Paper Authors

Abstract

NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract

Session 1649

Remote Sensing with GPS Sensor and Cellular Modem David R. Loker, P.E., Ronald P. Krahe, P.E., Jeffrey Kirsch, Ted J. Yowonske, R. Joseph Cunningham, Joseph R. Petrovich Penn State Erie, The Behrend College

Abstract

In this paper, a remote sensing project is presented for a senior technical elective telecommunications course in the Electrical Engineering Technology Baccalaureate Program at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College. There are several noteworthy characteristics of this project. First, the project used a GPS sensor and a cellular telephone to allow GPS data to be accessed from the remote site. Second, it used LabVIEW as a graphical software development tool for automatically uploading data from the remote site, and downloading the data to a local site.

The remote site consisted of a dedicated laptop PC with one RS-232 port, interfaced alternately to the GPS sensor and the cellular telephone. LabVIEW software was designed to first read the data, such as position, speed, and direction, from the GPS sensor through a serial port. Then a cellular telephone, configured as a wireless modem, was connected to the serial port, and LabVIEW software was designed to automatically dial the local site to establish a communication link between the remote and local sites. Then the data was automatically uploaded from the remote site to the local site.

The local site consisted of a dedicated PC with an internal modem connected to a phone jack. Once the communication link between the local and remotes sites was established, LabVIEW software was designed to automatically download and display the data collected by the GPS sensor from the remote site. Also, control information was sent to the remote site to determine the number of data points to collect by the GPS sensor at the remote site for the next data collection iteration.

Results are shown to successfully demonstrate the remote collection and display of GPS data. Also, results from a student assessment form are presented. Conclusions regarding the educational benefits of using this design project within a baccalaureate EET program are shown.

I. Introduction to the Project

A senior technical elective course in telecommunications is offered as part of the Baccalaureate degree in Electrical Engineering Technology at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College. There are two prerequisites for this course. The first prerequisite course is a junior level communications systems course which emphasizes an introduction to analog communication techniques. The second prerequisite course is a junior level measurements and instrumentation course which introduces LabVIEW.1 LabVIEW is a graphical software programming language that was used for data acquisition. The senior telecommunications systems course emphasizes voice and data "Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright  2004, American Society for Engineering Education"

• Citation

• Format
  • APA
  • APA - LaTeX bibitem
  • MLA
  • MLA - LaTeX bibitem
  • Bibtex
  • EndNote - RIS

Weissbach, R., & Loker, D., & Krahe, R. (2004, June), Remote Sensing With Gps Sensor And Cellular Modem Paper presented at 2004 Annual Conference, Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--13154