The Smart Dust project attempted to demonstrate that a complete sensor/communication system could be made of sensors one cubic millimeter in size. This involved advances in miniaturization, integration, and energy management. The project focus was independent of any particular sensor, and looked at both commercial and military applications including:
Defense-related sensor networks such as battlefield surveillance, treaty monitoring, transportation monitoring, and scud hunting.
Virtual keyboard sensors: by attaching miniature remotes on each fingernail, accelerometers could then sense the orientation and motion of each fingertip, and communicate this data to a computer in a wristwatch.
Inventory control: by placing miniature sensors on each object in the inventory system, each component could "talk" to the next component in the system. This evolved into today's RFID inventory control systems.
Product quality monitoring: temperature and humidity monitoring of perishables such as meat, produce, and dairy.
Impact, vibration and temperature monitoring of consumer electronics, for failure analysis and diagnostic information, e.g. monitoring the vibration of bearings to detect frequency signatures that may indicate imminent failure.
The project led to the founding of Dust Networks, to provide commercial applications of the above.
Timeline
July 2002: Dust Networks founded by Pister, Tod Dykstra, Rob Conant and Brett Warneke
December 2011: Dust Networks is acquired by Linear Technology
2017: Linear Technology is acquired by Analog Devices
Technology
Wireless sensor networks attempt to increase transmission reliability and quickly adapt should the transmission fail and automatically route around failed links. This requires embedded networking intelligence that establishes, maintains and utilizes redundant multi-hop routing from source to destination. Dust Networks implements full-mesh networks, sometimes referred to as ‘mesh-to-the-edge’, which provides redundant routing to the edge of the network. In a full-mesh network every device has the same routing capabilities and is able to ‘decide’ where it belongs in the routing structure based on what other nodes it can communicate with, its proximity to the network gateway, and its traffic load. This allows for self-forming and self-healing. The multi-chip modules used to drive these networks are divided into 'gateways' and 'motes'. Gateways then tie back into larger networks used to make decisions within large industrial plants. The company has evolved from using a proprietary protocol called TSMP, to WirelessHART to launching an Internet Protocol-based initiative, in support of the Internet Engineering Task Force, focused on the use of IP networking in urban infrastructure, building automation, utility metering, and other wireless sensor networking applications.
