Treffer: Redundant array of inexpensive sensors (RAIS) for small airport wind shear detection

The current project was conducted to develop a low cost Redundant Array of inexpensive Sensors (RAIS) for Small Airport Wind Shear Detection. The system described here is self organizing and redundant and highly fault tolerant which has no single point of failure and can continue operation even after significant amount of node failures. The objective of this system is to provide for smaller airpmts a redundant network of wind phenomenon detector that is cunently available only at much higher cost at the largest airports. The project is implemented with as much off-the-shelf components as possible both hardware and software. The purpose was to rapidly integrate a system with existing components that is both low cost and does not incur significant development cost. The hardware platform selected for the project was the XO computers developed by the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) foundation. LaCrosse anemometers were used for gathering wind vector information in all axes and Canmore GPS devices was used for acquiring location information. Software was developed on Linux Fedora Core 6 operating system that powers the XO computers. Languages used were Python and C. A fully operating system was developed and tested. Extensive testing was conducted to ensure the correct operation and functionality of the system. This report is organized into multiple sections. Following introduction the rationale for this system is discussed. The imperatives behind the choice of hardware software platforms are discussed next. Then various enabling technologies are introduced. Next the guiding principle behind the development of the software is discussed. The following section after that describes the algorithm and operation of the software. Finally, test plans and results are discussed and future directions are indicated. The Appendix contains the complete listing of the code developed, various test logs and an installation operation and troubleshooting guide. The results derived from testing are encouraging and clearly shows the ...