A wireless sensing system for monitoring the workplace environment of an industrial installation

The realization of a wireless sensing system and its sensing performance evaluation, under laboratory conditions, for the monitoring of specific volatile organic compounds (VOCs) present in printed flexing packaging industries is demonstrated. Prior to the utilization of the wireless mote, we present the microfabrication of appropriate sensor array based on chemocapacitors and its integration with appropriate low power consumption read-out electronics meeting the requirements of the application. The sensing unit is an array of interdigitated chemocapacitors (IDCs). The wireless sensing system is tested upon exposure to VOCs, humidity and gaseous mixtures simulating the real industrial environment and the raw data are transmitted via a wireless network and monitored to a front-end software. Results showed that the sensing system is characterized by very good sensing performance with high repeatability and long-term stability. Further data processing with principal component analysis (PCA) highlights the sensing system's ability to discriminate between gaseous environments with different composition/concentration. Thus the particular wireless sensing system is suitable for remote real-time unattended industrial environment monitoring.