Market-Based Resource Allocation in a Wirelessly Integrated Naval Engineering Plant

The focus of this research project is the application of wireless sensor networks in naval engineering plant systems for monitoring and control purposes. During the first quarter of the project, research efforts were largely focused upon the design and construction of a wireless sensor prototype explicitly designed for embedment in the complex environments posed by navy vessels. The role of the wireless sensor is to do the following 1 collect real-time information from sensors, 2 wirelessly communicate plant data to other sensors andor upward in the integrated engineering plant IEP architecture, 3 automatically calculate plant actions, and 4 issue commands to actuators. These functional requirements were considered and appropriate off-the-shelf components were selected for the wireless sensor design. To integrate all of the selected hardware components, a four-layer printed circuit board with a small footprint was designed and fabricated. In parallel with the hardware design of the wireless sensor, software was written to achieve reliable wireless communication among sensors. The IEEE802.15.4 wireless protocol standard was adopted and current efforts are underway to code it in C programming language.