Machine Learning in Wireless Sensor Networks: Algorithms, Strategies, and Applications

Wireless sensor networks monitor dynamic environments that change rapidly over time. This dynamic behavior is either caused by external factors or initiated by the system designers themselves. To adapt to such conditions, sensor networks often adopt machine learning techniques to eliminate the need for unnecessary redesign. Machine learning also inspires many practical solutions that maximize resource utilization and prolong the lifespan of the network. In this paper, we present an extensive literature review over the period 2002-2013 of machine learning methods that were used to address common issues in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). The advantages and disadvantages of each proposed algorithm are evaluated against the corresponding problem. We also provide a comparative guide to aid WSN designers in developing suitable machine learning solutions for their specific application challenges.Comment: Accepted for publication in IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorial

RoPEUS: A New Robust Algorithm for Static Positioning in Ultrasonic Systems

A well known problem for precise positioning in real environments is the presence of outliers in the measurement sample. Its importance is even bigger in ultrasound based systems since this technology needs a direct line of sight between emitters and receivers. Standard techniques for outlier detection in range based systems do not usually employ robust algorithms, failing when multiple outliers are present. The direct application of standard robust regression algorithms fails in static positioning (where only the current measurement sample is considered) in real ultrasound based systems mainly due to the limited number of measurements and the geometry effects. This paper presents a new robust algorithm, called RoPEUS, based on MM estimation, that follows a typical two-step strategy: 1) a high breakdown point algorithm to obtain a clean sample, and 2) a refinement algorithm to increase the accuracy of the solution. The main modifications proposed to the standard MM robust algorithm are a built in check of partial solutions in the first step (rejecting bad geometries) and the off-line calculation of the scale of the measurements. The algorithm is tested with real samples obtained with the 3D-LOCUS ultrasound localization system in an ideal environment without obstacles. These measurements are corrupted with typical outlying patterns to numerically evaluate the algorithm performance with respect to the standard parity space algorithm. The algorithm proves to be robust under single or multiple outliers, providing similar accuracy figures in all cases

AMBROSia: An Autonomous Model-Based Reactive Observing System

Observing systems facilitate scientific studies by instrumenting the real world and collecting corresponding measurements, with the aim of detecting and tracking phenomena of interest. Our AMBROSia project focuses on a class of observing systems which are embedded into the environment, consist of stationary and mobile sensors, and react to collected observations by reconfiguring the system and adapting which observations are collected next. In this paper, we report on recent research directions and corresponding results in the context of AMBROSia

Robust Inference in Wireless Sensor Networks

This dissertation presents a systematic approach to obtain robust statistical inference schemes in unreliable networks. Statistical inference offers mechanisms for deducing the statistical properties of unknown parameters from the data. In Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), sensor outputs are transmitted across a wireless communication network to the fusion center (FC) for final decision-making. The sensor data are not always reliable. Some factors may cause anomaly in network operations, such as malfunction, corruption, or compromised due to some unknown source of contamination or adversarial attacks. Two standard component failure models are adopted in this study to describe the system vulnerability: the probabilistic and static models. In probabilistic models, we consider a widely known ε−contamination model, where each node has ε probability of malfunctioning or being compromised. In contrast, the static model assumes there is up to a certain number of malfunctioning nodes. It is assumed that the decision center/network operator is aware of the presence of anomaly nodes and can adjust the operation rule to counter the impact of the anomaly. The anomaly node is assumed to know that the network operator is taking some defensive actions to improve its performance. Considering both the decision center (network operator) and compromised (anomalous) nodes and their possible actions, the problem is formulated as a two-player zero-sum game. Under this setting, we attempt to discover the worst possible failure models and best possible operating strategies. First, the effect of sensor unreliability on detection performance is investigated, and robust detection schemes are proposed. The aim is to design robust detectors when some observation nodes malfunction. The detection problem is relatively well known under the probabilistic model in simple binary hypotheses testing with known saddle-point solutions. The detection problem is investigated under the mini-max framework for the static settings as no such saddle point solutions are shown to exist under these settings. In the robust estimation, results in estimation theory are presented to measure system robustness and performance. The estimation theory covers probabilistic and static component failure models. Besides the standard approaches of robust estimation under the frequentist settings where the interesting parameters are fixed but unknown, the estimation problem under the Bayes settings is considered where the prior probability distribution is known. After first establishing the general framework, comprehensive results on the particular case of a single node network are presented under the probabilistic settings. Based on the insights from the single node network, we investigate the robust estimation problem for the general network for both failure models. A few robust localization methods are presented as an extension of robust estimation theory at the end

A machine learning approach to Structural Health Monitoring with a view towards wind turbines

The work of this thesis is centred around Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) and is divided into three main parts. The thesis starts by exploring di�erent architectures of auto-association. These are evaluated in order to demonstrate the ability of nonlinear auto-association of neural networks with one nonlinear hidden layer as it is of great interest in terms of reduced computational complexity. It is shown that linear PCA lacks performance for novelty detection. The novel key study which is revealed ampli�es that single hidden layer auto-associators are not performing in a similar fashion to PCA. The second part of this study concerns formulating pattern recognition algorithms for SHM purposes which could be used in the wind energy sector as SHM regarding this research �eld is still in an embryonic level compared to civil and aerospace engineering. The purpose of this part is to investigate the e�ectiveness and performance of such methods in structural damage detection. Experimental measurements such as high frequency responses functions (FRFs) were extracted from a 9m WT blade throughout a full-scale continuous fatigue test. A preliminary analysis of a model regression of virtual SCADA data from an o�shore wind farm is also proposed using Gaussian processes and neural network regression techniques. The third part of this work introduces robust multivariate statistical methods into SHM by inclusively revealing how the in uence of environmental and operational variation a�ects features that are sensitive to damage. The algorithms that are described are the Minimum Covariance Determinant Estimator (MCD) and the Minimum Volume Enclosing Ellipsoid (MVEE). These robust outlier methods are inclusive and in turn there is no need to pre-determine an undamaged condition data set, o�ering an important advantage over other multivariate methodologies. Two real life experimental applications to the Z24 bridge and to an aircraft wing are analysed. Furthermore, with the usage of the robust measures, the data variable correlation reveals linear or nonlinear connections

KnowSafe: Combined Knowledge and Data Driven Hazard Mitigation in Artificial Pancreas Systems

Significant progress has been made in anomaly detection and run-time monitoring to improve the safety and security of cyber-physical systems (CPS). However, less attention has been paid to hazard mitigation. This paper proposes a combined knowledge and data driven approach, KnowSafe, for the design of safety engines that can predict and mitigate safety hazards resulting from safety-critical malicious attacks or accidental faults targeting a CPS controller. We integrate domain-specific knowledge of safety constraints and context-specific mitigation actions with machine learning (ML) techniques to estimate system trajectories in the far and near future, infer potential hazards, and generate optimal corrective actions to keep the system safe. Experimental evaluation on two realistic closed-loop testbeds for artificial pancreas systems (APS) and a real-world clinical trial dataset for diabetes treatment demonstrates that KnowSafe outperforms the state-of-the-art by achieving higher accuracy in predicting system state trajectories and potential hazards, a low false positive rate, and no false negatives. It also maintains the safe operation of the simulated APS despite faults or attacks without introducing any new hazards, with a hazard mitigation success rate of 92.8%, which is at least 76% higher than solely rule-based (50.9%) and data-driven (52.7%) methods.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures, 9 tables, submitted to the IEEE for possible publicatio

Online condition monitoring and fault detection in induction motor bearings

Induction motors (IMs) are commonly used in industry. Online IM health condition monitoring aims to recognize motor defect at its early stage to prevent motor performance degradation and reduce maintenance costs. The most common fault in IMs is related to bearing defects. Although many signal processing techniques have been proposed in literature for bearing fault detection using vibration and stator current signals, reliable bearing fault diagnosis still remains a challenging task. One of the reasons is that a rolling element bearing is not a simple component, but a system; its related features could be time-varying and nonlinear in nature. The objective of this study is to investigate an online condition monitoring system for IM bearing fault detection. The monitoring system consists of two main modules: smart data acquisition (DAQ) and bearing fault detection. In this work, a smart current sensor system is developed for data acquisition wirelessly. The DAQ system is tested for wireless data transmission, consistent data sampling, and low power consumption. The data acquisition operation is controlled by using an adaptive interface. In bearing fault detection, a generalized Teager-Kaiser energy (GTKE) technique is proposed for nonlinear bearing feature extraction and fault detection using both vibration and current signals. The proposed GTKE technique will demodulate the signal by tracking the instantaneous signal energy. An optimization method is proposed to enhance the fault-related features and improve signal-to-noise ratio. The effectiveness of the proposed technique is verified experimentally using a series of IM tests. The robustness is examined under different operating conditions

Intelligent Circuits and Systems

ICICS-2020 is the third conference initiated by the School of Electronics and Electrical Engineering at Lovely Professional University that explored recent innovations of researchers working for the development of smart and green technologies in the fields of Energy, Electronics, Communications, Computers, and Control. ICICS provides innovators to identify new opportunities for the social and economic benefits of society.　 This conference bridges the gap between academics and R&D institutions, social visionaries, and experts from all strata of society to present their ongoing research activities and foster research relations between them. It provides opportunities for the exchange of new ideas, applications, and experiences in the field of smart technologies and finding global partners for future collaboration. The ICICS-2020 was conducted in two broad categories, Intelligent Circuits & Intelligent Systems and Emerging Technologies in Electrical Engineering

Iot open-source architecture for the maintenance of building facilities

none6noThe introduction of the Internet of Things (IoT) in the construction industry is evolving facility maintenance (FM) towards predictive maintenance development. Predictive maintenance of building facilities requires continuously updated data on construction components to be acquired through integrated sensors. The main challenges in developing predictive maintenance tools for building facilities is IoT integration, IoT data visualization on the building 3D model and implementation of maintenance management system on the IoT and building information modeling (BIM). The current 3D building models do not fully interact with IoT building facilities data. Data integration in BIM is challenging. The research aims to integrate IoT alert systems with BIM models to moni-tor building facilities during the operational phase and to visualize building facilities’ conditions virtually. To provide efficient maintenance services for building facilities this research proposes an integration of a digital framework based on IoT and BIM platforms. Sensors applied in the building systems and IoT technology on a cloud platform with opensource tools and standards enable monitoring of real-time operation and detecting of different kinds of faults in case of malfunction or failure, therefore sending alerts to facility managers and operators. Proposed preventive maintenance methodology applied on a proof-of-concept heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) plant adopts open source IoT sensor networks. The results show that the integrated IoT and BIM dashboard framework and implemented building structures preventive maintenance methodology are applicable and promising. The automated system architecture of building facilities is intended to provide a reliable and practical tool for real-time data acquisition. Analysis and 3D visualization to support intelligent monitoring of the indoor condition in buildings will enable the facility managers to make faster and better decisions and to improve building facilities’ real time monitoring with fallouts on the maintenance timeliness.openVilla V.; Naticchia B.; Bruno G.; Aliev K.; Piantanida P.; Antonelli D.Villa, V.; Naticchia, B.; Bruno, G.; Aliev, K.; Piantanida, P.; Antonelli, D