Development of Generic Software System Transparent to Any Flexible and Scalable Sensor Array

Abstract

The sensor arrays receive more attention to make advanced technologies in the future. In conventional sensor arrays, the greater the number of sensors, the greater the number of cables to the local controller, which increases the scale of the device. In addition, the increase in the number of cables is a factor in the complexity of the sensor network, leading to an increase in the difficulty of constructing sensor arrays. To solve this problem, we have proposed an organization method in which controllers and sensors are connected by a daisy chain. This makes it possible to realize a sensor array with a controller and a fixed number of cables, independent of the number of sensors. Furthermore, the proposed sensor array is flexible and scalable enough to be easily customized by the user according to the application. However, this sensor array has an issue with the low versatility of the software of each sensor module. In order to switch the sensors controlled by a sensor module, the software of the sensor module also needs to be switched. In this study, we proposed and developed a new software system for arbitrary sensor arrays in order to improve the versatility of the software. As a preliminary evaluation of the sensor array equipped with the developed software, the relationship between the number of modules and the transfer speed from the modules to the controller was investigated.