Plenary talk network-embedded sensing and control: Applications and application requirements

Abstract

The first part of my talk will cover some recent commercially successful applications of networked and embedded sensing and control solutions. These include applications in the process industries, home health care, and building management systems. In these products and solutions, technological advances in sensors, wireless, networks, and knowledge services have enabled new ways of solving outstanding societal and industry problems. Yet in many ways the current state-of-the-practice has just scratched the surface of technological possibility. Realizing the visions that many of us harbor for distributed sensor networks, however, will require mapping technical benefits to economic value; the second part of the presentation discusses some of the complexities that arise in this process. Finally, I will present some recent research results in networked sensing for a military application–urban surveillance with networked UAVs. This research is still just that, but by discussing it in the context of key application requirements I hope to illustrate that an intimate connection between the two can be achieved.