Feasibility study of remote switches for wireless personal area networks

• Main Author: Heng, Gerard Khoon Yeow.
• Other Authors: Zhong Zhaowei
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering::Wireless communication systems; DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering::Prototyping
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/41812
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Most on/off switches used today either in home appliances, portable devices or installed within buildings still need to be operated manually. In order to be able to control devices remotely, modifications to existing devices and infrastructure or the use of plug-in wireless modules would be required. In addition to the physical limitations of present solutions, the high cost involved makes it impractical to do so. With the on-set of nanotechnology and Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, miniaturisation of electronic components have now made it possible to incorporate computational power and wireless communications within a single switch. It is envisaged that such a switch will be commonly used, as it becomes the standard for all switches in the future. The purpose of this project is to study the feasibility of developing and implementing a fully self-contained wireless switch based on standard wireless personal area network (WPAN) architecture. This dissertation explores and compares the existing types ofWPAN technologies (Infrared Data Association, Bluetooth, Ultra-wideband and ZigBee) and looks at the progress of current research work done in the area of pervasive computing before proposing a concept of the working principle of the wireless remote switch. A prototype was constructed using the RCM451OW RabbitCore Development Kit, which is interfaced with a latching relay to tum on and off a Lego® Mindstorms motor with its own battery pack. The software is written using Dynamic C programming.