Sensor technology¶

Many different sensor technologies exist. For example, in the context of gas detection, sensors can monitor the concentration at a fixed point or they can be based on optical gas imaging technology and monitor an area within a field of view. Sensors can monitor continuously or at defined sampling times. Sensors can also be mounted on vehicles or drones and move through a specified region. Furthermore, sensors can have different operating conditions which can change detectability. In order to understand the tradeoffs between different sensor technologies and operating conditions and to select an optimal subset of sensors, these different options should be considered simultaneously within an optimal sensor placement problem.

The chama.sensors module can be used to define sensor technologies in Chama. The module is used to represent a variety of sensor properties including detector type, detection threshold, location, and sampling times. Additionally, every sensor object includes a function that accepts a signal, described in the Simulation section, and returns the subset of that signal that is detected by the sensor. This information is then used to extract the impact of each sensor on each scenario, as described in the Impact assessment section. The sensor placement optimization uses this information to select sensors.

Each sensor is declared by specifying a position and a detector. The following options are available in Chama (additional sensor technologies could easily be incorporated).

Position options¶

Stationary: A stationary sensor that is fixed at a single location.
Mobile: A mobile sensor that moves according to defined waypoints and speed. It can also be defined to repeat its path or start moving at a particular time. A mobile sensor is assumed to be at its first waypoint for all times before its starting time and is assumed to be at its final waypoint if it has completed its path and the repeat path option was not set.

Detector options¶

Point: A point detector. This type of detector determines detection by comparing a signal to the detector’s threshold.
Camera: A camera detector using the camera model from [RaWB16]. This type of detector determines detection by collecting the signal within the camera’s field of view, converting that signal to pixels, and comparing that to the detector’s threshold in terms of pixels.

When using signal data in XYZ format, Chama can interpolate sensor measurements that are not represented in the signal data. However, the sample times of a Camera detector must be included in the signal data (i.e. only X, Y, and Z can be interpolated).

For example, a stationary point sensor, can be defined as follows:

>>> pos1 = chama.sensors.Stationary(location=(1,2,3))
>>> det1 = chama.sensors.Point(threshold=0.001, sample_times=[0,2,4,6,8,10])
>>> stationary_pt_sensor = chama.sensors.Sensor(position=pos1, detector=det1)

A mobile point sensor, can be defined as follows:

>>> pos2 = chama.sensors.Mobile(locations=[(0,0,0),(1,0,0),(1,3,0),(1,2,1)],speed=1.2)
>>> det2 = chama.sensors.Point(threshold=0.001, sample_times=[0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10])
>>> mobile_pt_sensor = chama.sensors.Sensor(position=pos2, detector=det2)

A stationary camera sensor, can be defined as follows:

>>> pos3 = chama.sensors.Stationary(location=(2,2,1))
>>> det3 = chama.sensors.Camera(threshold=400, sample_times=[0,5,10], direction=(1,1,1))
>>> stationary_camera_sensor = chama.sensors.Sensor(position=pos3, detector=det3)

A mobile camera sensor, can be defined as follows:

>>> pos4 = chama.sensors.Mobile(locations=[(0,1,1),(0.1,1.2,1),(1,3,0),(1,2,1)],speed=0.5)
>>> det4 = chama.sensors.Camera(threshold=100, sample_times=[0,3,6,9], direction=(1,1,1))
>>> mobile_camera_sensor = chama.sensors.Sensor(position=pos4, detector=det4)

When using signal data in Node format, Chama does not interpolate sensor measurements that are not represented in the signal data and only stationary point sensors can be used.

When using Node format, a stationary point sensor, can be defined as follows:

>>> pos1 = chama.sensors.Stationary(location='Node1')
>>> det1 = chama.sensors.Point(threshold=0.001, sample_times=[0,2,4,6,8,10])
>>> stationary_pt_sensor = chama.sensors.Sensor(position=pos1, detector=det1)

Note that the units for time, location, speed, and threshold need to match the units from the simulation.