Product traceability in manufacturing industries: Business case and pilot project.

Innovation is increasing rapidly in every sector of the industry. This improvement and development are imperative to industries. Some are up-to-date, and others are improving. We are already witnessing the era of technology-dependent industry, where technology plays a key role in the manufacturing processes. Disruptive technologies are changing the way enterprises operate. It is essential for the industries which are focused on delivering fast and reliable service to the clients. As the technology and innovation are increasing, they could help the ceramic industry for the options presently available in interrelated technology, which are already impacting the industrial development in Industry 4.0 During previous industrialization eras there have been many improvements in different industrial sectors, which have led to rapid growth universally across industries. The present research included the review of approaches towards the ceramic traceability industry. This thesis presents a discussion on traceability of products in the ceramic industry by observing the production process. There are many stages of the production process where the materials and products are difficult to track, However, industries are concerned about the quantity and number of products produced that will meet the expectations at the end. It is challenging for the enterprises to manage, organize and trace the products throughout the manufacturing process, from raw material till final packaging. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems are a common and useful tool in manufacturing, supply chain management, and retail inventory control. Optical barcodes, another universal automatic identification system, have been a familiar packaging feature on consumer items for years. Due to advances in silicon manufacturing technology, RFID costs have dropped significantly. Soon, low-cost RFID “electronic product codes” or “smart-labels” may be a practical replacement for optical barcodes on consumer items. Unfortunately, the universal deployment of RFID devices in consumer items may pose new security and privacy risks not present in closed manufacturing environments. This thesis presents an introduction to RFID technology, identifies several potential threats to security and privacy, and offers several practical proposals for efficient security mechanisms.N/

A Novel RFID Sensing System Using Enhanced Surface Wave Technology for Battery Exchange Stations

This paper presents a novel radio-frequency identification (RFID) sensing system using enhanced surface wave technology for battery exchange stations (BESs) of electric motorcycles. Ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID technology is utilized to automatically track and manage battery and user information without manual operation. The system includes readers, enhanced surface wave leaky cable antennas (ESWLCAs), coupling cable lines (CCLs), and small radiation patches (SRPs). The RFID sensing system overcomes the electromagnetic interference in the metallic environment of a BES cabinet. The developed RFID sensing system can effectively increase the efficiency of BES operation and promote the development of electric vehicles which solve the problem of air pollution as well as protect the environment of the Earth

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

Perspectives and approaches for the internet of things

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia Electrotécnica e de ComputadoresThis thesis was developed based on a scenario in which a CEO of a certain company asked the author to conduct an exploratory work evaluating the potential opportunities and limitations of this emerging area described as the future of the Internet, the Internet of Things (IoT). The objective is thus to provide the reader with a wide view of the vital points for the implementation and exploitation of the IoT, a technology that promises to deliver a new and wider range of applications to the society. In this subject there is a need to gather and organize information produced by several researchers and contributors. Due to the fact of being a new area and researchers work independently of each other, the work is scattered and inconsistencies can be found among different projects and publications. As such, in a first stage some definitions are provided and an attempt to clarify concepts is made. To support and emphasize the exponential growth of IoT, a brief historical overview is provided to the reader. This overview is based on the new trends and expectations that arise every day through news, potential businesses and also in important tools such as Google Trends. Several examples of applications in the context of the IoT, illustrate the benefits, not only in terms of society, but also for business opportunities, safety, and well-being. The main areas of interest to achieve the IoT such as: hardware, software, modeling, methods of connection, security and integration are studied in this work, in order to provide some insight into current strong and weak points. As the Internet of Things become a matter of large interest, various research groups are active in exploring and organizing projects in this area. Some of these projects, namely the ones considered the most important, are also presented in this thesis. Taking into account the facts surrounding this new technology, it becomes quite important to bring them together, clarifying them and trying to open new perspectives for further studies and improvements. Finally, in order to allow a practical evaluation of the technology, a prototype is developed around the connection of an intelligent object – a small mobile robot – to the Internet. A set of conclusions and future work directions are then presented which take into account the findings of the bibliographic analysis as well as the acquired experience with the implementation of the prototype

Internet of Things: Architecture and Services for Healthcare

Internet of Things (IoT) is a recent prominent collaboration of various technologies that enables spatially distributed devices (“things”) to sense, communicate and share information, thus generating a variety of applications and services in Healthcare. IoT is implemented in multiple domains like Smart city, energy and smart grid, Smart home, weather forecasting, Agriculture, Market and Transportation, Manufacturing and testing industries, Healthcare and many more. IoT serves the purpose of making tasks more efficient and productive and at the same time ensuring quality and reliability. IoT technologies provide an enabling framework for inter-connecting devices, systems, and services that go beyond Machine-to-Machine scenarios within today’s internet infrastructure. Healthcare industry is among the fastest fields to embrace IoT for numerous health services. IoT technologies will enable doctors / physicians / caretakers to be in touch with patients all the time. Various physiological parameters and markers can be monitored on a real-time basis for early detection of serious health symptoms that could endanger the life of patients. Diagnosis of diseases can be more accurate and in time for early treatment which will significantly improve recovery time. Diagnostic medical devices, sensors, and imaging devices that are integrated within the network for building an efficient and real-time system. The market for IoT in the healthcare sector is expected to grow rapidly in terms of connecting hospitals with patients for remote monitoring, emergency care services and remote surgery through augmented virtual reality. This thesis explores advances in IoT- based technologies in the healthcare environment. The thesis presents an architecture that defines a possible reference platform for seamless inter-connectivity between devices and software systems to enable new services. The architecture has multiple layers each of which performs specific functions to enable the realization of novel healthcare services. The thesis provides a comprehensive comparison between different Short range communication technologies, Mobile communication and Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) technologies. Based upon different scenarios of IoT healthcare services implementation, data computation capabilities provided by various cloud computing models and edge computing models are also discussed. The thesis provides a survey on various healthcare services that are implemented inside (and outside) hospital premises, e.g., remote health monitoring, Ambient Assisted Living among others. The impact of two prominent key technologies: Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and Software Defined Networks (SDN) has been discussed and showed the benefits of implementing control and management function-especially at the edge network- utilizing SDN/NFV. This provides a flexible approach for deployment of healthcare services in close proximity to computing resources and improves communication control. IoT acknowledges a reliable and secure data exchange in real-time and oriented to improve Quality of Life (QoL). Internet of Things (IoT) serves the purpose of the advance concatenation of devices, systems, and services that go beyond the Machine-to-Machine scenario within today’s internet infrastructure with extended benefits

Sustainable packaging in the healthcare industry

The recycling of plastics tends to lag behind other packaging materials. The research investigates opportunities to improve the capture of valuable packaging polymers and to preserve their specification during recycle operations, thus increasing second user opportunity. The legislative and policy drivers on the sustainable use of plastics are described and discussed with particular reference to achieving sustainability, reuse and recycle of healthcare packaging materials. Four strategic methods of achieving improvements in sustainability, reuse and recycle are developed to represent aspects of sorting of materials, collection of recyclables, replacement of unsustainable packaging materials and measurement of the environmental impacts of packaging and changes in packaging, using examples of packaging from GlaxoSmithKline consumer healthcare and medical products. The use of radio frequency identification methodology as a means of separating high quality plastics and individual reusable devices from mixed waste streams has been developed and trialled under simulated materials recycling and separation conditions. The use of Reverse Vending Machines (RVM's) designed to capture high quality polyethylene terephthalate polymers is described along with results of successful trials on this method of capture in the out of home consumption sector. Recovered material is suitable for reuse in food grade applications after reprocessing. A novel biodegradable packaging material has been successfully developed from sources of green waste as an alternative to existing polymer packaging materials for transport of vaccines, and provides results that are extendable to the replacement of other types of packaging over a wide range of consumer goods. The material also offers intangible benefits to a business in terms of claims that can be made within a corporate social responsibility (CSR) report. Life cycle analysis methodologies have been used to illustrate the environmental benefits that can be achieved by reuse of polypropylene as an example of a widely used packaging polymer with potential for reuse in other industrial sectors. The implications of the results obtained in this work should be of value in the future eco-design of polymer products designed to make end-of-life recovery and recycle more efficient and environmentally beneficial

An IoT based Virtual Coaching System (VSC) for Assisting Activities of Daily Life

Nowadays aging of the population is becoming one of the main concerns of theworld. It is estimated that the number of people aged over 65 will increase from 461million to 2 billion in 2050. This substantial increment in the elderly population willhave significant consequences in the social and health care system. Therefore, in thecontext of Ambient Intelligence (AmI), the Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) has beenemerging as a new research area to address problems related to the aging of the population. AAL technologies based on embedded devices have demonstrated to be effectivein alleviating the social- and health-care issues related to the continuous growing of theaverage age of the population. Many smart applications, devices and systems have beendeveloped to monitor the health status of elderly, substitute them in the accomplishment of activities of the daily life (especially in presence of some impairment or disability),alert their caregivers in case of necessity and help them in recognizing risky situations.Such assistive technologies basically rely on the communication and interaction be-tween body sensors, smart environments and smart devices. However, in such contextless effort has been spent in designing smart solutions for empowering and supportingthe self-efficacy of people with neurodegenerative diseases and elderly in general. Thisthesis fills in the gap by presenting a low-cost, non intrusive, and ubiquitous VirtualCoaching System (VCS) to support people in the acquisition of new behaviors (e.g.,taking pills, drinking water, finding the right key, avoiding motor blocks) necessary tocope with needs derived from a change in their health status and a degradation of theircognitive capabilities as they age. VCS is based on the concept of extended mind intro-duced by Clark and Chalmers in 1998. They proposed the idea that objects within theenvironment function as a part of the mind. In my revisiting of the concept of extendedmind, the VCS is composed of a set of smart objects that exploit the Internet of Things(IoT) technology and machine learning-based algorithms, in order to identify the needsof the users and react accordingly. In particular, the system exploits smart tags to trans-form objects commonly used by people (e.g., pillbox, bottle of water, keys) into smartobjects, it monitors their usage according to their needs, and it incrementally guidesthem in the acquisition of new behaviors related to their needs. To implement VCS, thisthesis explores different research directions and challenges. First of all, it addresses thedefinition of a ubiquitous, non-invasive and low-cost indoor monitoring architecture byexploiting the IoT paradigm. Secondly, it deals with the necessity of developing solu-tions for implementing coaching actions and consequently monitoring human activitiesby analyzing the interaction between people and smart objects. Finally, it focuses on the design of low-cost localization systems for indoor environment, since knowing theposition of a person provides VCS with essential information to acquire information onperformed activities and to prevent risky situations. In the end, the outcomes of theseresearch directions have been integrated into a healthcare application scenario to imple-ment a wearable system that prevents freezing of gait in people affected by Parkinson\u2019sDisease

Internet of Things : technologies and applications in healthcare management and manufacturing

L'Internet des Objets (ou IoT) s'appuie sur des objets connectés dotés de capteurs et technologies capables d'échanger des données entre eux de manière indépendante. Ces nouvelles technologies offrent aux entreprises et à toutes les organisations des moyens pour l’acquisition et le traitement intelligent de l’information (Industrie 4.0) pour demeurer compétitives. Ce mémoire vise à analyser la contribution de l'IoT dans les soins de santé et production, mettant l'accent sur l'Industrie 4.0 et la maintenance prédictive, particulièrement en maintenance, sur la base d’oeuvres littéraires récentes publiées au cours de la dernière décennie. L’objectif principal de ce mémoire est de comprendre l'IoT, d’exposer ses potentiels et sa stratégie de déploiement dans différents domaines d’applications. Même, le but est de comprendre que l'IoT ne se limite pas à l'application de la maintenance des systèmes de production mais aussi du bien-être des patients, c'est pourquoi j'ai choisi ces deux domaines importants où l'IoT peut être appliqué (santé et production) pour ce travail de recherche. Cette thèse aidera à explorer comment l'IoT transforme le système de santé. J'explique comment l'IoT offre de grandes avancées dans ce système. Je donne quelques exemples où ses concepts souhaiteraient être implémentés pour améliorer la qualité des soins des patients et quelques études récentes. Outre, je clarifie l'impact de l’Industrie 4.0 sur la production, notamment en maintenance, en lien avec la maintenance prédictive rendue possible par l’IoT. Je fournis une vue d'ensemble de l'Industrie 4.0 et de la maintenance prédictive. J’aborde les fonctionnalités de l'Industrie 4.0 et présente ses technologies de pilotage susceptibles d'améliorer les domaines de processus de production, tels que la réduction des temps d'immobilisation, les coûts de service, etc. J'attire l'attention sur les implications de la maintenance prédictive dans l’Industrie 4.0 en décrivant son fonctionnement et comment les fabricants peuvent l'exécuter efficacement, avec des exemples à l'appui.The Internet of Things (or IoT) relies on connected objects embedded with sensors and other technologies capable of exchanging data with each other independently. These new technologies provide businesses and all organizations with the means to acquire and intelligently process information (Industry 4.0) to remain competitive. This thesis aims to analyze the contribution of IoT in healthcare and manufacturing, with a focus on Industry 4.0 and Predictive Maintenance, specifically in maintenance, based on recent literary works published over the last decade. The main purpose of this thesis is to understand what IoT is, to highlight its potentials and its deployment strategy in various areas of application. Similarly, the goal is to understand that IoT is not limited to the application of the maintenance of production systems but also of patients’ wellbeing which is the reason why I selected these two important areas where IoT can be applied (healthcare and manufacturing) for this research work. This thesis will help explore how IoT is transforming the healthcare system. I explain how IoT offers great advances in the healthcare system. I give some examples of where its concepts would like to be implemented to improve the quality of care of patients and some recent studies. In addition, I clarify the impact of Industry 4.0 in manufacturing especially in maintenance, in connection with predictive maintenance made possible by IoT. I provide an overview of Industry 4.0 and predictive maintenance. I discuss the capabilities of Industry 4.0 and present its driving technologies that can improve all areas of production processes such as reducing downtime, service costs , etc. Moreover, I draw attention to the implications of predictive maintenance in Industry 4.0 by describing how it works and how manufacturers can run it effectively, with supporting examples