Applications

PLEB has been used in a number of real world applications as a solid, general-purpose, embedded computing platform.

Power management

PLEB 2 has three current sensors on-board which allow the power supplied to the main CPU core, the memory and the IO devices to be measured. This measurement capability has been used to conduct research into power management: investigating better ways of using the various low-power modes.

For further information, see the PLEB 2 power management page.

Sunswift

PLEB has been used as the processing platform in the UNSW Solar powered car. A control area network (CAN) interface was built, and the device used to analyse data from sensors, and given to displays. The PLEB's ethernet card communicates via 802.11b to a support car which can perform further analysis and display.

Sunswift is a more general project within the DiSY group, and more information can be found via David Snowdon's thesis. Sunswift's main web site is available at www.sunswift.com.

BlueSAT

BlueSAT was been using PLEB as the basis for their flight computer design, as well as a prototyping and testing platform. Further details are available at https://www.challeng.unsw.edu.au/challeng-projects/bluesat.

Frog Recognition

PLEB has been used for recognising frog calls in the northern territory. The PLEBs run off solar power with a 12V battery for backup. The PLEB is fitted with analogue to digital converters which sample the sound made by the frogs surrounding the device. This information is then processed on board the PLEB to determine what type of frog is being heard. The PLEBs are suspended at the top of tall poles in an area, and the information gathered can be used to determine the spread of cane toads, and their effect on the native frogs.