Center for Embedded Network Sensing

The overarching theme of the Center’s Aquatic application area continues to be the creation and application of a new genre of wireless sensing systems that will provide real-time monitoring capabilities of chemical, physical and biological parameters in freshwater and coastal marine ecosystems. High-resolution temporal and spatial measurements are essential for understanding the highly dynamic nature of aquatic ecosystems and the rapid response of microbial communities to environmental driving forces. Our unique approach to aquatic sensing and sampling, Networked Aquatic Microbial Observing Systems (NAMOS), employs coordinated measurements between stationary sensing nodes (buoys and pier-based sensors) and robotic vehicles (surface robotic boats and autonomous underwater vehicles) to provide in-situ, real-time presence for observing plankton dynamics (e.g. phytoplankton abundance, dissolved oxygen), and linking them to pertinent environmental variables (e.g. temperature, light, nutrients, etc.). Specific projects undertaken in this application area involve the development and deployment of sensor networks to examine harmful algal blooms within King Harbor, City of Redondo Beach, and the construction of mobile sensor networks in open coastal waters off southern California. The latter research involves deployments of autonomous surface and underwater vehicles, and the development of hardware and software for coordinated activities of these robotic vehicles.