ABSYNTH - The Archetype-Based SYNTHesis Project

The goal of the ABSYNTH Project is to make it easier for domain experts to design and implement wireless sensor network applications. We are pursuing this goal through the use of language, compiler, and synthesis technologies. ABSYNTH is a collaborative project with personnel at Northwestern (EECS and CEE), the University of Michigan, and the University of California, Irvine.

The private ABSYNTH project discussion group is available here. The private email lists are separately available to project members.

You can try out the ABSYNTH Web Compiler, which provides access to our WASP2, SensorBASIC, and GAIL languages on a small sensornet testbed. You can also find the repositories for the Enix, and EcoExec systems. The PowerMod design files are also available.

People

  • Peter Dinda, PI at Northwestern University (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science)
  • Robert Dick, PI at the University of Michigan (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science)
  • Pai Chou, PI at the University of California, Irvine (Electrical and Computer Engineering)
  • Charles Dowding, co-PI at Northwestern University (Civil and Environmental Engineering)
  • Lawrence Henschen, co-PI at Northwestern University (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science)
  • Lan Bai, Ph.D. student at the University of Michigan (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science)
  • J. Scott Miller, Ph.D. student at Northwestern University (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science)
  • Lei Xia, Ph.D. student at Northwestern University (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science)
  • Jaime Espinosa, Ph.D. student at Northwestern University (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science)
  • David Bild, Ph.D student at the University of Michigan (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science)
  • Tim Zwiebel, M.S. student at Northwestern University (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science)
  • Mat Kotowksy, Research Engineer, Northwestern University (Infrastructure Technology Institute)
  • Sasha Jevtic, M.S. student at Northwestern University (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science), graduated.
  • Jori Hardman, undergraduate student at Northwestern University (NSF REU)
  • Nick Pizzolato, undergraduate student at Northwestern University (NSF REU)
  • John Shawger, undergraduate student at Northwestern University (NSF REU)

    • Talks

  • Simplified Programming of Faulty Sensor Networks via Code Transformation and Run-Time Interval Computation, Lan Bai / Robert Dick, DATE 2011 (pdf)
  • Automated Construction of Fast and Accurate System-Level Models for Wireless Senor Networks, Lan Bai / Robert Dick, DATE 2011 (pdf)
  • Wireless Sensor Networks to Monitor Crack Growth on Bridges, Mat Kotowsky, 2009 Conference on Developing a Research Agenda for Transportation Infrastructure Preseervation and Renewal (pdf)
  • Evaluating a BASIC Approach to Sensor Network Node Programming, Scott Miller, SenSys 2009 (pdf)
  • Archetype-Based Design: Sensor Network Programming for Application Experts, Not Just Programming Experts, Lan Bai, IPSN 2009 (pdf)
  • Lucid Dreaming: Reliable Analog Event Detection for Energy-constrained Applications, Sasha Jevtic, IPSN/SPOTS 2007 (pdf)

    • Movies

  • Lucid Dreaming (also called "Shake 'n' Wake") Demo, (wmv)

    • Papers

  • X. He, R. Dick, R. Joseph, Spatially- and Temporally-adaptive Communication Protocols for Zero-maintenance Sensor Networks Relying on Opportunistic Energy Scavenging, Proceedings of the International Conference on Hardware/Software Codesign and System Synthesis (CODES-ISSS 2012), October, 2012. pdf

  • J. Espinosa, P. Dinda, R. Dick, PowerMod: An Open Source, Configurable Power Harvesting and Regulation Tool for Non-experts, Technical Report NU-EECS-12-03, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Northwestern University, August, 2012. pdf design files

  • L. Bai, Simplifying the Design of Wireless Sensor Networks with Programming Languages, Compilers, and Synthesis, Doctoral Dissertation, June, 2011. pdf

  • L. Bai, R. Dick, P. Dinda, P. Chou, Simplified Programming of Faulty Sensor Networks via Code Transformation and Run-Time Interval Computation, Proceedings of Design, Automation, and Test in Europe (DATE 2011), March 2011. pdf

  • L. Bai, R. Dick, P. Chou, P. Dinda, Automated Construction of Fast and Accurate System-Level Models For Wireless Sensor Networks, Proceedings of Design, Automation, and Test in Europe (DATE 2011), March 2011. pdf

  • Y.-T. Ting, T.-C. Chien, P. Chou, Enix: A Lightweight Dynamic Operating System for Tightly Constrained Wireless Sensor Platforms, Proceedings of the 8th ACM Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems (SenSys 2010), November, 2010. pdf code

  • M.-H. Chen, P. Chou, TeleScribe: A Scalable, Resumable Wireless Programmable Approach, Proceedings of the International Conference on Embedded Software (EMSOFT 2010), October, 2010. pdf

  • C.-Y. Chen, P. Chou, DuraCap: a Supercapacitor-Based, Power-Bootstrapping Maximum Power Point Tracking Energy-Harvesting System, Proceedings of the International Symposium on Low Power Electronics and Design (ISLPED 2010), August, 2010. pdf

  • C.-H. Hsueh, Y.-H. Tu, Y.-C. Li, P. Chou, EcoExec: An Interactive Execution Framework for Ultra Compact Wireless Sensor Nodes, Proceedings of the 7th IEEE Communications Society Conference on Sensor, Mesh and Ad Hoc Communications and Networks (SECON 2010), June, 2010. pdf code

  • Y.-L. Tsai, T.-T. Hu, H. Bae, P. Chou, EcoIMU: A Dual Triaxial-Accelerometer Inertial Measurement Unit for Wearable Applications, Proceedings of the International Conference on Body Sensor Networks (BSN 2010), June, 2010. pdf

  • T. Zwiebel, GAIL: A Design and Implementation of a Constrained Guarded Action Intermediate Language Suitable for Rewrite-Based Optimization, Masters Thesis, Technical Report NWU-EECS-10-1, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Northwestern University, February, 2010. pdf web compiler

  • M. P. Kotowsky, C. H. Dowding, J. K. Fuller, Wireless Sensor Networks to Monitor Crack Growth on Bridges, Proceedings of the 2009 Conference on Developing a Research Agenda for Transportation Infrastructure Preservation and Renewal, November, 2009. pdf

  • J. S. Miller, P. A. Dinda, R. P. Dick, Evaluating a BASIC Approach to Sensor Network Node Programming, Proceedings of 7th ACM Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems (SenSys 2009), November, 2009. pdf (user study materials) web compiler

  • C.-H. Chen, Y.-T. Chen, Y.-H. Su, S.-Y. Yang, P. Chou, EcoSpire: An Application Development Kit for an Ultra-Compact Wireless Sensing System, IEEE Embedded Systems Letters, Volume 1, Number 3, October, 2009. pdf

  • J. Kim, P. Chou, Remote Progressive Firmware Update for Flash-Based Networked Embedded Systems, Proceedings of the International Symposium on Low Power Electronics and Design (ISLPED 2009), August, 2009. pdf

  • C.-Y. Ke, N.-Y. Ko, C.-H. Hsueh, C.-H. Lee, P. Chou, EcoPlex: Empowering Compact Wireless Sensor Platforms via Roaming and Interoperability Support, Proceedings of the Sixth Annual International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Systems: Computing, Networking, and Services (MobiQuitous 2009), July, 2009. (pdf

  • L. Bai, R. Dick, P. Dinda, Archetype-Based Design: Sensor Network Programming for Application Experts, Not Just Programming Experts, Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Processing in Sensor Networks (IPSN 2009), April, 2009. pdf (user study materials) web compiler

  • J. S. Miller, P. Dinda, and R. Dick, GOTO Considered Helpful: A BASIC Approach to Sensor Network Node Programming, Technical Report NWU-EECS-09-01, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Northwestern University, January, 2009, pdf.

  • S. Jevtic, M. Kotowsky, R. Dick, P. Dinda, C. Dowding, Lucid Dreaming: Reliable Analog Event Detection for Energy-Constrained Applications, Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Processing in Sensor Networks (IPSN/SPOTS 2007), April, 2007. pdf

    • Related Projects

  • Autonomous Crack Monitoring Project, Northwestern University (Civil and Environmental Engineering, Infrastructure Technology Institute)
  • Eco Mote Project, University of California, Irvine (Electrical and Computer Engineering)

    • Acknowledgements

    This project is made possible by support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) via grants CNS-0721978 and CNS-0721926, and by previous awards noted in the relevant past projects' sites.