ARL at UH developed a sensor system to monitor environmental conditions in the vicinity of fuel storage tanks and facilities, providing measurements to help assess tank integrity and identify spills or leaks.
The system utilizes a common hardware platform for multiple functional areas (e.g. base stations and sensing nodes) in the sensor network, simplifying manufacturing and logistics.
The hardware platform was designed for low-cost manufacturing, adaptability, and versatility. It uses commercial off-the-shelf electronics in 3D-printed enclosures that were designed to optimize sensor and communication antenna placement.
Pairing this hardware platform with a web-based data storage system and display client provides real-time telemetry visualization for monitoring tank facility conditions and can alert operators of potential leaks and hazards. The sensor system provides advances over current techniques in the form of scalability, cost minimization, live data reporting, and localization for active monitoring.
Modularity reduces the engineering effort for adaptations to use new sensors in diverse environments, which can have different factors that lead to failures, and also allows the system to be updated as technology progresses. Data collected in experimental testing validates system functionality and ability to detect factors associated with spills and leaks.
