Modular, Portable, and Reconfigurable Wireless Sensing System for the Aircraft Cabin

This paper describes the design and prototyping of a modular, portable, reconfigurable, and wireless multipurpose sensor system for monitoring and recording environmental conditions in aircraft cabins. The objective of this small, portable embedded sensing system is to record aircraft cabin conditions on flights of convenience to generate a large database for determination of normal conditions. By designing a sensor system that can be easily reconfigured for different needs (with the ability and flexibility to accommodate different/extra sensors), the system can be used to measure parameters that meet multiple research requirements. Through design considerations such as generalized signal interface and hierarchical code structure that can be easily reworked for new sensors, this sensor system has been developed for optimum usefulness in aircraft environment research. In the current setup, the system is configured with temperature, humidity, sound level, carbon dioxide, and pressure sensors. The system has been calibrated in the laboratory without the use of a pressure chamber. Data from six flights are presented in this report. Prepared in collaboration with the National Air Transportation Center of Excellence for Research in the Intermodal Transport Environment, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KN and the Office of Aerospace Medicine, Federal Aviation Administration, Washington, DC. Work was accomplished under Public law 108-76.