Aviation Research Lab - Easterwood Airport

Student
Software development monitoring and control capabilities.
Fall 2001?
Reference: Dr. Joe Morgan

The ARL was a laboratory at Easterwood Airport here in College Station, TX, owned and operated by Texas A&M University. The goal is to setup a research lab at a working airport to provide a place and resources for other companies and agencies to test and develop new aviation related technologies. Namely, technologies that would improve security and safety in an airport environment. We are currently seeking funding, so I am helping Dr. Morgan by setting up a variety of small demos to be presented to companies and government agencies. Currently I have helped develop two of these demos:

The first is a simple client/server application developed in LabVIEW using DataSockets. The Server has a default routine of operation. A user can monitor this operation using any regular web browser. The user can also alter this operation by using the client application. This simple program is simply to illustrate our ability to remotely monitor and control a device or operation.

The other project I helped to develop was the implementation of an X10 video system, and incorporating Internet based controls of these video cameras. Specifically, the package came with three wireless cameras. Each camera has a power cable, but wirelessly transmits its video back to a base receiver at 2.4 GHz. The receiver puts out NTSC video, which is read into the computer using a USB converter. This information is displayed in the custom application using X10 plugins. However, only one camera can transmit at a time. When one camera is on, the other two cameras are off. We can control this on/off struggle using the X10 Firecracker. The Firecracker is a small device that plugs into the serial port. It communicates at 300MHz to a small box plugged into any available power outlet. The box then communicates with the cameras through the power lines, enabling one camera and disabling the others. Pretty neat, eh!? This system is remote controlled using our custom client application.