Researchers at the NIMBUS Centre for embedded research have successfully deployed a wireless sensor network in the head office of ARUP London. ARUP are a global firm of designers, planners, engineers, consultants and technical specialists offering a broad range of professional services. As part of the SFI Funded ITOBO projects researchers provided ARUP with a low cost wireless solution to monitor environmental parameters such as temperature, humidity and light levels across multiple floors of their office space.
The goal is to analyse the comfort levels of occupants and the evaluate the buildings performance against the design requirements.
20 nodes were distributed across 5 floors of the ARUP building each reporting sensory readings at 5 minute intervals to a single gateway over a multi-hop wireless network topology based on IEEE802.15.4 radio interface. At the gateway the data is parsered and transfered into a data warehouse located in Cork using a web services.
The data is then presented to the end user via a web based interface, this enables the user to view exisiting sensor data, plot the history of sensory readings and download snap shots of the environmental conditions. Data will be collected for a period between 1.5 – 3 months by the end of which ARUP can make informed decisions regarding office lighting and user comfort.