Date of Award

2006

Level of Access Assigned by Author

Open-Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Computer Engineering

Advisor

Bruce Segee

Second Committee Member

Mohamad Musavi

Third Committee Member

Richard Eason

Abstract

In every field of science, research is driven by the data scjentists are able to collect. Specifically in the area of marine science, researchers at the Darling Marine Center (DMC) in Walpole, Maine study thc emergence events of undersea organisms. This thesis describes the development of a system integrating hardware infrastructure and existing software technology with a new software application, for the purpose of data acquisition at the DMC. In their research, a Tracor Acoustic Profiling System (TAPS), measures the water column density by utilizing sonar pulscs at several different frequencies. A serial interface provides access to the systems command structure and sounding data. The software application developed, DarlGUI, provides the researchers of the DMC wjth an intuitive graphical user interface written entirely in the MATLAB environment. Bevond the development of DarlGUI, this thesis also discusses network technologies, data transport techniques, and web-based data distribution. The culmination of this systematic approach to the data collection needs of the DMC is a fully functional application and retrieval method that has provided approximately a year of trouble-free operation and has been implemented at othcr research locatiuns.

Download

Share