MansOS

Abstract

Often software for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is developed using a specific event based operating system (OS) such as TinyOS. However, this requires steep learning curve for the new developers. Other operating systems for embedded devices have limited support for new hardware platforms. Our goal is to provide an operating system for resource constrained devices that is easy to use for the wide range of researchers and developers familiar with C programming language and Unix operating system concepts. In addition, we provide a framework for agile portability to new hardware platforms, due to the nature of WSN systems that require specific hardware or features for the sensing tasks at hand. We propose Multiple agent netted sensor Operating System (MansOS), that demonstrates ability to execute the same application on different platforms including x86 CPU based computers for easy simulation and debugging of a single node or a whole network. The new platforms are easily added to MansOS thanks to the well defined abstraction layers. MansOS is being successfully used in real world applications, such as wild animal tracking and environmental monitoring in a fruit care research garden. It has also been used in academic environment for teaching wireless sensor networks.