Monitoring chemical plumes in an environmental sensing chamber with a wireless chemical sensor network

This paper describes the development of a wireless chemical sensor network (WCSN) and an environmental sensing chamber (ESC) within which this WCSN was tested. The WCSN used in this work takes advantage of recent advances in low power wireless communication platforms and novel light emitting diode (LED) based chemical sensing techniques. Plumes of acetic acid were employed for testing and were detected by LED based colorimetric acid responsive chemical sensors. Wireless sensor nodes were positioned in fixed locations within the chamber and responses to plumes of acetic acid were monitored. Preliminary test data show that sensor response time and magnitude are related to sensor position and plume profile, and by operating the sensors collectively in a WCSN it was possible to track chemical plumes in real-time as they moved through the chamber. We envisage that it will be possible to use chemical sensors arranged in a WCSN such as this to map and predict chemical plume dynamics.