Markov Decision Processes with Applications in Wireless Sensor Networks: A Survey

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) consist of autonomous and resource-limited devices. The devices cooperate to monitor one or more physical phenomena within an area of interest. WSNs operate as stochastic systems because of randomness in the monitored environments. For long service time and low maintenance cost, WSNs require adaptive and robust methods to address data exchange, topology formulation, resource and power optimization, sensing coverage and object detection, and security challenges. In these problems, sensor nodes are to make optimized decisions from a set of accessible strategies to achieve design goals. This survey reviews numerous applications of the Markov decision process (MDP) framework, a powerful decision-making tool to develop adaptive algorithms and protocols for WSNs. Furthermore, various solution methods are discussed and compared to serve as a guide for using MDPs in WSNs

TRENDS AND PROSPECTS OF DIGITAL TWIN TECHNOLOGIES: A REVIEW

© Quantum Journal of Engineering, Science and Technology (QJOEST). This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND licence, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/The plethora of technologically developed software and digital types of machinery are widely applied for industrial production and the digitalization of building technologies. The fourth industrial revolution and the underlying digital transformation, known as Industry 4.0 is reshaping the way individuals live and work fundamentally. However, the advent of Industry 5.0 remodels the representation of industrial data for digitalization. As a result, massive data of different types are being produced. However, these data are hysteretic and isolated from each other, leading to low efficiency and low utilization of these valuable data. Simulation based on the theoretical and static model has been a conventional and powerful tool for the verification, validation, and optimization of a system in its early planning stage, but no attention is paid to the simulation application during system run-time. Dynamic simulation of various systems and the digitalization of the same is made possible using the framework available with Digital Twin. After a complete search of several databases and careful selection according to the proposed criteria, 63 academic publications about digital twin are identified and classified. This paper conducts a comprehensive and in-depth review of this literature to analyze the digital twin from the perspective of concepts, technologies, and industrial applicationsPeer reviewe

Swarm-Based Drone-as-a-Service for Delivery

There has been a growing interest in the applications of drones as a cost-effective, efficient, and environmentally friendly alternative in various domains. Particularly in the context of delivery services, the demand for contactless and efficient delivery solutions has surged. Drone delivery offers faster and greener deliveries. However, existing methods focus primarily on point-to-point delivery, limiting their potential for optimisation. This thesis proposes a novel approach to servitise drone delivery by operating through a skyway network composed of building rooftops, enabling drones to traverse between source and destination while recharging at intermediate nodes. Although single drone delivery offers numerous advantages, it faces significant challenges in scenarios where multiple packages require simultaneous delivery. Flight regulations, which often limit the carrying capacity of individual drones, necessitate the exploration of alternative solutions. Therefore, this thesis presents a novel Swarm-Based Drone-as-a-Service (SDaaS) model and framework for multiple package delivery. The proposed framework prioritises the composition of services that optimise Quality of Service (QoS) factors, such as delivery time and energy consumption. This thesis identifies swarm-specific constraints and leverages the unique characteristics of drone swarms. It explores swarm formations, in-flight wireless charging between drones, and allocation problems to maximise drone utilisation for consumer deliveries. Furthermore, this research investigates the recommendation of services to consumers based on their preferences, aiming to increase their satisfaction. Moreover, the framework addresses the resilience of SDaaS by addressing issues related to drone soft failures and their impact on other swarm members. Ultimately, this work paves the way for the widespread adoption and optimisation of swarm-based drone services in the context of last-mile delivery

Digitalization of Offshore Wind Farm Systems

Master's thesis in Offshore Technology: Industrial asset managementThis thesis investigates how new digital technologies and digitalization can help further evolve the offshore wind industry using the Industry 4.0 concept as a basis and explores how technologies within this concept can contribute to an offshore wind farm that overcomes some of these challenges. The study focuses on an offshore wind farm from a systems perspective, including respective modules, and where the Industry 4.0 technologies can be applied. Following this is the establishment of a systematic digitalization framework and a proposal on how to cope with increased volumes of data, connectivity, and complexity.publishedVersio

Ambient Intelligence for Next-Generation AR

Next-generation augmented reality (AR) promises a high degree of context-awareness - a detailed knowledge of the environmental, user, social and system conditions in which an AR experience takes place. This will facilitate both the closer integration of the real and virtual worlds, and the provision of context-specific content or adaptations. However, environmental awareness in particular is challenging to achieve using AR devices alone; not only are these mobile devices' view of an environment spatially and temporally limited, but the data obtained by onboard sensors is frequently inaccurate and incomplete. This, combined with the fact that many aspects of core AR functionality and user experiences are impacted by properties of the real environment, motivates the use of ambient IoT devices, wireless sensors and actuators placed in the surrounding environment, for the measurement and optimization of environment properties. In this book chapter we categorize and examine the wide variety of ways in which these IoT sensors and actuators can support or enhance AR experiences, including quantitative insights and proof-of-concept systems that will inform the development of future solutions. We outline the challenges and opportunities associated with several important research directions which must be addressed to realize the full potential of next-generation AR.Comment: This is a preprint of a book chapter which will appear in the Springer Handbook of the Metavers

Robotic-based well-being monitoring and coaching system for the elderly in their daily activities

The increasingly ageing population and the tendency to live alone have led science and engineering researchers to search for health care solutions. In the COVID 19 pandemic, the elderly have been seriously affected in addition to suffering from isolation and its associated and psychological consequences. This paper provides an overview of the RobWell (Robotic-based Well-Being Monitoring and Coaching System for the Elderly in their Daily Activities) system. It is a system focused on the field of artificial intelligence for mood prediction and coaching. This paper presents a general overview of the initially proposed system as well as the preliminary results related to the home automation subsystem, autonomous robot navigation and mood estimation through machine learning prior to the final system integration, which will be discussed in future works. The main goal is to improve their mental well-being during their daily household activities. The system is composed of ambient intelligence with intelligent sensors, actuators and a robotic platform that interacts with the user. A test smart home system was set up in which the sensors, actuators and robotic platform were integrated and tested. For artificial intelligence applied to mood prediction, we used machine learning to classify several physiological signals into different moods. In robotics, it was concluded that the ROS autonomous navigation stack and its autodocking algorithm were not reliable enough for this task, while the robot’s autonomy was sufficient. Semantic navigation, artificial intelligence and computer vision alternatives are being sought.This research was funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Univesidades, Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under project ROBWELL (RTI2018-095599-A-C22) and by the Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program (WASP) funded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation

Federated Sensor Network architectural design for the Internet of Things (IoT)

An information technology that can combine the physical world and virtual world is desired. The Internet of Things (IoT) is a concept system that uses Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), WSN and barcode scanners to sense and to detect physical objects and events. This information is shared with people on the Internet. With the announcement of the Smarter Planet concept by IBM, the problem of how to share this data was raised. However, the original design of WSN aims to provide environment monitoring and control within a small scale local network. It cannot meet the demands of the IoT because there is a lack of multi-connection functionality with other WSNs and upper level applications. As various standards of WSNs provide information for different purposes, a hybrid system that gives a complete answer by combining all of them could be promising for future IoT applications. This thesis is on the subject of `Federated Sensor Network' design and architectural development for the Internet of Things. A Federated Sensor Network (FSN) is a system that integrates WSNs and the Internet. Currently, methods of integrating WSNs and the Internet can follow one of three main directions: a Front-End Proxy solution, a Gateway solution or a TCP/IP Overlay solution. Architectures based on the ideas from all three directions are presented in this thesis; this forms a comprehensive body of research on possible Federated Sensor Network architecture designs. In addition, a fully compatible technology for the sensor network application, namely the Sensor Model Language (SensorML), has been reviewed and embedded into our FSN systems. The IoT as a new concept is also comprehensively described and the major technical issues discussed. Finally, a case study of the IoT in logistic management for emergency response is given. Proposed FSN architectures based on the Gateway solution are demonstrated through hardware implementation and lab tests. A demonstration of the 6LoWPAN enabled federated sensor network based on the TCP/IP Overlay solution presents a good result for the iNET localization and tracking project. All the tests of the designs have verified feasibility and achieve the target of the IoT concept

Artificial Superintelligence: Coordination & Strategy

Attention in the AI safety community has increasingly started to include strategic considerations of coordination between relevant actors in the field of AI and AI safety, in addition to the steadily growing work on the technical considerations of building safe AI systems. This shift has several reasons: Multiplier effects, pragmatism, and urgency. Given the benefits of coordination between those working towards safe superintelligence, this book surveys promising research in this emerging field regarding AI safety. On a meta-level, the hope is that this book can serve as a map to inform those working in the field of AI coordination about other promising efforts. While this book focuses on AI safety coordination, coordination is important to most other known existential risks (e.g., biotechnology risks), and future, human-made existential risks. Thus, while most coordination strategies in this book are specific to superintelligence, we hope that some insights yield “collateral benefits” for the reduction of other existential risks, by creating an overall civilizational framework that increases robustness, resiliency, and antifragility