-indicator of ecosystems. The results are two functional prototypes that bring valuable information about natural-environment monitoring and that are ready to be used for future projects.