Design and implementation of a web-centric remote data acquisition system

Data acquisition systems are fundamental components of modern distributed monitoring and control systems. The wide-spreading use of standard networking technologies in industrial scenarios, such as Ethernet, and the consolidation of web-based communication protocols, architectures and tools suggest the possibility to integrate out-of-the-box components to build a robust and reliable data acquisition system. This paper describes the design and implementation of a data acquisition system suitable to collect data from distributed embedded devices equipped with sensors based on a client-server architecture. The main feature of the proposed design is the integration of a set of technologies and tools widely adopted in the development of modern web services. The server component is based on Django, a popular Python web framework. While the backend runs a PostgreSQL database, the frontend includes data visualization tools leveraging the D3 JavaScript library. Metering points can be any embedded device able to interface with the desired sensors. The client-server communication architecture supports a RESTful API, as well as the ZeroMQ communication library. Messages are encapsulated in a human-readable JSON format. An important common characteristic of aforementioned technologies and tools is to be Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS). The proposed system thus represents a successful example of integration of FLOSS components to build a web-centric data acquisition system.