Huntington Botanical Gardens - Sensor Web 2
As a field test of the Sensor Web concept, we constructed Sensor Web 2, which had 12 pods,
and fielded it at the Huntington Botanical Gardens
in San Marino, CA. There are four, well delineated, sub-environments that this
web covers: a rooftop for local weather conditions, an outdoor nursery, a desert
(cactus) greenhouse, and the 4-zone wet greenhouse (see the map).
The pods are battery powered, with the batteries recharged by solar energy,
allowing for virtually indefinite lifetime. Each pod measures local air
temperature, soil temperature, humidity, soil moisture, light levels, and
oxygen levels. In addition, each pod monitors it's own internal power and
automatically turns off when battery levels get too low (turning on again
when the batteries are recharged).
Deployed on May 18, 2000, this Sensor Web (designated Sensor Web 2) ran continuously for 5½ months,
clearly showing the potential for long-term monitoring.
