MSensorMob: A Multi-Sensors Hardware Framework to Support the Development of Adaptable Monitoring Units in Mobile Applications

The development of affordable off-the-shelf electronics components is revolutionizing the way monitoring applications are being created, allowing the gathering of environmental data in a low-cost way. However, many issues still remain when concerning the proper assembling of the available components, specially when scalability and flexible programming characteristics are sought. Additionally, for a considerable group of applications, monitoring units may be attached to mobile elements, which may incur in connectivity interruptions. In this context, this work proposes a general hardware architecture to support the development of offline multi-sensor monitoring units, defining a reference operation that can be easily adapted to any application. Moreover, a prototype of a monitoring unit for bicycles is defined, indicating the hardware components that have to be used for eventual physical production. Since mobile-centric monitoring may become an important trend in smart cities, the provided definitions can significantly contribute to the development of efficient, flexible and affordable monitoring units.