An aging population is one common challenge faced by many developed countries including Australia. The Australian government has realised that the existing healthcare system must be improved to provide better support longer-term for the healthcare needs of this population. This research examines one such opportunity by suggesting a reform on how the care needs of residents living in Australian residential aged care facilities (RACF) are assessed. A recent study has shown that the current assessment system, known as the Residential Classification Scale (RCS), is subjected to high administrative procedural overhead costs and significant deviations in assessment results. This thesis documents a technical feasibility study of a novel method aimed to solve issues related to the time demands and subjectivity of the RCS through the design and implementation of a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). This WSN is engineered to unobtrusively collect data from wireless sensor nodes either embedded in the RACF environment or attached to the resident??s body. The collected data can be potentially used to provide automatic and accurate care level assessments for the resident. The methodology of preparing and conducting the experiments to prove the hypotheses is justified and described, including the experimental instruments and procedures involved. The results show that this WSN surpasses similar research systems in terms of its application scale, the number and types of sensor nodes involved and the complexity of its hardware and firmware architectures. The major contributions of this thesis are: ?? The WSN developed satisfies certain technical requirements to be declared fit for use in a mock Australian RACF. ?? The WSN provides high sensor detection accuracies (between 88% and 100%), superior location tracking capability (94.75%) and activities of daily living inference capability over similar studies. Opportunities for further improvements of this WSN include: ?? Fine tuning the detection accuracy of Passive Infra-red (PIR) motion sensors. ?? Minimising the down time of the sensor nodes due to firmware memory leak. ?? An extra location tracking mechanism to improve location accuracy determination.

Success of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) largely depends on whether the deployed network can provide desired area coverage with acceptable network lifetime. In hostile or harsh environments such as enemy territories in battlefields, fire or chemical spills, it is impossible to deploy the sensor nodes in a predeter- mined regular topology to guarantee adequate coverage. Random deployment is thus more practical and feasible for large target areas. On the other hand, random deployment of sensors is highly susceptible to the occurrence of coverage holes in the target area. A potential solution for enhancing the existing coverage achieved by random deployments involves the use of mobility capable sensors that would help fill the coverage holes. This thesis seeks to address the problem of determining the current coverage achieved by the non-deterministic deployment of static sensor nodes and subsequently enhancing the coverage using mobile sensors. The main contributions of this dissertation are the design and evaluation of MAPC (Mobility Assisted Probabilistic Coverage), a distributed protocol for ensuring area coverage in hybrid wireless sensor networks. The primary contribution is a pragmatic approach to sensor coverage and maintenance that we hope would lower the technical barriers to its field deployment. Most of the assumptions made in the MAPC protocol are realistic and implementable in real-life applications e.g., practical boundary estimation, coverage calculations based on a realistic sensing model, and use of movement triggering thresholds based on real radio characteristics etc. The MAPC is a comprehensive three phase protocol. In the first phase, the static sensors calculate the area coverage using the Probabilistic Coverage Algorithm (PCA). This is a deviation from the idealistic assumption used in the binary detection model, wherein a sensor can sense accurately within a well defined (usually circular) region. Static sensors execute the PCA algorithm, in a distributed way, to identify any holes in the coverage. In the second phase, MAPC scheme moves the mobile nodes in an optimal manner to fill these uncovered locations. For different types of initial deployments, the proposed movement algorithms consume only 30-40% of the energy consumed by the basic virtual force algorithm. In addition, this thesis addresses the problem of coverage loss due to damaged and energy depleted nodes. The problem has been formulated as an Integer Linear Program and implementable heuristics are developed that perform close to optimal solutions. By replacing in-operational nodes in phase three, MAPC scheme ensures the continuous operation of the WSN. Experiments with real mote hardware were conducted to validate the boundary and coverage estimation part of the MAPC protocol. Extensive discrete event simulations (using NS2) were also performed for the complete MAPC protocol and the results demonstrate that MAPC can enhance and maintain the area coverage by efficiently moving mobile sensor nodes to strategic positions in the uncovered area.

Success of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) largely depends on whether the deployed network can provide desired area coverage with acceptable network lifetime. In hostile or harsh environments such as enemy territories in battlefields, fire or chemical spills, it is impossible to deploy the sensor nodes in a predeter- mined regular topology to guarantee adequate coverage. Random deployment is thus more practical and feasible for large target areas. On the other hand, random deployment of sensors is highly susceptible to the occurrence of coverage holes in the target area. A potential solution for enhancing the existing coverage achieved by random deployments involves the use of mobility capable sensors that would help fill the coverage holes. This thesis seeks to address the problem of determining the current coverage achieved by the non-deterministic deployment of static sensor nodes and subsequently enhancing the coverage using mobile sensors. The main contributions of this dissertation are the design and evaluation of MAPC (Mobility Assisted Probabilistic Coverage), a distributed protocol for ensuring area coverage in hybrid wireless sensor networks. The primary contribution is a pragmatic approach to sensor coverage and maintenance that we hope would lower the technical barriers to its field deployment. Most of the assumptions made in the MAPC protocol are realistic and implementable in real-life applications e.g., practical boundary estimation, coverage calculations based on a realistic sensing model, and use of movement triggering thresholds based on real radio characteristics etc. The MAPC is a comprehensive three phase protocol. In the first phase, the static sensors calculate the area coverage using the Probabilistic Coverage Algorithm (PCA). This is a deviation from the idealistic assumption used in the binary detection model, wherein a sensor can sense accurately within a well defined (usually circular) region. Static sensors execute the PCA algorithm, in a distributed way, to identify any holes in the coverage. In the second phase, MAPC scheme moves the mobile nodes in an optimal manner to fill these uncovered locations. For different types of initial deployments, the proposed movement algorithms consume only 30-40% of the energy consumed by the basic virtual force algorithm. In addition, this thesis addresses the problem of coverage loss due to damaged and energy depleted nodes. The problem has been formulated as an Integer Linear Program and implementable heuristics are developed that perform close to optimal solutions. By replacing in-operational nodes in phase three, MAPC scheme ensures the continuous operation of the WSN. Experiments with real mote hardware were conducted to validate the boundary and coverage estimation part of the MAPC protocol. Extensive discrete event simulations (using NS2) were also performed for the complete MAPC protocol and the results demonstrate that MAPC can enhance and maintain the area coverage by efficiently moving mobile sensor nodes to strategic positions in the uncovered area.

An aging population is one common challenge faced by many developed countries including Australia. The Australian government has realised that the existing healthcare system must be improved to provide better support longer-term for the healthcare needs of this population. This research examines one such opportunity by suggesting a reform on how the care needs of residents living in Australian residential aged care facilities (RACF) are assessed. A recent study has shown that the current assessment system, known as the Residential Classification Scale (RCS), is subjected to high administrative procedural overhead costs and significant deviations in assessment results. This thesis documents a technical feasibility study of a novel method aimed to solve issues related to the time demands and subjectivity of the RCS through the design and implementation of a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). This WSN is engineered to unobtrusively collect data from wireless sensor nodes either embedded in the RACF environment or attached to the resident??s body. The collected data can be potentially used to provide automatic and accurate care level assessments for the resident. The methodology of preparing and conducting the experiments to prove the hypotheses is justified and described, including the experimental instruments and procedures involved. The results show that this WSN surpasses similar research systems in terms of its application scale, the number and types of sensor nodes involved and the complexity of its hardware and firmware architectures. The major contributions of this thesis are: ?? The WSN developed satisfies certain technical requirements to be declared fit for use in a mock Australian RACF. ?? The WSN provides high sensor detection accuracies (between 88% and 100%), superior location tracking capability (94.75%) and activities of daily living inference capability over similar studies. Opportunities for further improvements of this WSN include: ?? Fine tuning the detection accuracy of Passive Infra-red (PIR) motion sensors. ?? Minimising the down time of the sensor nodes due to firmware memory leak. ?? An extra location tracking mechanism to improve location accuracy determination.

Thesis (M.S.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2007. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (p. 67-68).

Thesis (M.S.)--Georgia State University, 2008. / Title from file title page. Yanqing Zhang, committee chair; Rajshekhar Sunderraman, Ying Zhu, committee members. Electronic text (64 p. : ill. (some col.)) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed Nov. 19, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 59-64).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Auburn University. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 54-63).

Thesis (M.S.)--California Polytechnic State University, 2009. / Title from PDF title page; viewed on June 18, 2009. Major professor: Hugh Smith, Ph.D. "Presented to the faculty of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo." "In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree [of] Master of Science in Computer Science." "June 2009." Includes bibliographical references (p. 55-56). Also available on microfiche.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Washington State University, December 2008.. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on July 6, 2009). "School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science." Includes bibliographical references (p. 77-83).

Thesis--Auburn University, 2009. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 44-48).