Development of an Effective Hardware Integration Layer of Wearable Sensors for Remote Health Monitoring System

Advancements in technology and increasing complexity of applications have made it difficult to design systems consisting of diverse nature of hardware and software architectures. Examples of such systems are everywhere around us which includes automation, transportation, agriculture and especially i

Project Title

Development of an Effective Hardware Integration Layer of Wearable Sensors for Remote Health Monitoring System

Project Area of Specialization

Internet of Things

Project Summary

Advancements in technology and increasing complexity of applications have made it difficult to design systems consisting of diverse nature of hardware and software architectures. Examples of such systems are everywhere around us which includes automation, transportation, agriculture and especially in healthcare (Salman, Rasid, Saripan, & Subramaniam, 2014). Providing patient care is a priority for all healthcare providers with the overall purpose of realizing a high degree of patient satisfaction (Mirkovic, Bryhni, & Ruland, 2012). Literature highlights that a significant number of people died every month due to unexpected behaviour and careless attitude towards their health due to less/no concern or heavy workload. Moreover, in developing countries, such as Pakistan, where a large population is living in rural areas and have limited or no access to hospitals is another concern towards health problems. In order to overcome/reduce valuable loss of humans, healthcare systems, nowadays, are becoming complex systems, due to the integration of various types of sensors/devices to detect from simple to complex diseases.

Consequently, the state-of-the-art sensors/actuators and their corresponding integration platforms are facing divergence rather than convergence (Silva et al., 2018). The reasons of this divergence are because of multiple factors heterogeneity of sensor nodes, operating models, communication protocols, programming environment, data models. Therefore, there is a need to develop a system; with remote access capability, having an effective integration layer/platform with an objective to integrate different sensors/devices towards the goal of including sensor information into decision-making processes.

The presented project proposed an efficient hardware integration platform to acquire physiological data from selected wearable sensors using an embedded controller (referred as slave node) and transmit processed information to another embedded controller (designated as a master node). To overcome the difficulty of integrating sensors/node devices which are heterogeneous in nature, an intelligent, layered protocol architecture, based on Master/Slave architecture, is proposed which contain sublayers: Perception, Data-processing, Integration and Transport to perform/handle various activities/operations. The presented project will generate wearable sensors data integrated into a single data packet which is not only a cost-effective solution but also scalable in future. A web/software application can be used to display detailed information about patients’ parameters for further processing. The proposed system will benefit remote health monitoring system in facilitating users/patients in isolated communities and remote regions by enabling them to receive care from doctors or specialists far away without having to travel to visit them.

Project Objectives

To design and develop a layered protocol software architecture to have an effective and reliable integration of heterogeneous sensors/devices using embedded hardware platform for healthcare application. The project objectives are;

• Development of software libraries/components of selected heterogeneous sensors.
• Design of software architecture and communication protocols among sensor connected devices/nodes.
• Implementation of suitable integration layer which enables reliable communication between sensors and nodes.
• Integration of developed hardware and software components.

Project Implementation Method

The proposed project implementation involves a scalable, structured and phased approach consisting of pre-defined inputs, activities and outputs which deliver a solution that will meet project objectives. The methodology divided into phases and each phase its own identity and significance, which are:

1.    Initiate Phase
In this phase, the project group members plan out the project activities, resources and timelines. The subsequent phases of the project built on the foundation created during this phase. The list of events carried out during this phase are:

• Meetings with supervisor and Problem understanding/review
• Project scope, goals and objectives
• Literature review
• Project target milestones (key deliverables)
• Hardware/Software resource selection and (partial) purchase
• Project plan outline

2.    Design and Development Phase
In the Design phase, the objectives and needs in detail were explored and started architecting the solution that will best meet the project parameters. The principal activities of this phase are:

• Development of software libraries of wearable sensors and communication libraries for device nodes.
• Design of software architecture; Master/Slave (modelling of inter-board communication) and Layered Protocol (modelling of sensors/device nodes integration layer)
• Development of sublayers of layered architecture: Perception layer, data-processing layer, Integration layer, transport layer
• Stand-alone/Independent testing of designed software components

3.    Implementation and Integration Phase (may include design modification)
In this phase, the configuration and solution building is performed based on the project design. This phase consists of the following activities:

• Hardware infrastructure (device nodes and sensors) readiness
• Implementation of software architectures on the hardware embedded boards.
• Integration of wearable sensors and sample data generation

4.    Testing Phase
The final phase is Testing, which includes activities such as:

• Test script creation of individual hardware/software unit testing
• End-to-end testing of sensors data flow
• Modification/review of hardware/software components/libraries
• Project solution readiness testing
   

Benefits of the Project

The prime benefit of the proposed solution is to have an efficient hardware/software integration layer to handle data coming from various sensors/devices. With limited configurations, the provided solution is ready to integrate with different environments such as automation, agriculture, and especially in healthcare domains. However, currently, the designed solution is to facilitate users/patients in isolated/remote communities by enabling them to collect physiological health-related sensors data at their homes, and the developed system will transport collected data intelligently to doctors/specialists far away without having to travel to visit them. Furthermore, the project solution will one step closer towards enhancing the quality of life and well-being for the remote living people.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

The technical details of the proposed project proto-type consist of the following:

There are two types of embedded boards (nodes) are used; Basys MX3 as the master node and Arduino as the slave node. Each slave node is connected to 5 wearable sensors; BP, Temperature, Hear rate, Oximeter, ECG and 3 ambient sensors: Light, Temperature, Humidity. Each sensor is operating at a different sampling rate. Once the sensors' data is collected by the slave node, a single data packet is created and transmitted to the master node. The communication medium between slave and master is achieved using a Bluetooth module. Each master node is able to connect multiple slave nodes, one by one. Once the data is received from a connected slave node then master node holds data packets till the availability of the server. The overall system is able to process the information at the 1Hz sampling frequency.

A Master/Slave architecture is deployed among embedded controllers (device nodes), where the communication between master and slave node is handled using a handshaking protocol which allows data flow synchronization. The integration layer is deployed with a blocking message passing mechanism to attain effective and reliable communication between different nodes. Dynamic memory allocation for data packet storage is achieved using intelligent queues within both nodes. Within the integration layer, the sublayer components/activities are:

Perception Layer – Environment perception (presence of slave nodes and master node vice-versa), Communication perception (sensors/nodes communication libraries)

Data-processing Layer – Sensors’ data validation, Data standardization, Data decontamination (handling missing data and outliers)

Integration Layer – Data classification (sensor or slave data), Data packet formation, the Resource manager (hardware utilization; e.g., clock synchronization, memory, communication, I/Os)

Transport Layer – Communication protocol management (Inter-board communication)

Final Deliverable of the Project

Hardware System

Type of Industry

Agriculture , Transportation , Health

Technologies

Internet of Things (IoT), Wearables and Implantables

Sustainable Development Goals

Good Health and Well-Being for People

Required Resources

If you need this project, please contact me on contact@adikhanofficial.com