An open modular system for monitoring remote sensors

Abstract

The main goal of this project is to monitor and control remote sensors from one or more desalination plants. These plants can be found and distributed from each other miles away. All critical parameters must be controlled. In a desalination plant, the installed sensors are the key elements. These sensors feed the system providing the needed information so it could work properly. The plant state is defined by the sensors readings. From this state, we can identify possible anomalies in the normal behavior of the plant, which could cause the activation of different alarms. In order to accomplish these goals, a modular and flexible system has been developed not only for desalination plants but also for any other systems that require controlling remote sensors. The system allows direct access to this remote information through a variety of interfaces (web, SMS). The tier architectural design plays an important role in providing a basic characteristic: its adaptability to different environments. Therefore, adding or changing specific modules can be easily introduced into the modular structure of the system without interfering the core application modules. The application has been develop under Java technologies (J2EE) using Open Source Toolkits.