Design, development and test of a vibration monitoring embedded system

This paper presents the design, development and test of a μController-based embedded system designed to monitor vibration profiles during the shipment of products along the supply chain. A digital accelerometer detects the mechanical shocks while sensors, embedded as auxiliary devices, trace, wherever is necessary, other variables like the temperature, pressure, moisture, etc. The developed system is managed by a Cortex M3 μController characterized by high performances and low consumption. All data, acquired during the transport, are periodically stored on a large capacity SD card and can be diplayed thanks to a user-friendly interface. In addition, the developed system can, also, interface with a shaker to perform, in laboratory, simulations and tests reproducing the stress profiles measured on the field. Evaluations of the quality degradation of products are thus possible. In the last section of this paper, a case study, presenting an analysis of mechanical stresses in the fresh fruit supply chain, is presented and discussed