Wireless communication, identification and sensing technologies enabling integrated logistics: a study in the harbor environment

In the last decade, integrated logistics has become an important challenge in the development of wireless communication, identification and sensing technology, due to the growing complexity of logistics processes and the increasing demand for adapting systems to new requirements. The advancement of wireless technology provides a wide range of options for the maritime container terminals. Electronic devices employed in container terminals reduce the manual effort, facilitating timely information flow and enhancing control and quality of service and decision made. In this paper, we examine the technology that can be used to support integration in harbor's logistics. In the literature, most systems have been developed to address specific needs of particular harbors, but a systematic study is missing. The purpose is to provide an overview to the reader about which technology of integrated logistics can be implemented and what remains to be addressed in the future

Hybrid Satellite-Terrestrial Communication Networks for the Maritime Internet of Things: Key Technologies, Opportunities, and Challenges

With the rapid development of marine activities, there has been an increasing number of maritime mobile terminals, as well as a growing demand for high-speed and ultra-reliable maritime communications to keep them connected. Traditionally, the maritime Internet of Things (IoT) is enabled by maritime satellites. However, satellites are seriously restricted by their high latency and relatively low data rate. As an alternative, shore & island-based base stations (BSs) can be built to extend the coverage of terrestrial networks using fourth-generation (4G), fifth-generation (5G), and beyond 5G services. Unmanned aerial vehicles can also be exploited to serve as aerial maritime BSs. Despite of all these approaches, there are still open issues for an efficient maritime communication network (MCN). For example, due to the complicated electromagnetic propagation environment, the limited geometrically available BS sites, and rigorous service demands from mission-critical applications, conventional communication and networking theories and methods should be tailored for maritime scenarios. Towards this end, we provide a survey on the demand for maritime communications, the state-of-the-art MCNs, and key technologies for enhancing transmission efficiency, extending network coverage, and provisioning maritime-specific services. Future challenges in developing an environment-aware, service-driven, and integrated satellite-air-ground MCN to be smart enough to utilize external auxiliary information, e.g., sea state and atmosphere conditions, are also discussed

A critical analysis of research potential, challenges and future directives in industrial wireless sensor networks

In recent years, Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks (IWSNs) have emerged as an important research theme with applications spanning a wide range of industries including automation, monitoring, process control, feedback systems and automotive. Wide scope of IWSNs applications ranging from small production units, large oil and gas industries to nuclear fission control, enables a fast-paced research in this field. Though IWSNs offer advantages of low cost, flexibility, scalability, self-healing, easy deployment and reformation, yet they pose certain limitations on available potential and introduce challenges on multiple fronts due to their susceptibility to highly complex and uncertain industrial environments. In this paper a detailed discussion on design objectives, challenges and solutions, for IWSNs, are presented. A careful evaluation of industrial systems, deadlines and possible hazards in industrial atmosphere are discussed. The paper also presents a thorough review of the existing standards and industrial protocols and gives a critical evaluation of potential of these standards and protocols along with a detailed discussion on available hardware platforms, specific industrial energy harvesting techniques and their capabilities. The paper lists main service providers for IWSNs solutions and gives insight of future trends and research gaps in the field of IWSNs

Projeto de Up-Down Converter e Antena para Comunicações Wi-Fi Sub-Aquáticas

As ondas de rádio são altamente atenuadas em ambientes sub-aquáticos. Contudo, como essa atenuação aumenta com o aumento da frequência, o uso de baixas frequências permite obter maior distancias de comunicação. A possibilidade de usar cartas Wi-Fi comerciais é extremamente atractiva devido ao seu baixo custo e à sua grande compatibilidade com o protocolo IP, permitindo o uso de Internet em ambientes aquáticos. Há vários cenários de aplicação, entre os quais destaca-se a monitorização ambiental, vigilância marinha, uso em portos marinhos e ainda na industria petrolífera, gas e matéria-prima. Este trabalho prende-se com o desenvolvimento de um sistema de conversão de frequências e de uma antena que permitirá o uso de cartas comerciais Wi-Fi para estabelecer uma comunicação sub-aquática a distâncias maiores. O sistema desenvolvido irá converter o sinal RF da carta Wi-Fi centrado nos canais de 2.4 GHz) para uma frequência IF centrada em 100MHz. Este sinal é o que se propaga pelo ambiente aquático. No lado do receptor o sinal será convertido de volta para a banda Wi-Fi e a comunicação é estabelecida desta forma. O circuito desenvolvido usa um oscilador/PLL, um misturador de frequências, e uma cadeia de amplificação tanto na transmissão tanto na transmissão como na recepção como comutação automática. O projecto inclui a especificação e o desenho da PCB e da antena bem como os resultados obtidos em testes feitos em ambientes reais.Radio-waves are strongly attenuated in an underwater environment. However, as the attenuation increases with frequency, the use of lower frequencies may allow to obtain higher range communications. The possibility to use commercial Wi-Fi cards is extremely attractive due to the low cost and due to its large compatibility with IP protocol, allowing the use of Internet in underwater environment. There are several scenarios of application, among which stand out the environmental monitoring and aquaculture surveillance, sea ports as well as the oil, gas and raw materials industry. The work proposal concerns the development of an up-down converter system and an antenna that will allow the use of commercial Wi-Fi cards to establish an underwater communication with higher ranges. The developed system will downconvert the RF signal from the Wi-Fi card ($\sim$ 2.4GHz) to an IF frequency of around 100MHz. This signal will be the one that propagates through the underwater medium. On the receiver side, this signal will be upconverted to the Wi-Fi band again and the communication is established in this way. The circuit design uses an oscillator/PLL, a mixer, and it has amplification chain in the transmission and reception with automatic switching. The project includes the specification and design of the PCB and the antenna as well as the obtained results in measurements performed in a real field

Environmental feature exploration with a single autonomous vehicle

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from IEEE via the DOI in this record.In this paper, a sliding mode based guidance strategy is proposed for the control of an autonomous vehicle. The aim of the autonomous vehicle deployment is the study of unknown environmental spatial features. The proposed approach allows the solution of both boundary tracking and source seeking problems with a single autonomous vehicle capable of sensing the value of the spatial field at its position. The movement of the vehicle is controlled through the proposed guidance strategy, which is designed on the basis of the collected measurements without the necessity of pre-planning or human intervention. Moreover, no a priori knowledge about the field and its gradient is required. The proposed strategy is based on the so-called sub-optimal sliding mode controller. The guidance strategy is demonstrated by computer based simulations and a set of boundary tracking experimental sea trials. The efficacy of the algorithm to autonomously steer the C-Enduro surface vehicle to follow a fixed depth contour in a dynamic coastal region is demonstrated by the results from the trial described in this paper.Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL)Innovate UKAutonomous Surface Vehicles (ASV) Ltd., Portcheste