Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
24 A Remote Microwave Environmental Monitoring System: Automation and Power Management
 Boyao Wang
Haoran Jin
Jiaheng Wen
Qiushi Liu
 design_document1.pdf
proposal1.pdf
 Shurun Tan
FEATURED PROJECT

# A Remote Microwave Environmental Monitoring System: Automation and Power Management

## Group Members
- Boyao Wang (boyaow2)
- Jiaheng Wen (jwen14)
- Qiushi Liu (qiushi3)
- Haoran Jin (haoranj4)

## Problem
Monitoring environmental microwaves is important for detecting electromagnetic inference, assessing potential health impacts as well as understanding background radiation levels in urban and natural environments, thus attracting considerable attention from both academia and industry. To gain accurate and sufficient recording data, conventional methods include deploying monitors at different suitable locations manually, which may take much time, effort, and resources. Therefore, an automatic and efficient remote microwave environmental monitoring system is needed to reduce the overall cost.

## Solution Overview
In this project, we aim to develop an automatic and efficient remote microwave environmental monitoring system with microwave equipment (e.g., vector network analyzers) deployed in natural environments and connected to the internet. Our goal is to create an intelligent automated pipeline that optimizes the monitoring process. This system will automatically transition between active monitoring and low-power states, significantly reducing overall power consumption while ensuring comprehensive and timely environmental microwave data collection.

## Solution Components
To be specific, our solution includes the following components:
### Automated Monitoring System
We will implement features including smart wake-up mechanisms based on environmental triggers, energy-efficient standby modes, and an automated rotating platform for 360-degree multi-angle data collection.
### Power Module Management System
The power module will efficiently supply power to the VNA, pan-tilt mechanism, lifting vehicle, and cameras.

## Criteria of Success
- The system must be able to collect environmental microwave data.
- The monitoring system could be turned on, turned off, or turned to energy-efficient standby modes based on the environmental triggers.
- The monitor could rotate for 360-degree multi-angle automatedly for better data collection.
- The power module can provide power to components to the VNA, pan-tilt mechanism, lifting vehicle, and cameras while consuming less energy compared to the default power module.

Master Bus Processor

Featured Project

General Description

We will design a Master Bus Processor (MBP) for music production in home studios. The MBP will use a hybrid analog/digital approach to provide both the desirable non-linearities of analog processing and the flexibility of digital control. Our design will be less costly than other audio bus processors so that it is more accessible to our target market of home studio owners. The MBP will be unique in its low cost as well as in its incorporation of a digital hardware control system. This allows for more flexibility and more intuitive controls when compared to other products on the market.

Design Proposal

Our design would contain a core functionality with scalability in added functionality. It would be designed to fit in a 2U rack mount enclosure with distinct boards for digital and analog circuits to allow for easier unit testings and account for digital/analog interference.

The audio processing signal chain would be composed of analog processing 'blocks’--like steps in the signal chain.

The basic analog blocks we would integrate are:

Compressor/limiter modes

EQ with shelf/bell modes

Saturation with symmetrical/asymmetrical modes

Each block’s multiple modes would be controlled by a digital circuit to allow for intuitive mode selection.

The digital circuit will be responsible for:

Mode selection

Analog block sequence

DSP feedback and monitoring of each analog block (REACH GOAL)

The digital circuit will entail a series of buttons to allow the user to easily select which analog block to control and another button to allow the user to scroll between different modes and presets. Another button will allow the user to control sequence of the analog blocks. An LCD display will be used to give the user feedback of the current state of the system when scrolling and selecting particular modes.

Reach Goals

added DSP functionality such as monitoring of the analog functions

Replace Arduino boards for DSP with custom digital control boards using ATmega328 microcontrollers (same as arduino board)

Rack mounted enclosure/marketable design

System Verification

We will qualify the success of the project by how closely its processing performance matches the design intent. Since audio 'quality’ can be highly subjective, we will rely on objective metrics such as Gain Reduction (GR [dB]), Total Harmonic Distortion (THD [%]), and Noise [V] to qualify the analog processing blocks. The digital controls will be qualified by their ability to actuate the correct analog blocks consistently without causing disruptions to the signal chain or interference. Additionally, the hardware user interface will be qualified by ease of use and intuitiveness.