Hermes: A versatile platform for wireless embedded systems

This paper presents Hermes, a new modular platform that can be used in a variety of scenarios, including the role of body area network coordinator, enabling temperature, movement and heartbeat sensing, local and remote communication, and indoor and outdoor localization. Hermes is based on two main modules that can operate as a single system in a coordinated fashion or individually, depending on the application scenario. One of the modules uses a Telos-inspired architecture, with new processing, communication, sensing, storage and energy subsystems, and executing TinyOS. The other module is designed around a PIC 24F MCU, also supporting communication, sensing, storage, and executing a custom operating system. Both modules have expansion capabilities. The main innovative aspects of the implemented platform are its modularity and its capability to provide device abstraction, which considerably eases application development. The paper addresses the platform motivation, requirements, hardware architecture, implementation details, and performance evaluation.