Autonomous surveillance for biosecurity

The global movement of people and goods has increased the risk of biosecurity threats and their potential to incur large economic, social, and environmental costs. Conventional manual biosecurity surveillance methods are limited by their scalability in space and time. This article focuses on autonomous surveillance systems, comprising sensor networks, robots, and intelligent algorithms, and their applicability to biosecurity threats. We discuss the spatial and temporal attributes of autonomous surveillance technologies and map them to three broad categories of biosecurity threat: (i) vector-borne diseases; (ii) plant pests; and (iii) aquatic pests. Our discussion reveals a broad range of opportunities to serve biosecurity needs through autonomous surveillance.Comment: 26 pages, Trends in Biotechnology, 3 March 2015, ISSN 0167-7799, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tibtech.2015.01.003. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167779915000190

Exploratory study to explore the role of ICT in the process of knowledge management in an Indian business environment

In the 21st century and the emergence of a digital economy, knowledge and the knowledge base economy are rapidly growing. To effectively be able to understand the processes involved in the creating, managing and sharing of knowledge management in the business environment is critical to the success of an organization. This study builds on the previous research of the authors on the enablers of knowledge management by identifying the relationship between the enablers of knowledge management and the role played by information communication technologies (ICT) and ICT infrastructure in a business setting. This paper provides the findings of a survey collected from the four major Indian cities (Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai and Villupuram) regarding their views and opinions about the enablers of knowledge management in business setting. A total of 80 organizations participated in the study with 100 participants in each city. The results show that ICT and ICT infrastructure can play a critical role in the creating, managing and sharing of knowledge in an Indian business environment

IoT System on Dynamic Fish Feeder Based on Fish Existence for Agriculture Aquaponic Breeders

يعتبر الحفاظ على الأسماك وتربيتها في البركة مهمة حاسمة لمربي الأسماك الكبير. القضايا الرئيسية لمربي الأسماك هي إدارة الأحواض مثل إنتاج الغذاء للأسماك والحفاظ على جودة مياه الأحواض. تم اختراع النظام الديناميكي أو التكنولوجي للمربين وأصبح مهمًا للحصول على أقصى عائد ربح لمربي الاستزراع النباتي والسمكي في الحفاظ على الأسماك. يقدم هذا البحث نموذجًا أوليًا مطورًا لمغذي الأسماك الديناميكي بناءً على وجود الأسماك. تمت برمجة وحدة تغذية الأسماك الديناميكية لتتغذى حيث اكتشفت أجهزة الاستشعار وجود الأسماك. تم برمجة لوحة متحكم NodeMCU ESP8266 للأجهزة المطورة. تتحكم وحدة التحكم في آلية التغذية والتغذية المرتدة بناءً على المستشعرات المرفقة. جهاز استشعار بالموجات فوق الصوتية مبرمج مع جهاز التحكم لاكتشاف مستوى الطعام ومقاومة للماء بالموجات فوق الصوتية للكشف عن الأسماك الموجودة. تم استخدام مستشعر الرطوبة لقياس الرطوبة في حاوية الطعام للتحكم في نضارة الطعام. تم استخدام محركين مؤازرين لتحريك مستشعر الماء لجذب الأسماك وتوزيع الطعام على الأسماك عند وجودها. تعرض النتيجة أربعة مستويات تم قياسها وهي درجة حرارة حاوية الطعام ، ونوعية الطعام بناءً على قياس الرطوبة ، وعداد الكشف عن الأسماك ومستوى طعام الأسماك في الحاوية. تم تقديم تحليلات البيانات على جميع المستويات المقاسة على منصة ThingSpeak باستخدام Blynk للحصول على مجموعات البيانات من جميع أجهزة الاستشعار. يعتبر هذا البحث مهمًا لمربي الأسماك الذين يدعمون تطبيقات الأجهزة المتصلة عبر الإنترنت والجوال بنظام IR4.0 والتي تساهم أيضًا في الزراعة اليوم.Maintaining and breeding fish in a pond are a crucial task for a large fish breeder. The main issues for fish breeders are pond management such as the production of food for fishes and to maintain the pond water quality. The dynamic or technological system for breeders has been invented and becomes important to get maximum profit return for aquaponic breeders in maintaining fishes. This research presents a developed prototype of a dynamic fish feeder based on fish existence. The dynamic fish feeder is programmed to feed where sensors detected the fish's existence. A microcontroller board NodeMCU ESP8266 is programmed for the developed hardware. The controller controls the feeding and feedback mechanism based on attached sensors. An ultrasonic sensor is programmed with the controller to detect the level of food and waterproof ultrasonic to detect existing fish. The humidity sensor was used to measure the humidity in the food container to control the food freshness. Two servo motors were used to move the waterproof sensor to attract the fish and to dispense the food to the fish when existed. The result presents four measured levels that are the temperature of the food container, the quality of food based on humidity measured, fish detection counter and level of fish food in the container. Data analytics on all the measured levels was presented on the ThingSpeak platform by using Blynk to get data collections from all sensors. This research is significant for fish breeders that support IR4.0 system connected online and mobile apps which also contribute to today’s agriculture

Aquarium Monitoring and Automatic Feeding System Based on Internet of Things

Now day ornamental fish enthusiasts are increasing, this is in line with the increasing number of people who have a hobby of keeping ornamental fish. In maintaining ornamental fish, several things must be considered to maintain the health of the fish, including water quality, changes in water temperature, and feeding. Therefore, to maintain the health of ornamental fish, a system is needed to monitor the aquarium's condition in real-time. This research aims to design a system that can monitor the aquarium's condition and provide feed automatically. Monitoring is carried out by utilizing Internet of Things (IoT) technology, which allows the information collected to be accessed in real-time through the Smart Aquarium application. The research method used in this research is analysis with a qualitative approach. The results showed that this automatic monitoring and feeding system can maintain health and reduce the risk of death of ornamental fish in the aquarium. The main concept of this system is monitoring water temperature conditions, water ph levels, and water turbidity, and doing automatic feeding. In addition, this system also has a feature that can see the current conditions in the aquarium. This system can make it easier for ornamental fish owners to monitor the conditions of the aquarium and can provide peace of mind when leaving the aquarium for some time

The Human in the loop in Cyber-Physical Systems: the case of Building Automation

Context: The world is facing environmental challenges due to carbon dioxide emissions. Building energy consumption accounts for thirty to forty-five per cent of global energy consumption. Changing these figures is imperative for achieving environmental sustainability. Building Automation Systems (BAS) can be considered a type of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) that have the objective of increasing energy efficiency while maximising human comfort. Problem: Automated systems usually do not consider human e↵ective participation as a tool that can be used to achieve the system’s goals Solution: Humans can assume several roles in the available building automation control loops. Building operators determine operating rules; building users can be the source of data used for automated decisions and also the system may require their actions to change the building environment. Gains or losses can be introduced in a BAS operation if humans are considered components of the system. To the best of our knowledge, no studies can be found that show evident gains or losses of integrating the human-in-theloop in system design. To assess the impact of having humans performing clear and predefined roles in a BAS Cyber-Physical System (CPS) operation, we implemented a BAS case study. Results: The initial results show that when the BAS consider humans more than CPS plant’s elements, the BAS is more energy efficient while providing conditions that promote the user’s health and productivity. With the experience gained with this work it will be possible to build in the future more resilient and e↵ective participatory BAS

Launching the Grand Challenges for Ocean Conservation

The ten most pressing Grand Challenges in Oceans Conservation were identified at the Oceans Big Think and described in a detailed working document:A Blue Revolution for Oceans: Reengineering Aquaculture for SustainabilityEnding and Recovering from Marine DebrisTransparency and Traceability from Sea to Shore:  Ending OverfishingProtecting Critical Ocean Habitats: New Tools for Marine ProtectionEngineering Ecological Resilience in Near Shore and Coastal AreasReducing the Ecological Footprint of Fishing through Smarter GearArresting the Alien Invasion: Combating Invasive SpeciesCombatting the Effects of Ocean AcidificationEnding Marine Wildlife TraffickingReviving Dead Zones: Combating Ocean Deoxygenation and Nutrient Runof

Pre-Flood Warning System Based on User Mobility

The occurrence of flood causes millions of Ringgit in damages, along with the loss of life and property, and the devastation of agricultural and livestock. Therefore, an effective pre-flood warning system must be developed to mitigate flood losses and lessen the flood effects. However, when developing a warning system for flood disaster, limited communication during the occurrence of floods and the availability of electricity supplies should be taken into account. Thus, this research project proposes a conceptual framework with three (3) main stages: monitor water level, alert flood victims on flood danger status and inform flood victims to relocate to the nearest relief center. A system architecture has been designed for this research project and a prototype system is developed. The prototype system is made up of a medium sized aquarium tank, a hand pump, HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor, Arduino UNO R3 and IComsat GSM shield. To validate the proposed prototype system, an experiment with controlled water rising effect is conducted in a lab scale setup. The results prove that the proposed prototype system is reliable as it is able to measure water level accurately and broadcast warning SMS immediately to flood victims. Thus, by having an effective real time pre-flood warning system, immediate action can be carried out in order to save lives and minimize the damages caused by flood disaster