USANet: an open platform for USB-based Sensors/Actuators Network

Abstract

The paper presents and proposes USB-based Sensors/Actuators Network (USANet) system. Proposed USANet system is maturely designed according to IEEE 1451 concepts and component-based approach. It consists of five STIMs. These STIMs are Measurement Module of Speed (MMS), Controller Module for Motor (CMM), three Measurement Modules of Distance (MMDs). They are connected to a laptop NCAP host via five USB 2.0 interface cards. Each USB 2.0 interface card is dedicated for only one STIM to exchange messages of sensory data or control commands with NCAP host. USB 2.0 interface card represents TII of such USANet. NCAP host run a program called SCCD. SCCD is the abbreviation of Sensory data Collector/Command Distributor. It is an open source model that is developed by C# programming language under the dot-Net 4.0 framework to provide portability. SCCD is employed to collect sensory data from MMS, and three MMDs. In addition, SCCD sends control commands to CMM. All hardware and software modules of USANet are designed and developed completely in our labs. Two performance metrics are used to validate and verify the feasibility of such USB-based Networked system. They are Feedback Receiving Time (FRT) and Sensory Data Message Time (SDMT). These timebased metrics are chosen for evaluation because the provision of timely information is crucial in many applications