DEVELOPMENT OF WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS FOR ASSET MANAGEMENT

Abstract

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and Radio frequency identification (RFID) are two important wireless technologies that have attracted considerable attention in recent years because of their potential to revolutionize wide variety of application areas. WSN is used to provide information about the condition of the assets as well as the environment. RFID facilitates detection and identification of objects that are not easily detectable. or distinguishable by using current sensor technologies. Hence, integration of these technologies can expand their overall functionality and capacity specially in asset management in large organizations. In addition GPS technology is-used for outdoor tracking of vehicles and assets over a wide geographic area. Thus the use of these three technologies in asset management can increase efficiency, productivity and enhance user satisfaction. This project applies the state of the art technology of WSN to gather and display environmental sensor readings, such as temperature, relative humidity and ambient light of the environment of library, which help library administrator to monitor the physical environment in the library building and use the information for creating optimized energy usage. RFID technology is used to track, manage and secure the library assets such as books, journals, computers and computer peripherals, routers, switches and CDs etc. RFID technology is not just only to tag books and other library assets; it also provides a comprehensive and powerful tool for enhancing library services and upgrade operations for everyone concerned with the library. The GPS technology is used for tracking the e-learning vehicle of the library which help library administrator for optimum utilization of e-learning vehicle. In this work, LabVIEW is used to integrate the RFID system and Library asset database for quick check-in/check-out of library assets, identifying missing and misplaced library assets, managing assets on the correct shelves, and prevent the theft. The e-learning vehicle of the library is tracked by using Crossbow sensor board (MTS420) and Garmin eTrex Vista H GPS Navigator. The Zigbee protocol based Crossbow wireless Sensor boards (MTS 400) are used to monitoring the physical environment of the library. All the results are displayed on a highly informative and user friendly GUI developed in LabVIEW.