Towards an Autonomous Industry 4.0 Warehouse: A UAV and Blockchain-Based System for Inventory and Traceability Applications in Big Data-Driven Supply Chain Management

[Abstract] Industry 4.0 has paved the way for a world where smart factories will automate and upgrade many processes through the use of some of the latest emerging technologies. One of such technologies is Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), which have evolved a great deal in the last years in terms of technology (e.g., control units, sensors, UAV frames) and have significantly reduced their cost. UAVs can help industry in automatable and tedious tasks, like the ones performed on a regular basis for determining the inventory and for preserving item traceability. In such tasks, especially when it comes from untrusted third parties, it is essential to determine whether the collected information is valid or true. Likewise, ensuring data trustworthiness is a key issue in order to leverage Big Data analytics to supply chain efficiency and effectiveness. In such a case, blockchain, another Industry 4.0 technology that has become very popular in other fields like finance, has the potential to provide a higher level of transparency, security, trust and efficiency in the supply chain and enable the use of smart contracts. Thus, in this paper, we present the design and evaluation of a UAV-based system aimed at automating inventory tasks and keeping the traceability of industrial items attached to Radio-Frequency IDentification (RFID) tags. To confront current shortcomings, such a system is developed under a versatile, modular and scalable architecture aimed to reinforce cyber security and decentralization while fostering external audits and big data analytics. Therefore, the system uses a blockchain and a distributed ledger to store certain inventory data collected by UAVs, validate them, ensure their trustworthiness and make them available to the interested parties. In order to show the performance of the proposed system, different tests were performed in a real industrial warehouse, concluding that the system is able to obtain the inventory data really fast in comparison to traditional manual tasks, while being also able to estimate the position of the items when hovering over them thanks to their tag’s signal strength. In addition, the performance of the proposed blockchain-based architecture was evaluated in different scenarios.Xunta de Galicia; ED431C 2016-045Xunta de Galicia; ED431G/01Agencia Estatal de Investigación de España; TEC2016-75067-C4-1-

Differential Privacy for Industrial Internet of Things: Opportunities, Applications and Challenges

The development of Internet of Things (IoT) brings new changes to various fields. Particularly, industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is promoting a new round of industrial revolution. With more applications of IIoT, privacy protection issues are emerging. Specially, some common algorithms in IIoT technology such as deep models strongly rely on data collection, which leads to the risk of privacy disclosure. Recently, differential privacy has been used to protect user-terminal privacy in IIoT, so it is necessary to make in-depth research on this topic. In this paper, we conduct a comprehensive survey on the opportunities, applications and challenges of differential privacy in IIoT. We firstly review related papers on IIoT and privacy protection, respectively. Then we focus on the metrics of industrial data privacy, and analyze the contradiction between data utilization for deep models and individual privacy protection. Several valuable problems are summarized and new research ideas are put forward. In conclusion, this survey is dedicated to complete comprehensive summary and lay foundation for the follow-up researches on industrial differential privacy

An Online Framework for Ephemeral Edge Computing in the Internet of Things

In the Internet of Things (IoT) environment, edge computing can be initiated at anytime and anywhere. However, in an IoT, edge computing sessions are often ephemeral, i.e., they last for a short period of time and can often be discontinued once the current application usage is completed or the edge devices leave the system due to factors such as mobility. Therefore, in this paper, the problem of ephemeral edge computing in an IoT is studied by considering scenarios in which edge computing operates within a limited time period. To this end, a novel online framework is proposed in which a source edge node offloads its computing tasks from sensors within an area to neighboring edge nodes for distributed task computing, within the limited period of time of an ephemeral edge computing system. The online nature of the framework allows the edge nodes to optimize their task allocation and decide on which neighbors to use for task processing, even when the tasks are revealed to the source edge node in an online manner, and the information on future task arrivals is unknown. The proposed framework essentially maximizes the number of computed tasks by jointly considering the communication and computation latency. To solve the problem, an online greedy algorithm is proposed and solved by using the primal-dual approach. Since the primal problem provides an upper bound of the original dual problem, the competitive ratio of the online approach is analytically derived as a function of the task sizes and the data rates of the edge nodes. Simulation results show that the proposed online algorithm can achieve a near-optimal task allocation with an optimality gap that is no higher than 7.1% compared to the offline, optimal solution with complete knowledge of all tasks

A Review on IoT Deep Learning UAV Systems for Autonomous Obstacle Detection and Collision Avoidance

[Abstract] Advances in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, offer unprecedented opportunities to boost a wide array of large-scale Internet of Things (IoT) applications. Nevertheless, UAV platforms still face important limitations mainly related to autonomy and weight that impact their remote sensing capabilities when capturing and processing the data required for developing autonomous and robust real-time obstacle detection and avoidance systems. In this regard, Deep Learning (DL) techniques have arisen as a promising alternative for improving real-time obstacle detection and collision avoidance for highly autonomous UAVs. This article reviews the most recent developments on DL Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) and provides a detailed explanation on the main DL techniques. Moreover, the latest DL-UAV communication architectures are studied and their most common hardware is analyzed. Furthermore, this article enumerates the most relevant open challenges for current DL-UAV solutions, thus allowing future researchers to define a roadmap for devising the new generation affordable autonomous DL-UAV IoT solutions.Xunta de Galicia; ED431C 2016-045Xunta de Galicia; ED431C 2016-047Xunta de Galicia; , ED431G/01Centro Singular de Investigación de Galicia; PC18/01Agencia Estatal de Investigación de España; TEC2016-75067-C4-1-

Service Provisioning in Edge-Cloud Continuum Emerging Applications for Mobile Devices

Disruptive applications for mobile devices can be enhanced by Edge computing facilities. In this context, Edge Computing (EC) is a proposed architecture to meet the mobility requirements imposed by these applications in a wide range of domains, such as the Internet of Things, Immersive Media, and Connected and Autonomous Vehicles. EC architecture aims to introduce computing capabilities in the path between the user and the Cloud to execute tasks closer to where they are consumed, thus mitigating issues related to latency, context awareness, and mobility support. In this survey, we describe which are the leading technologies to support the deployment of EC infrastructure. Thereafter, we discuss the applications that can take advantage of EC and how they were proposed in the literature. Finally, after examining enabling technologies and related applications, we identify some open challenges to fully achieve the potential of EC, and also research opportunities on upcoming paradigms for service provisioning. This survey is a guide to comprehend the recent advances on the provisioning of mobile applications, as well as foresee the expected next stages of evolution for these applications

Mobile Edge Computing

This is an open access book. It offers comprehensive, self-contained knowledge on Mobile Edge Computing (MEC), which is a very promising technology for achieving intelligence in the next-generation wireless communications and computing networks. The book starts with the basic concepts, key techniques and network architectures of MEC. Then, we present the wide applications of MEC, including edge caching, 6G networks, Internet of Vehicles, and UAVs. In the last part, we present new opportunities when MEC meets blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, and distributed machine learning (e.g., federated learning). We also identify the emerging applications of MEC in pandemic, industrial Internet of Things and disaster management. The book allows an easy cross-reference owing to the broad coverage on both the principle and applications of MEC. The book is written for people interested in communications and computer networks at all levels. The primary audience includes senior undergraduates, postgraduates, educators, scientists, researchers, developers, engineers, innovators and research strategists

Mist and Edge Computing Cyber-Physical Human-Centered Systems for Industry 5.0: A Cost-Effective IoT Thermal Imaging Safety System

While many companies worldwide are still striving to adjust to Industry 4.0 principles, the transition to Industry 5.0 is already underway. Under such a paradigm, Cyber-Physical Human-centered Systems (CPHSs) have emerged to leverage operator capabilities in order to meet the goals of complex manufacturing systems towards human-centricity, resilience and sustainability. This article first describes the essential concepts for the development of Industry 5.0 CPHSs and then analyzes the latest CPHSs, identifying their main design requirements and key implementation components. Moreover, the major challenges for the development of such CPHSs are outlined. Next, to illustrate the previously described concepts, a real-world Industry 5.0 CPHS is presented. Such a CPHS enables increased operator safety and operation tracking in manufacturing processes that rely on collaborative robots and heavy machinery. Specifically, the proposed use case consists of a workshop where a smarter use of resources is required, and human proximity detection determines when machinery should be working or not in order to avoid incidents or accidents involving such machinery. The proposed CPHS makes use of a hybrid edge computing architecture with smart mist computing nodes that processes thermal images and reacts to prevent industrial safety issues. The performed experiments show that, in the selected real-world scenario, the developed CPHS algorithms are able to detect human presence with low-power devices (with a Raspberry Pi 3B) in a fast and accurate way (in less than 10 ms with a 97.04% accuracy), thus being an effective solution that can be integrated into many Industry 5.0 applications. Finally, this article provides specific guidelines that will help future developers and managers to overcome the challenges that will arise when deploying the next generation of CPHSs for smart and sustainable manufacturing.Comment: 32 page