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Short Abstract

Sensor setups play a key role in citizen science, from air quality monitoring to ocean observations. We propose an open-source, modular kit with integrated software for sensor and metadata storage, ensuring usability, quality control, and flexible deployment.

Abstract

Citizen science projects that rely on sensor measurements often face reoccurring challenges in hardware selection and data transfer, diverting resources from the actual research questions.

We present the prototype of the Open Source Building Kit (OSBK), an open, modular system designed for sensor-based data collection. It has been developed with a focus on oceanographic applications, such as drifters measuring water currents and quality, which can be deployed in citizen science contexts on small fishing vessels or private sailing boats.

OSBK consists of three main components: a series of hardware modules, a mobile application, and a Data Node. The hardware module supports a wide range of sensors for data acquisition and communicates with the OSBK app via Bluetooth for straightforward configuration of modules and parameters.

The Data Node serves as storage for measurement series and metadata. To support data quality and completeness, administrators can define templates with standardised vocabularies and custom metadata requirements.

The current development stage includes fully functional prototypes. To demonstrate OSBK beyond its oceanographic applications, we applied it in a student research project investigating the relationship between temperature and vegetation in urban meadows. Ten OSBK hardware modules measured temperature and humidity over several weeks, generating more than 227,000 data points across multiple locations. This case study showed that OSBK can be effectively operated by non-expert users while also identifying priorities for further development, particularly in improving usability and ensuring system robustness.

All components are open source and publicly available: https://gitlab.awi.de/osbk