Robots for Exploration, Digital Preservation and Visualization of Archeological Sites

Monitoring and conservation of archaeological sites are important activities necessary to prevent damage or to perform restoration on cultural heritage. Standard techniques, like mapping and digitizing, are typically used to document the status of such sites. While these task are normally accomplished manually by humans, this is not possible when dealing with hard-to-access areas. For example, due to the possibility of structural collapses, underground tunnels like catacombs are considered highly unstable environments. Moreover, they are full of radioactive gas radon that limits the presence of people only for few minutes. The progress recently made in the artificial intelligence and robotics field opened new possibilities for mobile robots to be used in locations where humans are not allowed to enter. The ROVINA project aims at developing autonomous mobile robots to make faster, cheaper and safer the monitoring of archaeological sites. ROVINA will be evaluated on the catacombs of Priscilla (in Rome) and S. Gennaro (in Naples)

Simple RESTful sensor application development model using CoAP

Gateway or cloud based interaction models are widely used for automation solutions that use networked sensors and actuators. In this model, every sensor/actuator interaction goes through the gateway or via the cloud. In order to realize the true Internet of Things philosophy where everything is interconnected, direct interactions between sensors and actuators, also called bindings, are important. In addition to this, alternative IoT application development models which facilitate application development and improve efficiency are required. In this paper, we first introduce a CoAP based sensor/actuator binding solution where a 3rd party is responsible for setting up the binding, but is not involved in any of the further interactions. Next, the binding concept is extended to introduce (pre-) processing into the sensor/actuator interactions in the form of RESTlets. RESTlets are small application building blocks with internal processing logic and RESTful interfaces for input, control and output. Finally, we present how IoT applications can be created by binding different RESTlets to each other and to sensors and actuators

Supporting Cyber-Physical Systems with Wireless Sensor Networks: An Outlook of Software and Services

Sensing, communication, computation and control technologies are the essential building blocks of a cyber-physical system (CPS). Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are a way to support CPS as they provide fine-grained spatial-temporal sensing, communication and computation at a low premium of cost and power. In this article, we explore the fundamental concepts guiding the design and implementation of WSNs. We report the latest developments in WSN software and services for meeting existing requirements and newer demands; particularly in the areas of: operating system, simulator and emulator, programming abstraction, virtualization, IP-based communication and security, time and location, and network monitoring and management. We also reflect on the ongoing efforts in providing dependable assurances for WSN-driven CPS. Finally, we report on its applicability with a case-study on smart buildings

A gap analysis of Internet-of-Things platforms

We are experiencing an abundance of Internet-of-Things (IoT) middleware solutions that provide connectivity for sensors and actuators to the Internet. To gain a widespread adoption, these middleware solutions, referred to as platforms, have to meet the expectations of different players in the IoT ecosystem, including device providers, application developers, and end-users, among others. In this article, we evaluate a representative sample of these platforms, both proprietary and open-source, on the basis of their ability to meet the expectations of different IoT users. The evaluation is thus more focused on how ready and usable these platforms are for IoT ecosystem players, rather than on the peculiarities of the underlying technological layers. The evaluation is carried out as a gap analysis of the current IoT landscape with respect to (i) the support for heterogeneous sensing and actuating technologies, (ii) the data ownership and its implications for security and privacy, (iii) data processing and data sharing capabilities, (iv) the support offered to application developers, (v) the completeness of an IoT ecosystem, and (vi) the availability of dedicated IoT marketplaces. The gap analysis aims to highlight the deficiencies of today's solutions to improve their integration to tomorrow's ecosystems. In order to strengthen the finding of our analysis, we conducted a survey among the partners of the Finnish IoT program, counting over 350 experts, to evaluate the most critical issues for the development of future IoT platforms. Based on the results of our analysis and our survey, we conclude this article with a list of recommendations for extending these IoT platforms in order to fill in the gaps.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables, Accepted for publication in Computer Communications, special issue on the Internet of Things: Research challenges and solution

Information and resource management systems for Internet of Things: Energy management, communication protocols and future applications

The idea of the Internet of Things (IoT) has enabled the objects of our surroundings to intercommunicate with each other in diverse working environments by utilizing their embedded architectural and communication technologies. IoT has provided humans the capability to manipulate the operations and data available from different information systems using these intelligent objects available in the surroundings. The scope of IoT is to serve humanity across different domains of life covering industrial, health, home and day-to-day operations of Information Systems (IS). Due to the huge number of heterogeneous network elements interacting and working under IoT based information systems, there is an enormous need for resource management for the smooth running of IoT operations. The key aspect in IoT implementations is to have resource-constrained embedded devices and objects participating in IoT operations. It is important to meet the challenges raised during management and sharing of resources in IoT based information systems. Managing resources by implementing protocols, algorithms and techniques are required to enhance the scalability, reliability and stability in IoT operations across different fields of technology. This special issue opens the new areas of interest for the researchers in the domain of resource management in IoT operations

Ubicorder: A mobile device for situated interactions with sensor networks

The Ubicorder is a mobile, location and orientation aware device for browsing and interacting with real-time sensor network data. In addition to browsing data, the Ubicorder also provides a graphical user interface (GUI) that users can use to define inference rules. These inference rules detect sensor data patterns, and translate them to higher-order events. Rules can also be recursively combined to form an expressive and robust vocabulary for detecting real-world phenomena, thus enabling users to script higher level and relevant responses to distributed sensor stimuli. The Ubicorder’s mobile, handheld form-factor enables users to easily bring the device to the phenomena of interest, hence simultaneously observe or cause real-world stimuli and manipulate in-situ the event detection rules easily using its graphical interface. In a first-use user study, participants without any prior sensor network experience rated the Ubicorder highly for its usefulness and usability when interacting with a sensor network.Things That Think Consortiu

Remote Management of Embedded Systems

Možnosti dnešních vestavěných zařízení rapidně rostou. Jejich výkon dovoluje běh složitějších aplikací v prostředích Internetu věcí (IoT). Složité aplikace bývají náchylné na chyby a vyžadují průběžnou aktualizaci. Systém, který umožňuje aktualizace většího množství vzdálených vestavěných zařízení, byl navrhnut a implementován. Systém byl implementován na základě studie existujících řešení a podmínek projektu BeeeOn, který se zabývá chytrou domácností.Possibilities of today's embedded devices are growing rapidly. Their performance allows them to run more complex applications in Internet of Things (IoT) environments. Complex applications tend to be error-prone and require continual updates. A system that is capable of updating a multitude of remote embedded devices was designed and implemented. This system was created based on the study of existing solutions and requirements of the project BeeeOn which concerns itself with smart homes.

Designing interactive ambient multimedia applications: requirements and implementation challenges

Ambient intelligence opens new possibilities for interactive multimedia, leading towards applications where the selection, generation and playback of multimedia content can be directed and influenced by multiple users in an ambient sensor network. In this paper, we derive the basic requirements for a flexible infrastructure that can support the integration of multimedia and ambient intelligence, and enable rapid tailoring of interactive multimedia applications. We describe our implementation of the proposed infrastructure, and demonstrate its functionality through several prototype application

Designing interactive ambient multimedia applications: requirements and implementation challenges

Ambient intelligence opens new possibilities for interactive multimedia, leading towards applications where the selection, generation and playback of multimedia content can be directed and influenced by multiple users in an ambient sensor network. In this paper, we derive the basic requirements for a flexible infrastructure that can support the integration of multimedia and ambient intelligence, and enable rapid tailoring of interactive multimedia applications. We describe our implementation of the proposed infrastructure, and demonstrate its functionality through several prototype application