GoMRI
Investigating the effect of oil spills
on the environment and public health.
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Funding Source: Year One Block Grant - The Alabama Marine Environmental Science Consortium

Project Overview

Framework for Dynamic Configuration and Interoperability of Heterogeneous Off-shore Oil Spill Wireless Sensor Networks

Principal Investigator
University of South Alabama
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Summary:

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) can be a complement to remote sensing. WSNs envision circumstances where low-cost wireless sensor nodes are rapidly deployed over a region where oil slicks have been spilled adhering to the oil slick above t.he water surface. As the oil slick spreads, the devices will move away from each other while floating around with the slick, sensing, processing, and transmitting information about the oil spill.

Since the maximum wireless information range of each node is 1 km, there should be at least one sensor node in every square kilometer of area. Using a large number of these devices will produce a map of the current of state of the spill, including its thickness level at different locations in a short amount of time, guiding a fast and efficient treatment.


This research was made possible by a grant from The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative.
www.gulfresearchinitiative.org