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Wireless Cargo Monitoring System

WCMS-System in Container

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WCMS-System in Container

WCMS-System in Container

Rail Cargo Austria

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Rail Cargo Austria

Rail Cargo Austria

Architecture of the WCSM-System

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Architecture of the WCSM-System

Architecture of the WCSM-System

The wireless container monitoring and tracking application is a very challenging application, because of the harsh operating environment and the unavailability of any main electric power supply system. A Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) will be proposed, that consists of many small and low-cost network elements powered by energy scavenging techniques. While WSNs communicate locally to accomplish the distributed task of collecting environmental data, other wireless technologies such as GSM as well as GPS receivers are required to connect WSNs to the global Internet from where information regarding position of sensors is retrieved and the sensed values transmitted.
The fact that even most advanced GSM and GPS modules consume considerable amounts of power (mWatt average to Watt peak) and the requirement of maintenance-free operation, disqualifies the use of standard battery packs. To solve the energy problem, energy scavenging techniques are proposed for all embedded wireless sensor modules within a container. Different types of energy scavenging systems may be needed for the different sensor nodes and will be researched during the project.
An important aspect of this project is the continuous measurement and logging of 3-D acceleration data and other sensors during transportation to ensure the quality of transport.
In order to achieve this goal, state-of-the-art has to be extended significantly, because designing such a heterogeneous, self-powered sensing and tracking application requires new approaches in all aspects relevant to the system design. From communication protocols to wakeup strategies down to the sensor and embedded hardware, a reduction of energy consumption to very low levels would enable the deployment of large maintenance-free networks. The goal of this project is to develop a demonstrator that RailCargo Austria will be able to successfully test in a real container transport across the country.

For futher inquiries, you may contact:
Univ.Ass. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Stefan Mahlknecht      
Institute of Computer Technology     
Vienna University of Technology
Gußhausstraße 25-29, 1040 Vienna
Telephone: +43/1/58801 - 38447
Fax: +43/1/58801 - 38499
E-mail: <link>stefan.mahlknecht@tuwien.ac.at