What Is Smart Dust? Advantages & Disadvantages - CatchUpdates

Construction Of Smart Dust

The new trend of the 21st century is to provide the best adaptive features to the user in small packages as much as possible. This same trend is being followed in electronics technology and the enhanced features are being provided in smaller and smaller electronic devices. An example of this technology trend is electronic motes. These are so small and light in weight that they can remain suspended in the environment like an ordinary dust particle. Even the air currents can also move them in the direction of flow. The main features of motes are:

• Support the collection and integration of data from a variety of miniature sensors.
• Analyze the sensor data as specified by system-level controls. Wirelessly communicate the results of their analyses to other motes, system base stations, and the internet as specified by system automation.
• Motes are also sometimes referred to as smart dust. One mote is composed of a small, low powered and cheap computer connected to several sensors and a radio transmitter capable of forming ad hoc networks. The computer monitors the different sensors in a mote. These sensors can measure light, acceleration, position, stress, pressure, humidity, sound, and vibration. Data gathered are passed on to the radio link for transmission from mote to mote until data reaches the transmission node.

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Working Principle of Smart Dust

Smart Dust motes are run by microcontrollers. These microcontrollers consist of tiny sensors for recording various types of data. Timers are used to run these sensors. These sensors do the job of collecting the data. The data obtained are stored in its memory for further interpretations. It can also be sent to the base controlling stations.

CCR, which comprises three mutually perpendicular mirrors of gold-coated polysilicon, has the property that any incident ray of light is reflected back to the source provided that is incident within a certain range of angles centered about the cube’s body diagonal. The microfabricated CCR includes an electrostatic actuator that can deflect one of the mirrors at the kilohertz rate. Hence, the external light source can be transmitted back in the form of the modulated signal at kilobits per second. It can transmit to the bus only when the CCR body diagonal happens to point directly towards the bits, within a few tens of degrees

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Although a passive transmitter can be made more omnidirectional by employing several CCR”s oriented in different directions, at the expense of increased dust mote size.