Grant to Fund Building Solar-Powered Emergency Mesh

The National Science Foundation has awarded a $485,000 grant to University of Arkansas professors to develop a solar-powered emergency mesh to provide connectivity and redundancy in the event that a natural disaster or other calamity disrupts current web-based services.

Nilanjan Banerjee, assistant professor of computer science and computer engineering, with Pat Parkerson, professor of computer science computer engineering, and Jack Cothren, associate professor of geosciences and director of the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies, were recently awarded a the grant from the National Science Foundation to build a solar-powered emergency mesh.

This work employs a mesh architecture that is energy-efficient and self-sustainable. It relies on renewable energy sources such as solar to provide near-perpetual lifetime to mesh nodes while serving critical updates to survivors.

Since renewable energy scavenging is notoriously unpredictable, this project uses a clean-slate low power hardware and software systems design for the nodes. Additionally, in the event of node failures due to variability inherent in renewable energy scavenging and extreme environmental conditions during the aftermath of a natural calamity, the mesh automatically redistributes the data on the failed nodes to maintain sufficient redundancy. Finally, the mesh design uses common wireless technology such as Wi-Fi and light-weight web-based services for compatibility with off-the-shelf laptops, mobile phones, and PDAs carried by disaster survivors.