Energy Hill
Background
There are multiple digital monitoring systems for energy and water systems at Bucknell. Currently they are not connected to any network, thus making administration and observation difficult. Systems such as the solar array, lights, pumps, wind turbine, and water levels could be monitored without being on the Energy Hill or even on campus. This would make the data accessible for the administrators of the systems as well as researchers using the data from the systems.
Executive Summary
I propose a solution based around a web server. The devices currently monitoring the systems can send the data continuously if not in very small buffers to the web server where it will be aggregated into a database. That data can be utilized in multiple facets. Since researchers just need the raw data so that they can do analysis on it, there would be an interface to grab data for a time range filtered based on different options. A web interface would be available for the permitted users that are in charge of administering the systems on Energy Hill. Other users could look at the web interface to get insight of the status of Energy Hill. They system would be created such that if a new system is implemented on Energy Hill, creating a new database table and web page to view the information would be straightforward. If the system takes input, then certain privileged users will be able to trigger events on the devices connected to the various systems. The interface would be mostly visualizations of the data with views for real-time as well as historical data. The interface would be a web page to support multiple platforms and relieve the need to support multiple apps.
Viability Analysis
I think there is a lot of components to getting the system up and running. Collecting the data has its difficulties. If there was an interruption in the connection between the monitoring device and web server, there would need to be a validation system to make sure that the data was saved before discarding it on the device. Doing this all in real time would mean a lot of separate data transfers. The information could be buffered to decrease the number of data transfers, but there is a tradeoff of separate data transfers and how close to real-time the data is. The program that receives the data from the various devices would have a large workload on it since it would need to coordinate the validation of the data as well as inserting the validated data into the database.
One part that I’m not sure of the difficulty is getting the connectivity to the devices on Energy Hill.
Creating the system to be easily expandable for more systems would require a lot of thought of design and abstraction. I don’t think we could make a system with plug-and-play usability for different types of monitoring devices, but I believe we could make it to be expandable without rewriting the entire system but instead write the functionality for that new module.
Risks and Rewards
The risks of this solution is that there is a lot of work to be done and if not completed, then the work could be for naught. Another risk is that the data could be stolen so there are privacy issues. If there is functionality to control the monitoring devices, then that could also become an issue if malicious people start messing with Energy Hill. The reward is that the data from these sensors and devices becomes much more accessible. Energy Hill will become that much more useful to the Bucknell community.
Closing
Aggregating the data on a web server allows access of it in multiple different ways. This lets us tailor the data to different users and make it more accessible. Autonomizing the administration and observation of these systems on Energy Hill will increase productivity and usefulness of this asset.
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