The aftermath of a natural disaster is typically characterized by lack of a reliable medium for dissemination of information to survivors. Current state-of-the-art emergency response systems rely on satellite radio-enabled devices, but survivors, unlike first responders, do not have access to such devices. To mitigate this problem, we present PERPETUU a solar-powered portable GIS microserver. The microserver node can be deployed in a disaster scene, and can serve maps to survivors viewable on browsers of off-the-shelf mobile systems. A key innovation in the design of the PERPETUU node is a multi-tiered hardware architecture-the system combines a low-power micro-controller, a medium-power Wifi module, and a high-power micro-processor to provide large spectrum of power states. In addition to being able to detect survivors using a low-power Wi-Fi sensing technique, the tiered design leverages hardware-assisted energy measurements, a wakeup controller to balance energy harvested from solar panels with energy consumed by the system, and a future-energy prediction algorithm, in order to provide natural disaster survivors with up-to-date emergency relief information. We evaluate PERPETUU using measurements from our prototype and trace-based simulations, and show that it can function near perpetually while serving GIS maps and other information to a large number of survivors.
","abstract_html":"<p>The aftermath of a natural disaster is typically characterized by lack of a reliable medium for dissemination of information to survivors. Current state-of-the-art emergency response systems rely on satellite radio-enabled devices, but survivors, unlike first responders, do not have access to such devices. To mitigate this problem, we present PERPETUU a solar-powered portable GIS microserver. The microserver node can be deployed in a disaster scene, and can serve maps to survivors viewable on browsers of off-the-shelf mobile systems. A key innovation in the design of the PERPETUU node is a multi-tiered hardware architecture-the system combines a low-power micro-controller, a medium-power Wifi module, and a high-power micro-processor to provide large spectrum of power states. In addition to being able to detect survivors using a low-power Wi-Fi sensing technique, the tiered design leverages hardware-assisted energy measurements, a wakeup controller to balance energy harvested from solar panels with energy consumed by the system, and a future-energy prediction algorithm, in order to provide natural disaster survivors with up-to-date emergency relief information. We evaluate PERPETUU using measurements from our prototype and trace-based simulations, and show that it can function near perpetually while serving GIS maps and other information to a large number of survivors.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Matthews, Adam"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering (PhD)","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Bobda, Christophe","Brown, Randy L."],"advisors":["Parkerson, James P."],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2013,"date_issued":"2013-12-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2013-12-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T00:59:40Z","subjects":["Applied sciences","Electronics","Emergency","Low-power","Power management","Solar-power","Wi-Fi","Systems and Communications","Systems Architecture"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/1022","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Bobda, Christophe","Brown, Randy L."]},{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Parkerson, James P."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Matthews, Adam"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2013"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2017-09-29T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering (PhD)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Applied sciences","Electronics","Emergency","Low-power","Power management","Solar-power","Wi-Fi","Systems and Communications","Systems Architecture"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/1022"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["The aftermath of a natural disaster is typically characterized by lack of a reliable medium for dissemination of information to survivors. Current state-of-the-art emergency response systems rely on satellite radio-enabled devices, but survivors, unlike first responders, do not have access to such devices. To mitigate this problem, we present PERPETUU a solar-powered portable GIS microserver. The microserver node can be deployed in a disaster scene, and can serve maps to survivors viewable on browsers of off-the-shelf mobile systems. A key innovation in the design of the PERPETUU node is a multi-tiered hardware architecture-the system combines a low-power micro-controller, a medium-power Wifi module, and a high-power micro-processor to provide large spectrum of power states. In addition to being able to detect survivors using a low-power Wi-Fi sensing technique, the tiered design leverages hardware-assisted energy measurements, a wakeup controller to balance energy harvested from solar panels with energy consumed by the system, and a future-energy prediction algorithm, in order to provide natural disaster survivors with up-to-date emergency relief information. We evaluate PERPETUU using measurements from our prototype and trace-based simulations, and show that it can function near perpetually while serving GIS maps and other information to a large number of survivors.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["A Solar-Powered and Multi-Tiered Mesh Node for a Portable In Situ Emergency Response System"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Bobda, Christophe","Brown, Randy L."],"dc:contributor.advisor":["Parkerson, James P."],"dc:creator":["Matthews, Adam"],"dc:date":["2013"],"dc:date.available":["2017-09-29T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["The aftermath of a natural disaster is typically characterized by lack of a reliable medium for dissemination of information to survivors. Current state-of-the-art emergency response systems rely on satellite radio-enabled devices, but survivors, unlike first responders, do not have access to such devices. To mitigate this problem, we present PERPETUU a solar-powered portable GIS microserver. The microserver node can be deployed in a disaster scene, and can serve maps to survivors viewable on browsers of off-the-shelf mobile systems. A key innovation in the design of the PERPETUU node is a multi-tiered hardware architecture-the system combines a low-power micro-controller, a medium-power Wifi module, and a high-power micro-processor to provide large spectrum of power states. In addition to being able to detect survivors using a low-power Wi-Fi sensing technique, the tiered design leverages hardware-assisted energy measurements, a wakeup controller to balance energy harvested from solar panels with energy consumed by the system, and a future-energy prediction algorithm, in order to provide natural disaster survivors with up-to-date emergency relief information. We evaluate PERPETUU using measurements from our prototype and trace-based simulations, and show that it can function near perpetually while serving GIS maps and other information to a large number of survivors.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/1022"],"dc:subject":["Applied sciences","Electronics","Emergency","Low-power","Power management","Solar-power","Wi-Fi","Systems and Communications","Systems Architecture"],"dc:title":["A Solar-Powered and Multi-Tiered Mesh Node for a Portable In Situ Emergency Response System"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering (PhD)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T00:59:40Z"}