IoT and Sensor Networks in Industry and Society

The exponential progress of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is one of the main elements that fueled the acceleration of the globalization pace. Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and big data analytics are some of the key players of the digital transformation that is affecting every aspect of human's daily life, from environmental monitoring to healthcare systems, from production processes to social interactions. In less than 20 years, people's everyday life has been revolutionized, and concepts such as Smart Home, Smart Grid and Smart City have become familiar also to non-technical users. The integration of embedded systems, ubiquitous Internet access, and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications have paved the way for paradigms such as IoT and Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) to be also introduced in high-requirement environments such as those related to industrial processes, under the forms of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT or I2oT) and Cyber-Physical Production Systems (CPPS). As a consequence, in 2011 the German High-Tech Strategy 2020 Action Plan for Germany first envisioned the concept of Industry 4.0, which is rapidly reshaping traditional industrial processes. The term refers to the promise to be the fourth industrial revolution. Indeed, the first industrial revolution was triggered by water and steam power. Electricity and assembly lines enabled mass production in the second industrial revolution. In the third industrial revolution, the introduction of control automation and Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) gave a boost to factory production. As opposed to the previous revolutions, Industry 4.0 takes advantage of Internet access, M2M communications, and deep learning not only to improve production efficiency but also to enable the so-called mass customization, i.e. the mass production of personalized products by means of modularized product design and flexible processes. Less than five years later, in January 2016, the Japanese 5th Science and Technology Basic Plan took a further step by introducing the concept of Super Smart Society or Society 5.0. According to this vision, in the upcoming future, scientific and technological innovation will guide our society into the next social revolution after the hunter-gatherer, agrarian, industrial, and information eras, which respectively represented the previous social revolutions. Society 5.0 is a human-centered society that fosters the simultaneous achievement of economic, environmental and social objectives, to ensure a high quality of life to all citizens. This information-enabled revolution aims to tackle today’s major challenges such as an ageing population, social inequalities, depopulation and constraints related to energy and the environment. Accordingly, the citizens will be experiencing impressive transformations into every aspect of their daily lives. This book offers an insight into the key technologies that are going to shape the future of industry and society. It is subdivided into five parts: the I Part presents a horizontal view of the main enabling technologies, whereas the II-V Parts offer a vertical perspective on four different environments. The I Part, dedicated to IoT and Sensor Network architectures, encompasses three Chapters. In Chapter 1, Peruzzi and Pozzebon analyse the literature on the subject of energy harvesting solutions for IoT monitoring systems and architectures based on Low-Power Wireless Area Networks (LPWAN). The Chapter does not limit the discussion to Long Range Wise Area Network (LoRaWAN), SigFox and Narrowband-IoT (NB-IoT) communication protocols, but it also includes other relevant solutions such as DASH7 and Long Term Evolution MAchine Type Communication (LTE-M). In Chapter 2, Hussein et al. discuss the development of an Internet of Things message protocol that supports multi-topic messaging. The Chapter further presents the implementation of a platform, which integrates the proposed communication protocol, based on Real Time Operating System. In Chapter 3, Li et al. investigate the heterogeneous task scheduling problem for data-intensive scenarios, to reduce the global task execution time, and consequently reducing data centers' energy consumption. The proposed approach aims to maximize the efficiency by comparing the cost between remote task execution and data migration. The II Part is dedicated to Industry 4.0, and includes two Chapters. In Chapter 4, Grecuccio et al. propose a solution to integrate IoT devices by leveraging a blockchain-enabled gateway based on Ethereum, so that they do not need to rely on centralized intermediaries and third-party services. As it is better explained in the paper, where the performance is evaluated in a food-chain traceability application, this solution is particularly beneficial in Industry 4.0 domains. Chapter 5, by De Fazio et al., addresses the issue of safety in workplaces by presenting a smart garment that integrates several low-power sensors to monitor environmental and biophysical parameters. This enables the detection of dangerous situations, so as to prevent or at least reduce the consequences of workers accidents. The III Part is made of two Chapters based on the topic of Smart Buildings. In Chapter 6, Petroșanu et al. review the literature about recent developments in the smart building sector, related to the use of supervised and unsupervised machine learning models of sensory data. The Chapter poses particular attention on enhanced sensing, energy efficiency, and optimal building management. In Chapter 7, Oh examines how much the education of prosumers about their energy consumption habits affects power consumption reduction and encourages energy conservation, sustainable living, and behavioral change, in residential environments. In this Chapter, energy consumption monitoring is made possible thanks to the use of smart plugs. Smart Transport is the subject of the IV Part, including three Chapters. In Chapter 8, Roveri et al. propose an approach that leverages the small world theory to control swarms of vehicles connected through Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication protocols. Indeed, considering a queue dominated by short-range car-following dynamics, the Chapter demonstrates that safety and security are increased by the introduction of a few selected random long-range communications. In Chapter 9, Nitti et al. present a real time system to observe and analyze public transport passengers' mobility by tracking them throughout their journey on public transport vehicles. The system is based on the detection of the active Wi-Fi interfaces, through the analysis of Wi-Fi probe requests. In Chapter 10, Miler et al. discuss the development of a tool for the analysis and comparison of efficiency indicated by the integrated IT systems in the operational activities undertaken by Road Transport Enterprises (RTEs). The authors of this Chapter further provide a holistic evaluation of efficiency of telematics systems in RTE operational management. The book ends with the two Chapters of the V Part on Smart Environmental Monitoring. In Chapter 11, He et al. propose a Sea Surface Temperature Prediction (SSTP) model based on time-series similarity measure, multiple pattern learning and parameter optimization. In this strategy, the optimal parameters are determined by means of an improved Particle Swarm Optimization method. In Chapter 12, Tsipis et al. present a low-cost, WSN-based IoT system that seamlessly embeds a three-layered cloud/fog computing architecture, suitable for facilitating smart agricultural applications, especially those related to wildfire monitoring. We wish to thank all the authors that contributed to this book for their efforts. We express our gratitude to all reviewers for the volunteering support and precious feedback during the review process. We hope that this book provides valuable information and spurs meaningful discussion among researchers, engineers, businesspeople, and other experts about the role of new technologies into industry and society

An aesthetics of touch: investigating the language of design relating to form

How well can designers communicate qualities of touch? This paper presents evidence that they have some capability to do so, much of which appears to have been learned, but at present make limited use of such language. Interviews with graduate designer-makers suggest that they are aware of and value the importance of touch and materiality in their work, but lack a vocabulary to fully relate to their detailed explanations of other aspects such as their intent or selection of materials. We believe that more attention should be paid to the verbal dialogue that happens in the design process, particularly as other researchers show that even making-based learning also has a strong verbal element to it. However, verbal language alone does not appear to be adequate for a comprehensive language of touch. Graduate designers-makers’ descriptive practices combined non-verbal manipulation within verbal accounts. We thus argue that haptic vocabularies do not simply describe material qualities, but rather are situated competences that physically demonstrate the presence of haptic qualities. Such competencies are more important than groups of verbal vocabularies in isolation. Design support for developing and extending haptic competences must take this wide range of considerations into account to comprehensively improve designers’ capabilities

Privacy in characterizing and recruiting patients for IoHT-aided digital clinical trials

Nowadays there is a tremendous amount of smart and connected devices that produce data. The so-called IoT is so pervasive that its devices (in particular the ones that we take with us during all the day - wearables, smartphones...) often provide some insights on our lives to third parties. People habitually exchange some of their private data in order to obtain services, discounts and advantages. Sharing personal data is commonly accepted in contexts like social networks but individuals suddenly become more than concerned if a third party is interested in accessing personal health data. The healthcare systems worldwide, however, begun to take advantage of the data produced by eHealth solutions. It is clear that while on one hand the technology proved to be a great ally in the modern medicine and can lead to notable benefits, on the other hand these processes pose serious threats to our privacy. The process of testing, validating and putting on the market a new drug or medical treatment is called clinical trial. These trials are deeply impacted by the technological advancements and greatly benefit from the use of eHealth solutions. The clinical research institutes are the entities in charge of leading the trials and need to access as much health data of the patients as possible. However, at any phase of a clinical trial, the personal information of the participants should be preserved and maintained private as long as possible. During this thesis, we will introduce an architecture that protects the privacy of personal data during the first phases of digital clinical trials (namely the characterization phase and the recruiting phase), allowing potential participants to freely join trials without disclosing their personal health information without a proper reward and/or prior agreement. We will illustrate what is the trusted environment that is the most used approach in eHealth and, later, we will dig into the untrusted environment where the concept of privacy is more challenging to protect while maintaining usability of data. Our architecture maintains the individuals in full control over the flow of their personal health data. Moreover, the architecture allows the clinical research institutes to characterize the population of potentiant users without direct access to their personal data. We validated our architecture with a proof of concept that includes all the involved entities from the low level hardware up to the end application. We designed and realized the hardware capable of sensing, processing and transmitting personal health data in a privacy preserving fashion that requires little to none maintenance

Independent Aging with the Help of Smart Technology:Investigating the Acceptance of Ambient Assisted Living Technologies

Who takes care of our older adults? According to the European Union, smart technologies that support independent living and active aging, introduced as ‘Ambient Assisted Living’ (AAL), are the future for our aging population. Promises of AAL include saving long-term care costs, improving the quality of care, unburdening family caregivers, and increasing the older adults’ independence and overall quality of life. While the policy enthusiasm for AAL technology is high, it is unclear if the potential users of AAL are willing to embrace AAL technologies in their daily lives. This dissertation addressed this issue by focusing on the perspective of older adults and their caregivers. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches, we developed a comprehensive and theoretically grounded understanding of how and why users perceive AAL technologies in a certain way. Important factors that drive or hinder the acceptance were identified. These insights resulted in a model of AAL acceptance that was validated in a representative sample (n = 1296) of the Dutch older adult population. This dissertation contributes to a more user-driven approach in AAL research and development and has important implications for researchers, developers and policy makers alike. We hope that our results will guide future research efforts, design and policy directions in the AAL field

Modern computing: Vision and challenges

Over the past six decades, the computing systems field has experienced significant transformations, profoundly impacting society with transformational developments, such as the Internet and the commodification of computing. Underpinned by technological advancements, computer systems, far from being static, have been continuously evolving and adapting to cover multifaceted societal niches. This has led to new paradigms such as cloud, fog, edge computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT), which offer fresh economic and creative opportunities. Nevertheless, this rapid change poses complex research challenges, especially in maximizing potential and enhancing functionality. As such, to maintain an economical level of performance that meets ever-tighter requirements, one must understand the drivers of new model emergence and expansion, and how contemporary challenges differ from past ones. To that end, this article investigates and assesses the factors influencing the evolution of computing systems, covering established systems and architectures as well as newer developments, such as serverless computing, quantum computing, and on-device AI on edge devices. Trends emerge when one traces technological trajectory, which includes the rapid obsolescence of frameworks due to business and technical constraints, a move towards specialized systems and models, and varying approaches to centralized and decentralized control. This comprehensive review of modern computing systems looks ahead to the future of research in the field, highlighting key challenges and emerging trends, and underscoring their importance in cost-effectively driving technological progress

Impacts of the implementation of Industry´s 4.0 technologies in the portuguese footwear industry

The first three industrial revolutions came about as a result of mechanization, electricity and IT. It is safe to state that a fourth revolution is currently taking place in manufacturing, with it being generally branded as Industry 4.0. These Cyber-Physical Systems comprise smart machines, storage systems and production facilities capable of autonomously exchanging information, triggering actions and controlling each other independently. The present investigation takes this premise into account and focuses in pursuing what are the main implications of the implementation of Industry´s 4.0 technologies in the Portuguese Footwear Industry. In order to lay the foundations for the study, an extensive literature review was executed. This was followed by a qualitative and exploratory investigation, based on twelve interviews with various relevant actors of the Portuguese footwear scene. The interviews resulted in insightful conclusions. Firstly, it is possible to notice that the Portuguese Footwear industry is generally well equipped and informed. Generally, the manufacturers are aware of the new technologies that are made available, being that there are already successful examples of companies using them. The study has highlighted the importance for companies to develop an extensive evaluation regarding their specific needs in order to better decide in which technologies to invest. The path is being designed in order to continuously simplify technologies, so that they are easier to work with. The main constraint, to the present day, is linked with finding skilled workforce to perform tasks at the shop floor level and also with the generation of enough value that allows the manufacturers to invest in more advanced technology

Towards a Framework for Smart Manufacturing adoption in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises

Smart Manufacturing (SM) paradigm adoption can scale production with demand without compromising on the time for order fulfillment. A smart manufacturing system (SMS) is vertically and horizontally connected, and thus it can minimize the chances of miscommunication. Employees in an SME are aware of the operational requirements and their responsibilities. The machine schedules are prepared based on the tasks a machine must perform. Predictive maintenance reduces the downtime of machines. Design software optimizes the product design. Production feasibility is checked with the help of simulation. The concepts of product life cycle management are considered for waste reduction. Employee safety, and ergonomics, identifying new business opportunities and markets, focus on employee education and skill enhancement are some of the other advantages of SM paradigm adoption. This dissertation develops an SM paradigm adoption framework for manufacturing SMEs by employing the instrumental research approach. The first step in the framework identified the technical aspects of SM, and this step was followed by identifying the research gaps in the suggested methods (in literature) and managerial aspects for adopting SM paradigm. The technical and the managerial aspects were integrated into a toolkit for manufacturing SMEs. This toolkit contains seven modular toolboxes that can be installed in five levels, depending on an SME’s readiness towards SM. The framework proposed in this dissertation focuses on how an SME’s readiness can be assessed and based on its present readiness what tools and practices the SMEs need to have to realize their tailored vision of SM. The framework was validated with the help of two SMEs cases that have recently adopted SM practices

SHELDON Smart habitat for the elderly.

An insightful document concerning active and assisted living under different perspectives: Furniture and habitat, ICT solutions and Healthcare