Cogent Computing's Pervasive Computing Laboratory is the hub of our work with state-of-the-art software and hardware in the area of wireless sensor networks and embedded systems design.
Gumstix Platform
In use are the Connex 400xm-bt and Verdex 400xm-bt motherboards developed by Gumstix Inc. These run Linux and feature the Marvell® PXA270 with XScale™ 400Mhz processor. There are 16Mb of Flash memory and 64Mb of RAM on board ideal for supporting applications that have greater memory requirements. Communication capabilities include Bluetooth(TM) communications, WiFI (802.11G standard) and Zigbee. Board dimensions are 80mm x 20mm with 60 pin and 92 pin connectors for expansion boards.
Telos Mote
Telos is an ultra low power wireless module and a popular choice for sensor network monitoring applications. It facilitates rapid application prototyping and leverages industry standards like USB and IEEE 802.15.4 to interoperate seamlessly with other devices. With onboard humidity, temperature, and light sensors, Telos enables a wide range of mesh network applications.
Arch Rock's Phynet WSN Platform
The PhyNet platform is an off-the-shelf wireless sensor network system that enables the development of a variety of WSN applications. The system combines the power of embedded systems, flexible web service architectures and industry-standard multi-hop mesh networking protocols. It allows energy-efficient, reliable data collection, routing and dissemination over industry standard links like IEEE 802.15.4. Nodes are based on the Telos mote hardware platform and the system allows the deployment of robust, easily configurable and reliable sensor networks. The Arch Rock system is currently being used in our passive house, green house and new EC building projects.
The MSP430 Microprocessor platform
The eZ430-RF2500 is a complete wireless development tool for the MSP430 and CC2500 and includes all required hardware and software on a USB stick. The tool includes a USB-powered emulator to program and debug applications in-system and two 2.4-GHz wireless target boards featuring the MSP430F2274 ultra-low-power MCU. This toolkit is currently being used in the gas turbine engine project.
We use a wide variety of software development resources. This includes programming of embedded systems running TinyOS using the NesC programming language; web-based tools and languages like PHP, Javascript and Google's Web Toolkit; and high-level languages like Python for simulation and visualisation.
Cogent Tools - a suite of open source tools developed by research staff and students at the Cogent Computing Applied Research Centre and aimed at the Wireless Sensor Network community. Cogent Tools is a set of library functions created to make programming the Gumstix FFMC a simpler task.
To download the libraries and view the help files go to SourceForge.net