Mesh Network for RFID and Electric Vehicle Monitoring in Smart Charging Infrastructure

With an increased number of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) on the roads, PEV charging infrastructure is gaining an ever-more important role in simultaneously meeting the needs of drivers and those of the local distribution grid. However, the current approach to charging is not well suited to scaling with the PEV market. If PEV adoption continues, charging infrastructure will have to overcome its current shortcomings such as unresponsiveness to grid constraints, low degree of autonomy, and high cost, in order to provide a seamless and configurable interface from the vehicle to the power grid. Among the tasks a charging station will have to accomplish will be PEV identification, charging authorization, dynamic monitoring, and charge control. These will have to be done with a minimum of involvement at a maximum of convenience for a user. The system proposed in this work allows charging stations to become more responsive to grid constraints and gain a degree of networked autonomy by automatically identifying and authorizing vehicles, along with monitoring and controlling all charging activities via an RFID mesh network consisting of charging stations and in-vehicle devices. The proposed system uses a ZigBee mesh network of in-vehicle monitoring devices which simultaneously serve as active RFID tags and remote sensors. The system outlined lays the groundwork for intelligent charge-scheduling by providing access to vehicle’s State of Charge (SOC) data as well as vehicle/driver IDs, allowing a custom charging schedule to be generated for a particular driver and PEV. The approach presented would allow PEV charging to be conducted effectively while observing grid constraints and meeting the needs of PEV drivers

Internet of Things-aided Smart Grid: Technologies, Architectures, Applications, Prototypes, and Future Research Directions

Traditional power grids are being transformed into Smart Grids (SGs) to address the issues in existing power system due to uni-directional information flow, energy wastage, growing energy demand, reliability and security. SGs offer bi-directional energy flow between service providers and consumers, involving power generation, transmission, distribution and utilization systems. SGs employ various devices for the monitoring, analysis and control of the grid, deployed at power plants, distribution centers and in consumers' premises in a very large number. Hence, an SG requires connectivity, automation and the tracking of such devices. This is achieved with the help of Internet of Things (IoT). IoT helps SG systems to support various network functions throughout the generation, transmission, distribution and consumption of energy by incorporating IoT devices (such as sensors, actuators and smart meters), as well as by providing the connectivity, automation and tracking for such devices. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive survey on IoT-aided SG systems, which includes the existing architectures, applications and prototypes of IoT-aided SG systems. This survey also highlights the open issues, challenges and future research directions for IoT-aided SG systems

Towards a cyber physical system for personalised and automatic OSA treatment

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a breathing disorder that takes place in the course of the sleep and is produced by a complete or a partial obstruction of the upper airway that manifests itself as frequent breathing stops and starts during the sleep. The real-time evaluation of whether or not a patient is undergoing OSA episode is a very important task in medicine in many scenarios, as for example for making instantaneous pressure adjustments that should take place when Automatic Positive Airway Pressure (APAP) devices are used during the treatment of OSA. In this paper the design of a possible Cyber Physical System (CPS) suited to real-time monitoring of OSA is described, and its software architecture and possible hardware sensing components are detailed. It should be emphasized here that this paper does not deal with a full CPS, rather with a software part of it under a set of assumptions on the environment. The paper also reports some preliminary experiments about the cognitive and learning capabilities of the designed CPS involving its use on a publicly available sleep apnea database

Towards Next Generation Teaching, Learning, and Context-Aware Applications for Higher Education: A Review on Blockchain, IoT, Fog and Edge Computing Enabled Smart Campuses and Universities

[Abstract] Smart campuses and smart universities make use of IT infrastructure that is similar to the one required by smart cities, which take advantage of Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing solutions to monitor and actuate on the multiple systems of a university. As a consequence, smart campuses and universities need to provide connectivity to IoT nodes and gateways, and deploy architectures that allow for offering not only a good communications range through the latest wireless and wired technologies, but also reduced energy consumption to maximize IoT node battery life. In addition, such architectures have to consider the use of technologies like blockchain, which are able to deliver accountability, transparency, cyber-security and redundancy to the processes and data managed by a university. This article reviews the state of the start on the application of the latest key technologies for the development of smart campuses and universities. After defining the essential characteristics of a smart campus/university, the latest communications architectures and technologies are detailed and the most relevant smart campus deployments are analyzed. Moreover, the use of blockchain in higher education applications is studied. Therefore, this article provides useful guidelines to the university planners, IoT vendors and developers that will be responsible for creating the next generation of smart campuses and universities.Xunta de Galicia; ED431C 2016-045Xunta de Galicia; ED431G/01Agencia Estatal de Investigación de España; TEC2016-75067-C4-1-

Energy harvesting and wireless transfer in sensor network applications: Concepts and experiences

Advances in micro-electronics and miniaturized mechanical systems are redefining the scope and extent of the energy constraints found in battery-operated wireless sensor networks (WSNs). On one hand, ambient energy harvesting may prolong the systems lifetime or possibly enable perpetual operation. On the other hand, wireless energy transfer allows systems to decouple the energy sources from the sensing locations, enabling deployments previously unfeasible. As a result of applying these technologies to WSNs, the assumption of a finite energy budget is replaced with that of potentially infinite, yet intermittent, energy supply, profoundly impacting the design, implementation, and operation of WSNs. This article discusses these aspects by surveying paradigmatic examples of existing solutions in both fields and by reporting on real-world experiences found in the literature. The discussion is instrumental in providing a foundation for selecting the most appropriate energy harvesting or wireless transfer technology based on the application at hand. We conclude by outlining research directions originating from the fundamental change of perspective that energy harvesting and wireless transfer bring about