Progress 09/01/11 to 08/31/14
Outputs
Target Audience: Consultants for water-quality monitoring systems Scientists involved with non-profits supporting Municipal decision-makers involved with water-quality monitoring Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? We have provided access to the end-user database to scientists, engineers, and policy-makers interested in improved water quality monitoring. We have contacted potential partners and customers in private industry and governmental agencies to find additional channels for dissemination of the knowledge about our system, and to arrange for additional demonstrations of the technologies for new uses. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Impact of the project The objective of this project is to create a product to revolutionize the ease, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness of purchasing, installing and using in-situ, real-time water quality monitoring systems, making better water quality data available for a wide variety of users and decision-makers on a real-time basis. Currently, obtaining and installing a real-time monitoring site is complicated and expensive, and requires significant infrastructure, including weather protection and antennas. In this project, we will continue development of an improved telemetry system that overcomes such problems and will demonstrate its use with a variety of custom and commercially-available sensing instruments. Objectives of the project The specific objectives of the Phase II R&D were to achieve the following goals. The methods we proposed to answer these questions are described in detail in the Work Plan. Upgrade the electronics to provide the projected transmission range and deployment depths predicted by our analysis. Design the transmitter and receiver architecture to support a network of V-SMART sensor locations and delivery of data to adjacent, nearby, or distant data users. Provide water quality data by delivery channels and in appropriate formats for the needs of scientists, regulators, and other users of water-quality data. Deploy V-SMART prototypes at realistic user sites, verifying reliable data acquisition and delivery over extended time. Demonstrate that it is timely, cost-effective, and appealing for real users of water-quality data to adopt the V-SMART technology. Accomplishments under each Objective 1. Upgrade the electronics to provide the projected transmission range and deployment depths predicted by our analysis. The Phase I SBIR design was upgraded to provide stronger telemetry signals. This involved creating designs of new analog and digital electronics to transmit the wireless signals. New microcontroller firmware was developed to interface to industry-standard SDI-12, analog, and RS-232 formatted output from commercially-available water-quality instruments and sensors. The telemetry system was outfitted with an improved noise-resistant, error-correction algorithm to allow reliable transmissions that can be guaranteed to be error-free, based on the numerical analysis of the received signals. Receiving antennas and interfaces were also developed. The prototype system was deployed in short-term tests at various stages of its development during the reporting period. When errors in telemetry were encountered, hardware or software updates were made and tests were repeated. At the conclusion of the project, the system had demonstrated error-free telemetry over the needed ranges and depths. This R&D proved that the Vortant technology developed under the USDA funding is indeed capable of achieving the goals we formulated, based on inputs from industry and academic experts working in the water-quality monitoring field. 2. Design the transmitter and receiver architecture to support a network of V-SMART sensor locations and delivery of data to adjacent, nearby, or distant data users. Under this objective, we implemented an architecture allowing a potentially large network of V-SMART installations to collect data and to allow web-based access of the results by nearby or distant users. We developed interfaces between our telemetry receiver and cellular-network and wifi-network-based devices, enabling these devices to relay the telemetry data to a central database. We developed server software to accept these datasets, perform signal processing and error-checking, so as to ensure quality data was being stored on the database. We also implemented software to allow synchronizatioin of time and frequency of each individual V-SMART unit to the database system, as well as an ID for each transmission that is associated with each dataset, so that a large number of installations can potential generate and upload data, and that it will be stored in the proper location, based on this synchronization logic. This R&D proved that the V-SMART telemetry system is capable of transforming data collected by our unique telemetry technology into a format that can be transmitted and used by existing Internet infrastructure, enabling rapid and reliable use and dissemination. 3. Provide water quality data by delivery channels and in appropriate formats for the needs of scientists, regulators, and other users of water-quality data. We implemented database query software connected to a web-based interface to allow end-users of the data to view and download water-quality data from any web browser. We demonstrated that the data can be viewed on a variety of platforms, from desktop workstations, to laptop PCs, to handheld smart phones. Security and permissions logic was included in the database and web-based interface to maintain data and system integrity, as well as security and privacy of the collected datasets. After interviewing industry and academic experts, we arrived at data display and download formats that are compatible with industry standards and the current needs of end users. Because the software is server based on the Internet and is written in easily-modified code, as user needs may evolve, the V-SMART system is expected to be able to upgrade to keep pace with these changing needs. A key outcome of this R&D is that it gives confidence that our new technology is compatible with other scientific and engineering instrumentation and infrastructure that may be used in conjunction with water-quality data. 4. Deploy V-SMART prototypes at realistic user sites, verifying reliable data acquisition and delivery over extended time. Prototypes were deployed in two freshwater lakes and in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Wilmington, NC. Telemetry data were collected over a range of distances and depths for each location. A long-term monitoring installation was set up in a lake within the city limits of Wilmington, NC, which reliably sent water-quality data to our database over a period of more than two months. A key outcome from this R&D is that the V-SMART system was shown to be able to reliably collect data from a commercial, multi-parameter water-quality instrument sonde, and that the data was reliably transmitted from the field to the web-based database for viewing by scientists, engineers, and policy makers. 5. Demonstrate that it is timely, cost-effective, and appealing for real users of water-quality data to adopt the V-SMART technology. The net result of the above accomplishments in the various objectives is that the V-SMART system achieved the needed performance and functionality as was intended. We developed the technology into a form that is nearly production-ready, deploying V-SMART monitoring stations in realistic locations to obtain both technical and user validation of the product. Since the technology meets needs and requirements as stated by scientists and other end-users of data, we believe that this objective was demonstrated.
Publications
|
Progress 09/01/11 to 08/31/12
Outputs
OUTPUTS: During the reporting period of the grant, a brainstorming activity was conducted, which involved participation from a wide variety of perspectives, including water quality consultants, instrument manufacturers, university researchers, and companies involved in surface-water amelioration techniques. These sessions identified the major advantages of the subject technology, and helped to define the technical requirements, such as battery life, data reporting parameters, and communication and visualization protocols. Important engineering/technical outputs also were completed during the reporting period. An improved electronics design has been created to address some of the shortcomings observed during earlier development and evaluation. Detailed design of a sophisticated, yet efficient power supply to allow for a wide range of usage scenarios was completed. An architecture for combining the data reception capabilities of our technology as demonstrated in earlier R&D, with commercially-available cellular and Internet infrastructure has also been created. In addition, initial efforts toward environmentally-rugged, long term mechanical enclosures have been initiated. PARTICIPANTS: Philip Schaefer, Vortant Technologies, P.I.; University of North Carolina at Wilmington, subcontractor; Floating Island Southeast, Inc., subcontractor; ISTI, Inc., subcontractor; Turner Designs, Inc., subcontractor. TARGET AUDIENCES: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.
Impacts
The results of the multidisciplinary brainstorming meetings not only contributed to an improved understanding of the advantages of the subject technology for end users involved with water quality monitoring, but are also being used in subsequent engineering activities to make design decisions such that the prototype product will be optimally directed toward the real-world needs. The receiving station architecture to connect to the Internet will allow the product resulting from this research to be deployed in locations far from the end user, combining the advantages of the wireless telemetry with the unlimited-distance communication capabilities of existing land-based technology.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
|