LiSANDRA: a Low-Cost Experimental Wireless Sensor Network

Wireless sensor networks (WSN) are an emerging technology based on the progress in digital electronics, micro-electromechanical systems and wireless communication science in the last decade. These advances have made possible the development of low power sensing devices with short range wireless communication capability at low cost. Business Week has stated that "microelectronic sensor networks is one of the 21 most important technologies of the 21st century". This works presents LiSANDRA (Lightweight Sensor and Actuator Network with Distance Range Auto-adjustable) that is as part of our first experiences in designing and developing WSNs using commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components and assembled in-house. LiSANDRA is used in internal institutional projects and as a support tool for teaching in undergraduate and graduate engineering programs in Electronic and Computing, providing students a hands-on experience with emphasis on embedded software design.