A method for developing sensor-enabled software applications on a computer system using a component-based software tool-set, the method comprising the steps of: - providing a user interface on the computer system to receive user inputs; - defining on the computer system in response to the user inputs at least one sensor system component operative to contain a related collection of data source components, data series components, command components, and data field components; - instantiating the data source components operative to obtain sensor data from one or more sensors (28, 164), the data series components operative to collect the sensor data from the data source components, one or more command components operative to wrap a user-specified WINDOWS API or unmanaged DLL function, such that the user-specified function operates as a data source component, and the data field components operative to control the collection of the sensor data by the data series components; - adding one or more of the data series components to the sensor system component in response to user inputs and linking each of the added data series components to at least one of the data source components within the sensor system component, wherein each of the added data series components collects the sensor data from its linked data source component by generating a data series table in a system memory of the computer system and automatically populating rows in the data series table with sensor data from the linked data source component; and - adding one or more of the data field components to the sensor system component in response to user inputs, wherein each added data field component links to at least one of the data series components within the sensor system component and controls the collection of the sensor data from its linked data series component by mapping sub-data within the sensor data to a particular column in the data series table according to one or more user-identified properties. - providing a user interface on the computer system to receive user inputs; - defining on the computer system in response to the user inputs at least one sensor system component operative to contain a related collection of data source components, data series components, command components, and data field components; - instantiating the data source components operative to obtain sensor data from one or more sensors (28, 164), the data series components operative to collect the sensor data from the data source components, one or more command components operative to wrap a user-specified WINDOWS API or unmanaged DLL function, such that the user-specified function operates as a data source component, and the data field components operative to control the collection of the sensor data by the data series components; - adding one or more of the data series components to the sensor system component in response to user inputs and linking each of the added data series components to at least one of the data source components within the sensor system component, wherein each of the added data series components collects the sensor data from its linked data source component by generating a data series table in a system memory of the computer system and automatically populating rows in the data series table with sensor data from the linked data source component; and - adding one or more of the data field components to the sensor system component in response to user inputs, wherein each added data field component links to at least one of the data series components within the sensor system component and controls the collection of the sensor data from its linked data series component by mapping sub-data within the sensor data to a particular column in the data series table according to one or more user-identified properties.