Kristofer S.J. Pister (Advisor)

Research Advised by Professor Kristofer S.J. Pister

Pister Group:  List of Projects | List of Researchers

BPN624: The Internet of Things: IPv6 for Multihop Wireless Sensor Networks

Branko Kerkez
Fabien J. Chraim
2012

The Internet of Things enables great applications, such as energy-aware homes or real-time asset tracking. With these networks gaining maturity, standardization bodies have started to work on standardizing how these networks of tiny devices communicate. We strongly believe IEEE802.15.4e TSCH is the most reliable and energy-efficient MAC protocol for low-power motes. The goal of this project is to provide open-source implementations of a complete protocol stack based on the finalized Internet of Things standards. This implementation can then help academia and industry verify the...

BPN388: Micro Autonomous Air Vehicles

Ankur Mehta
2012

This project considers the design and implementation of a guidance and control system for small scale autonomous air vehicles, in particular helicopters. A two gram inertial navigation unit has been designed and built for this purpose, using a three axis angular rate sensor and three axis accelerometer for trajectory measurements, along with a microprocessor and 2.4 GHz 802.15.4 radio. A smart IR camera is used to determine localization information. This extremely low mass wireless enabled sensor mote can be used as a platform for two-fist sized autonomous vehicles, and this system...

BPN696: Energy Monitoring for the Smart Building Using Low-Power Wireless Sensors

Kevin Weekly
Brittany Judoprasetijo
2013

Future office spaces and buildings will collect energy consumption data from the electrical devices used by their occupants, from refrigerators to the humble cell phone charger. This goal of this project is to develop and evaluate the devices enabling dense measurement of energy consumption throughout the building. We have started developing two hardware platforms. First, we designed a sensor circuit board which can be quickly installed by placing it between a plug and the outlet. Our second design is a custom designed surge protector can measure six independent outlets as well as...

BPN648: Fully-Integrated, Low Input Voltage, Switched-Capacitor DC-DC Converter for Energy Harvesting Applications

Michael C. Lorek
2014

This project explores the design of a fully integrated, switched-capacitor DC-DC converter to convert small amounts of energy from photovoltaic or other low voltage energy sources. Clever bootstrapping techniques are used to ensure circuit startup without high-voltage or mechanical assists. Nanopower oscillator topologies are being investigated for minimum power and input voltage operation. Advanced timing schemes are used to minimize charge reversion loss and clock driver short circuit currents for increased efficiency. A boosted output voltage around 1.5V is targeted for...

BPN596: Smart Fence and Other Wireless Sensing Applications for Critical Industrial Environments

Fabien J. Chraim
2014

Following the successful showcase of the Smart Fence technology, this project aims at using MEMS and Optical Sensors in combination with Low-Power radios to implement industrial wireless sensing applications. Using inertial sensors, valve position monitoring and machine vibration sensing are added for safeguarding both personnel and equipment. Finally, gas leak detection and localization is implemented and tested using IR combustible gas sensors. This project is concerned both with the COTS-based hardware and software behind each application.

Project end date: 02/...

BPN713: Ring GINA: Highly Miniaturized Ring-Format Wearable Mote

Joseph Greenspun
David Burnett
2015

Computer input devices such as mice and keyboards have remained largely unchanged since the dawn of the personal computer. The Ring GINA platform is capable of sensing and interpreting a user’s hand and finger movements to emulate and enhance the functions of these standard input devices. A wearable platform frees the user from the need to know hand position relative to a keyboard or mouse, and grants the ability to perform gestures in open space or on any surface. Here, a method is presented that utilizes these rings as a text input system. In moving forward, efforts are being...

BPN705: Standard CMOS-Based, Fully Integrated, Stick-On Electricity Meters for Building Sub-Metering

Michael C. Lorek
2015

We propose the development and testing of a system of technologies to minimize the installed cost of electricity sub-metering in buildings. This system utilizes non-contact, self-calibrating voltage and current sensors and wireless communication to eliminate the need for installation by an electrician, installation of conduit and enclosures, and installation of wired communication infrastructure. Electricity sub-metering is a critical component for continuous commissioning, fault detection and diagnosis, demand response, and other energy efficiency opportunities.

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BPN768: Plug-Through Energy Monitor for Wall Outlet Electrical Devices

Michael C. Lorek
2015

This project focuses on the development of a Plug-Through Energy Monitor (PTEM) for electrical devices connected to wall outlets. Using a non-intrusive inductive current sensing technique, the load current can be measured without requiring a series sensing element that breaks the circuit. This enables slim profile sensing hardware, and eliminates the power dissipated across series elements as in traditional current measurement techniques. This work aims to design a PCB-based solution that measures load current & line voltage, accurately calculates real power dissipated by a plug...

BPN712: Bridging Research-to-Commercialization Gaps In an Industry/University Ecosystem

John Huggins
Hossain M. Fahad
Hiroshi Shiraki
David Burnett
Nicola Accettura
2015

Some BSAC members have, in our surveys and at IAB meetings, vocalized that we need to help bridge commercialization gaps and increase the speed of commercialization. Traditional University research commercialization paths through passive licensing to start-ups, are often highly successful and will remain the dominant path. But such paths do not leverage the sophisticated manufacturing, marketing, and sales channels of our larger Industrial members who could rapidly exploit certain research discoveries. While any such commercialization facilitation programs cannot compromise the...

BPN683: OpenWSN: A Standards-Based Low-Power Wireless Development Environment

Nicola Accettura
2015

The OpenWSN project is an open-source implementation of a fully standards-based protocol stack for capillary networks, rooted in the new IEEE802.15.4e Time Synchronized Channel Hopping standard. The novel IETF 6TiSCH protocols make IEEE802.15.4e TSCH perfectly interfaced with well-known Internet-of-Things IETF standards, such as 6LoWPAN, RPL and CoAP, thus enabling ultra-low power and highly reliable mesh networks which are fully integrated into the Internet. The resulting protocol stack will be cornerstone to the upcoming Machine-to-Machine revolution. OpenWSN is ported to numerous...