Remote background radiation monitoring using zigbee technology

In this paper, a solution of remote backgr ound radiation monitoring, based on the concept of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN), is presented. Radiat on dose rate measured by the sensor node is sent t o the monitoring station through ZigBee wireless network operated on 2.4 GHz unlicensed Industrial Scientifi c Medical (ISM) band. The system is calibrated for us e for ionizing radiation dose rate range of between naturally occurring background radiation and 1.02 mSv/h. Power consumption of the sensor node is kept low by operating the node ZigBee radio with low duty cy cle: i.e by keeping the radio awake only during dat a transmission/reception. Two ATmega8 microcontrollers, one each for sensor node and the monitoring station, are programmed to perform interfacing, data processing, and control functions. The system ra nge of coverage is 124m for outdoor (line of site) deploym ent and 56.8m for indoor application where 5 brick walls separated the sensor node and the monitoring statio n. Range of coverage of the system is extendable vi a the use of ZigBee router(s).