Project Description
This project focuses on building an embedded instrumentation system to measure and analyze the energy consumption of development boards under real-time workloads. The study begins with a comparative review of power sensing techniques, including shunt-based current sensing and integrated power monitoring ICs, to identify a suitable design trade-off between cost, accuracy, and sampling speed. A custom sensing module will be developed using precision resistors and amplification circuitry to convert current draw into measurable voltage signals. These signals will be digitized using a microcontroller-based acquisition system with synchronized voltage and current sampling to compute instantaneous power consumption. The system will then be tested on multiple embedded platforms under controlled workloads such as idle state, computation-heavy processing, and AI inference tasks. Automated scripts will be developed to generate repeatable workloads and collect synchronized power traces. Finally, statistical and time-series analysis will be applied to extract energy signatures, compare device efficiency, and evaluate workload-energy relationships. System accuracy will be validated against a commercial power meter.
Tasks and Responsibilites
The student will begin by conducting a focused literature review on embedded energy measurement techniques, learning the principles behind current sensing, instrumentation circuits, and energy profiling in embedded systems. They will then design and build the hardware measurement system, including selecting components, developing schematics, and assembling a working prototype using shunt resistors and signal conditioning circuits. On the software side, the student will implement firmware for data acquisition on a microcontroller and develop scripts (e.g., Python or MATLAB) for logging, processing, and visualizing power consumption data. They will design and execute controlled experiments on different development boards under varied workloads such as idle, compute-intensive, and I/O-driven tasks. They will also perform calibration using reference instruments to ensure measurement accuracy and reliability. Finally, the student will analyze the collected data to identify energy trends, document all design and experimental procedures, and present their findings through written reports and presentations, while collaborating in iterative system improvement and troubleshooting.
Desired Qualifications
None listed.