Project Proposal No. 3: Design and construction of a Meteorological Data Station for
a Marine buoy with communication by satellite.
Introduction: Vilanova i la Geltrú, as a coastal city, is a point of reference in terms of
fishing and now, several projects related to marine technologies are taking place in our
university. One of them is the deployment of an underwater observatory for shallow
waters, where a buoy with a meteorological data station has to be designed in order to
acquire data from different sensors and send it via satellite to a base station in the
university laboratories.
Project Brief: The project has different parts and has to be carried out by an
interdisciplinary working group:
- Meteorological data station is composed mainly by different sensors connected
to an electronic console that manage the information and establish the communication
with a satellite modem. Sensors modules will be designed as a smart sensors using
IEEE1451 standard. Microcontrollers programming will be necessary to develop each
sensor module and the main console.
- Power supply module use photovoltaic cells and batteries. Electrical
knowledge will be necessary to design and construct an efficient power supply system.
- Sensors, console and power supply has to be enclosed in a mechanical floating
structure. Design and characterization about this structure will be carried out by a
mechanical engineering.
- Communication protocol to minimize power consumption for a satellite
communication and its implementation inside the main console will be carried out by a
telecommunication engineer.
- An application user interface using web technologies mixed with IP protocols
will be the front end of the system.
- A planning about deployment, technical characteristics of the equipment,
marketing plan about scientific uses and so on will be necessary.
Project team: 4 to 6 international students and 2 EPSEVG supervisors
Time: February 18th to June 20th.
Areas of study:
Electronic Engineering
Mechanical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Computer Software Engineering.
Telecommunication Engineering.
Business Management
Company: Sarti Research group in Vilanova i la Geltrú.
Contact person: Joaquin del Rio.
Project academic supervisors: Joaquin del Rio (joaquin.del.rio@upc.edu), Antoni
Mànuel (antoni.manuel@upc.edu), Shahram Shariat Panahi (shahram.shariat@upc.edu)