A dependability framework for WSN-based aquatic monitoring systems

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are being progressively used in several application areas, particularly to collect data and monitor physical processes. Moreover, sensor nodes used in environmental monitoring applications, such as the aquatic sensor networks, are often subject to harsh environmental conditions while monitoring complex phenomena. Non-functional requirements, like reliability, security or availability, are increasingly important and must be accounted for in the application development. For that purpose, there is a large body of knowledge on dependability techniques for distributed systems, which provides a good basis to understand how to satisfy these non-functional requirements of WSN-based monitoring applications. Given the data-centric nature of monitoring applications, it is of particular importance to ensure that data is reliable or, more generically, that it has the necessary quality. The problem of ensuring the desired quality of data for dependable monitoring using WSNs is studied herein. With a dependability-oriented perspective, it is reviewed the possible impairments to dependability and the prominent existing solutions to solve or mitigate these impairments. Despite the variety of components that may form a WSN-based monitoring system, it is given particular attention to understanding which faults can affect sensors, how they can affect the quality of the information, and how this quality can be improved and quantified. Open research issues for the specific case of aquatic monitoring applications are also discussed. One of the challenges in achieving a dependable system behavior is to overcome the external disturbances affecting sensor measurements and detect the failure patterns in sensor data. This is a particular problem in environmental monitoring, due to the difficulty in distinguishing a faulty behavior from the representation of a natural phenomenon. Existing solutions for failure detection assume that physical processes can be accurately modeled, or that there are large deviations that may be detected using coarse techniques, or more commonly that it is a high-density sensor network with value redundant sensors. This thesis aims at defining a new methodology for dependable data quality in environmental monitoring systems, aiming to detect faulty measurements and increase the sensors data quality. The framework of the methodology is overviewed through a generically applicable design, which can be employed to any environment sensor network dataset. The methodology is evaluated in various datasets of different WSNs, where it is used machine learning to model each sensor behavior, exploiting the existence of correlated data provided by neighbor sensors. It is intended to explore the data fusion strategies in order to effectively detect potential failures for each sensor and, simultaneously, distinguish truly abnormal measurements from deviations due to natural phenomena. This is accomplished with the successful application of the methodology to detect and correct outliers, offset and drifting failures in real monitoring networks datasets. In the future, the methodology can be applied to optimize the data quality control processes of new and already operating monitoring networks, and assist in the networks maintenance operations.As redes de sensores sem fios (RSSF) têm vindo cada vez mais a serem utilizadas em diversas áreas de aplicação, em especial para monitorizar e capturar informação de processos físicos em meios naturais. Neste contexto, os sensores que estão em contacto direto com o respectivo meio ambiente, como por exemplo os sensores em meios aquáticos, estão sujeitos a condições adversas e complexas durante o seu funcionamento. Esta complexidade conduz à necessidade de considerarmos, durante o desenvolvimento destas redes, os requisitos não funcionais da confiabilidade, da segurança ou da disponibilidade elevada. Para percebermos como satisfazer estes requisitos da monitorização com base em RSSF para aplicações ambientais, já existe uma boa base de conhecimento sobre técnicas de confiabilidade em sistemas distribuídos. Devido ao foco na obtenção de dados deste tipo de aplicações de RSSF, é particularmente importante garantir que os dados obtidos na monitorização sejam confiáveis ou, de uma forma mais geral, que tenham a qualidade necessária para o objetivo pretendido. Esta tese estuda o problema de garantir a qualidade de dados necessária para uma monitorização confiável usando RSSF. Com o foco na confiabilidade, revemos os possíveis impedimentos à obtenção de dados confiáveis e as soluções existentes capazes de corrigir ou mitigar esses impedimentos. Apesar de existir uma grande variedade de componentes que formam ou podem formar um sistema de monitorização com base em RSSF, prestamos particular atenção à compreensão das possíveis faltas que podem afetar os sensores, a como estas faltas afetam a qualidade dos dados recolhidos pelos sensores e a como podemos melhorar os dados e quantificar a sua qualidade. Tendo em conta o caso específico dos sistemas de monitorização em meios aquáticos, discutimos ainda as várias linhas de investigação em aberto neste tópico. Um dos desafios para se atingir um sistema de monitorização confiável é a deteção da influência de fatores externos relacionados com o ambiente monitorizado, que afetam as medições obtidas pelos sensores, bem como a deteção de comportamentos de falha nas medições. Este desafio é um problema particular na monitorização em ambientes naturais adversos devido à dificuldade da distinção entre os comportamentos associados às falhas nos sensores e os comportamentos dos sensores afetados pela à influência de um evento natural. As soluções existentes para este problema, relacionadas com deteção de faltas, assumem que os processos físicos a monitorizar podem ser modelados de forma eficaz, ou que os comportamentos de falha são caraterizados por desvios elevados do comportamento expectável de forma a serem facilmente detetáveis. Mais frequentemente, as soluções assumem que as redes de sensores contêm um número suficientemente elevado de sensores na área monitorizada e, consequentemente, que existem sensores redundantes relativamente à medição. Esta tese tem como objetivo a definição de uma nova metodologia para a obtenção de qualidade de dados confiável em sistemas de monitorização ambientais, com o intuito de detetar a presença de faltas nas medições e aumentar a qualidade dos dados dos sensores. Esta metodologia tem uma estrutura genérica de forma a ser aplicada a uma qualquer rede de sensores ambiental ou ao respectivo conjunto de dados obtido pelos sensores desta. A metodologia é avaliada através de vários conjuntos de dados de diferentes RSSF, em que aplicámos técnicas de aprendizagem automática para modelar o comportamento de cada sensor, com base na exploração das correlações existentes entre os dados obtidos pelos sensores da rede. O objetivo é a aplicação de estratégias de fusão de dados para a deteção de potenciais falhas em cada sensor e, simultaneamente, a distinção de medições verdadeiramente defeituosas de desvios derivados de eventos naturais. Este objectivo é cumprido através da aplicação bem sucedida da metodologia para detetar e corrigir outliers, offsets e drifts em conjuntos de dados reais obtidos por redes de sensores. No futuro, a metodologia pode ser aplicada para otimizar os processos de controlo da qualidade de dados quer de novos sistemas de monitorização, quer de redes de sensores já em funcionamento, bem como para auxiliar operações de manutenção das redes.Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civi

A survey on fault diagnosis in wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) often consist of hundreds of sensor nodes that may be deployed in relatively harsh and complex environments. In views of hardware cost, sensor nodes always adopt relatively cheap chips, which makes these nodes become error-prone or faulty in the course of their operation. Natural factors and electromagnetic interference could also influence the performance of the WSNs. When sensor nodes become faulty, they may have died which means they cannot communicate with other members in the wireless network, they may be still alive but produce incorrect data, they may be unstable jumping between normal state and faulty state. To improve data quality, shorten response time, strengthen network security, and prolong network lifespan, many studies have focused on fault diagnosis. This survey paper classifies fault diagnosis methods in recent five years into three categories based on decision centers and key attributes of employed algorithms: centralized approaches, distributed approaches, and hybrid approaches. As all these studies have specific goals and limitations, this paper tries to compare them, lists their merits and limits, and propose potential research directions based on established methods and theories

Sensor Networks and Their Applications: Investigating the Role of Sensor Web Enablement

The Engineering Doctorate (EngD) was conducted in conjunction with BT Research on state-of-the-art Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) projects. The first area of work is a literature review of WSN project applications, some of which the author worked on as a BT Researcher based at the world renowned Adastral Park Research Labs in Suffolk (2004-09). WSN applications are examined within the context of Machine-to-Machine (M2M); Information Networking (IN); Internet/Web of Things (IoT/WoT); smart home and smart devices; BT’s 21st Century Network (21CN); Cloud Computing; and future trends. In addition, this thesis provides an insight into the capabilities of similar external WSN project applications. Under BT’s Sensor Virtualization project, the second area of work focuses on building a Generic Architecture for WSNs with reusable infrastructure and ‘infostructure’ by identifying and trialling suitable components, in order to realise actual business benefits for BT. The third area of work focuses on the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards and their Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) initiative. The SWE framework was investigated to ascertain its potential as a component of the Generic Architecture. BT’s SAPHE project served as a use case. BT Research’s experiences of taking this traditional (vertical) stove-piped application and creating SWE compliant services are described. The author’s findings were originally presented in a series of publications and have been incorporated into this thesis along with supplementary WSN material from BT Research projects. SWE 2.0 specifications are outlined to highlight key improvements, since work began at BT with SWE 1.0. The fourth area of work focuses on Complex Event Processing (CEP) which was evaluated to ascertain its potential for aggregating and correlating the shared project sensor data (‘infostructure’) harvested and for enabling data fusion for WSNs in diverse domains. Finally, the conclusions and suggestions for further work are provided

A New Opportunistic Routing Scheme in Low Duty-Cycle WSNs for Monitoring Infrequent Events

We address opportunistic routing in low-duty cycle wireless sensor networks. A low duty-cycle consists in alternating active and sleep cycles asynchronously in order to save energy. In multihop networks, such a design must take an opportunistic approach in order to cope with the unpredictable appearance of wireless links. In fact, topology-based routing approaches are ineffective in this context. Our main objective is to maximize the network lifespan while guaranteeing i) the routing of packets to the sink and ii) acceptable end-to-end delays. We propose a new geographical opportunistic cross-layer scheme based on an asynchronous sender-oriented MAC protocol. The proposal sets the priority of selecting the next hop, among all potential candidates, according to its closeness to the sink. The next hop is elected through a selection process based on signalling bursts. The performance evaluation of our proposal is carried out both by an analytical model and simulations. The approach is evaluated in terms of i) probability of packet delivery to the sink, ii) number of hops per path and iii) end-to-end packet delay from the source to the sink

Contribution to the integration, performance improvement, and smart management of data and resources in the Internet of Things

[SPA] Esta tesis doctoral se presenta bajo la modalidad de compendio de publicaciones.[ENG] This doctoral dissertation has been presented in the form of thesis by publication. The IoT has seen a tremendous growth in the last few years. Not only due to its potential to transform societies, but also as an enabling technology for many other technological advances. Unfortunately, the IoT is a relatively recent paradigm that lacks the maturity of other well-established (not so recent) revolutions like the internet itself or Wireless Sensor Networks; upon which the IoT is built. The presented Thesis contributes to this maturation process by researching on the underlying communication mechanisms that enable a truly ubiquitous and effective IoT. As a Thesis by compilation, 5 relevant articles are introduced and discussed. Each of such articles delve into different key aspects that, in their own way, help closing the gap between what the IoT is expected to bring and what the IoT actually brings. As thoroughly commented throughout the main text, the comprehensive approach taken in this Thesis ensures that multiple angles of the same plane --the communication plane-- are analyzed and studied. From the mathematical analysis of how electromagnetic waves propagate through complex environments to the utilization of recent Machine Learning techniques, this Thesis explore a wide range of scientific and researching tools that are shown to improve the final performance of the IoT. In the first three chapters of this document, the reader will be introduced to the current context and state-of-the-art of the IoT while, at the same time, the formal objectives of this Thesis are outlined and set into such a global context. In the next five chapters, the five corresponding articles are presented and commented. For each and every of these articles: a brief abstract, a methodology summary, a highlight on the results and contributions and final conclusions are also added. Lastly, in the two last chapters, the final conclusions and future lines of this Thesis are commented.Los artículos que componen la tesis son los siguientes: 1. R. M. Sandoval, A.-J. J. Garcia-Sanchez, F. Garcia-Sanchez, and J. Garcia-Haro, \Evaluating the More Suitable ISM Frequency Band for IoT-Based Smart Grids: A Quantitative Study of 915 MHz vs. 2400 MHz," Sensors, vol. 17, no. 1, p. 76, Dec. 2016. 2. R. M. Sandoval, A.-J. J. Garcia-Sanchez, J.-M. M. Molina-Garcia-Pardo, F. Garcia-Sanchez, and J. Garcia-Haro, \Radio-Channel Characterization of Smart Grid Substations in the 2.4-GHz ISM Band," IEEE Trans. Wirel. Commun., vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 1294{1307, Feb. 2017. 3. R. M. Sandoval, A. J. Garcia-Sanchez, and J. Garcia-Haro, \Improving RSSI-based path-loss models accuracy for critical infrastructures: A smart grid substation case-study," IEEE Trans. Ind. Informatics, vol. 14, no. 5, pp. 2230{2240, 2018. 4. R. M. Sandoval, A.-J. Garcia-Sanchez, J. Garcia-Haro, and T. M. Chen, \Optimal policy derivation for Transmission Duty-Cycle constrained LPWAN," IEEE Internet Things J., vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 1{1, Aug. 2018. 5. R. M. Sandoval, S. Canovas-Carrasco, A. Garcia-Sanchez, and J. Garcia-Haro, \Smart Usage of Multiple RAT in IoT-oriented 5G Networks: A Reinforcement Learning Approach," in 2018 ITU Kaleidoscope: Machine Learning for a 5G Future (ITU K), 2018, pp. 1-8.Escuela Internacional de Doctorado de la Universidad Politécnica de CartagenaUniversidad Politécnica de CartagenaPrograma de Doctorado en Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones por la Universidad Politécnica de Cartagen

PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS AND OPTIMIZATION OF QUERY-BASED WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS

This dissertation is concerned with the modeling, analysis, and optimization of large-scale, query-based wireless sensor networks (WSNs). It addresses issues related to the time sensitivity of information retrieval and dissemination, network lifetime maximization, and optimal clustering of sensor nodes in mobile WSNs. First, a queueing-theoretic framework is proposed to evaluate the performance of such networks whose nodes detect and advertise significant events that are useful for only a limited time; queries generated by sensor nodes are also time-limited. The main performance parameter is the steady state proportion of generated queries that fail to be answered on time. A scalable approximation for this parameter is first derived assuming the transmission range of sensors is unlimited. Subsequently, the proportion of failed queries is approximated using a finite transmission range. The latter approximation is remarkably accurate, even when key model assumptions related to event and query lifetime distributions and network topology are violated. Second, optimization models are proposed to maximize the lifetime of a query-based WSN by selecting the transmission range for all of the sensor nodes, the resource replication level (or time-to-live counter) and the active/sleep schedule of nodes, subject to connectivity and quality-of-service constraints. An improved lower bound is provided for the minimum transmission range needed to ensure no network nodes are isolated with high probability. The optimization models select the optimal operating parameters in each period of a finite planning horizon, and computational results indicate that the maximum lifetime can be significantly extended by adjusting the key operating parameters as sensors fail over time due to energy depletion. Finally, optimization models are proposed to maximize the demand coverage and minimize the costs of locating, and relocating, cluster heads in mobile WSNs. In these models, the locations of mobile sensor nodes evolve randomly so that each sensor must be optimally assigned to a cluster head during each period of a finite planning horizon. Additionally, these models prescribe the optimal times at which to update the sensor locations to improve coverage. Computational experiments illustrate the usefulness of dynamically updating cluster head locations and sensor location information over time

Boisement d'une ancienne mine de chrysotile du sud du Québec : essais de divers types de technosols et d'essences ligneuses

L’industrie minière de l’amiante a profondément transformé les paysages du sud du Québec, laissant environ 800 millions de tonnes de résidus miniers sous la forme de haldes près des villes minières telles Thetford Mines et Black Lake. Certains enjeux environnementaux découlant de ces paysages, notamment l’érosion des haldes par le vent et l’eau, ont été atténués avec succès sur certains sites en les recouvrant de technosols composés d’un mélange de matières résiduelles fertilisantes, puis en les ensemençant avec des graminées. Cependant, aucune tentative de boisement n’avait été faite jusqu’à présent, car ces milieux étaient considérés comme trop contraignants pour l’établissement et la croissance des arbres. Dans cette étude, nous avons développé deux plantations expérimentales dans une mine d’amiante en déclassement dans le sud du Québec, sur des stériles et sur des résidus miniers, dans lesquelles a été comparée la performance de huit espèces d’arbres, clones et provenances plantés sur deux types de technosols, tous deux construits à partir d’un mélange de biosolides municipaux et de boues de désencrage aménagés en andains. Les propriétés physiques et chimiques des technosols, comme l’état hydrique et l’activité ionique du sol, ainsi que la survie et la croissance des arbres, ont été évaluées. La nutrition foliaire et l’utilisation de l’eau ont également été étudiées pour trois clones de peupliers hybrides au cours de leur troisième saison de croissance. Les clones de peupliers hybrides avaient une survie significativement plus élevée (87 à 94 %) après trois ans que toutes les espèces de conifères (10 à 56 %) testées. L'espèce résineuse présentant les taux de survie les plus élevés était l'épinette blanche (46 à 56 %). Les conditions sèches lors de la mise en terre peuvent en partie expliquer les taux de mortalité plus élevés des conifères. Les taux de croissance moyens des peupliers hybrides étaient de 45 cm an-1, alors que certains arbres atteignaient plus de 300 cm de hauteur après trois ans. Le phosphore et le potassium étaient les nutriments qui limitaient le plus la croissance. Le clone DN×M-915508 semble être le plus tolérant à la sécheresse. Bien qu'il y ait peu de différences entre les technosols, les résultats suggèrent que l'ajout de sols contaminés de classe B au mélange de matières résiduelles fertilisantes a des avantages pour la survie et la croissance des arbres, probablement en raison du volume de sol plus élevé. Notre étude a démontré une technologie prometteuse pour la remise en état par le boisement des mines d’amiante du sud du Québec. Certains traitements devraient être ajoutés pour limiter la concurrence des plantes au cours des premières années afin d'augmenter la survie et la croissance des arbres, alors qu'un volume limité de technosol et donc une faible disponibilité en humidité et en nutriments pourraient compromettre la croissance à moyen et long terme des arbres.The asbestos mining industry has deeply transformed the landscapes of southern Quebec, leaving about 800 million tons of tailings and waste rock in large piles near former mining towns such as Thetford Mines and Black Lake. Some of the environmental issues arising from these landscapes (e.g. wind and water erosion) have been successfully addressed at some sites by covering the piles with a mixture of by-products as the technosol and then seeding with grasses. However, no attempt for afforestation had been made thus far because these environments were thought to pose too many constraints on tree establishment and growth. In this study, we developed two experimental plantations at a decommissioned asbestos mine in southern Quebec, on waste rocks and on tailings, as a means to test the performance of eight tree species/clones/provenances planted on two types of technosols, both mainly constructed from the mixing of municipal biosolids and deinking sludge and configured in small windrows. Physical and chemical properties of technosols, including soil water availability and ionic activity, and seedling survival and growth were assessed. Foliar nutrition and water use were also evaluated for three hybrid poplar clones during the third growing season. Hybrid poplar clones had significantly higher survival (87 to 94%) after three years than all conifer species (10 to 56%) tested, although dry conditions at planting could have had adverse effects on conifers. The conifer species exhibiting the highest survival rates was white spruce (46 to 56%). Average growth rates of hybrid poplars were 45 cm y-1, whereas some trees reached over 300 cm in height after three years. Clone DN×M-915508 is believed to be more drought tolerant than the other hybrid poplar clones tested. Phosphorus and potassium were the most growth-limiting nutrients. Although there were few differences between the technosols, results suggest that the addition of Class B contaminated soils to the main mixture of by-products has benefits regarding tree survival and growth, likely because of its larger volume. Our study demonstrated a promising technology for reclamation through afforestation of asbestos mines in southern Quebec. Some treatments should be added to limit plant competition within the first few years as a means to increase survival and growth, whereas limited technosol volume and thus low moisture and nutrient availability could compromise mid- to long-term growth of trees

Study of Requirements and Design of Sensors for Monitoring Water Quality and Feeding Process in Fish Farms and Other Environments

Se están realizando muchos esfuerzos en la acuicultura para alcanzar la sostenibilidad, sin embargo aún está lejos de ser sostenible. Sus impactos sobre el medio ambiente pueden prevenirse y corregirse mediante el uso de sensores, desarrollando la conocida como acuicultura de precisión. La calidad del agua afecta el rendimiento de los peces. La temperatura y la salinidad son algunos factores que afectan al crecimiento de los peces. Sin embargo, otros factores como la turbidez, el fotoperíodo y el oxígeno disuelto entre otros pueden afectar a las necesidades nutritivas de los peces. Ajustar la cantidad de alimento necesario es crucial para garantizar la sostenibilidad de la acuicultura y para aumentar el beneficio económico de las instalaciones. Al monitorear la calidad del agua, es posible estimar las necesidades de alimentación. Sin embargo, no es suficiente. El monitoreo del comportamiento de los peces, especialmente durante el período de alimentación, puede ayudar a adaptar el alimento proporcionado. Entonces, si está tan claro que el monitoreo puede ayudar a la producción acuícola, ¿por qué no vemos este sistema de monitoreo en las instalaciones acuícolas? ¿Por qué en la mayoría de las instalaciones la alimentación se da manualmente sin considerar el comportamiento de alimentación de los peces? El precio de los sensores para monitorizar las piscifactorías es extremadamente alto. Los sensores empleados son, en la mayoría de los casos, los mismos que se utilizan para la oceanografía. Los sistemas propuestos en la literatura cubren pocos parámetros de calidad del agua y generalmente no consideran el comportamiento de alimentación de los peces. Son necesarios sensores de bajo costo adecuados para la monitorización de la acuicultura. Esos sensores deben ser de bajo costo, bajo consumo de energía, fáciles de usar y con la posibilidad de incluirlos en una red para enviar los datos. Por lo tanto, podremos utilizar esta red de sensores y sensores para controlar la actividad, enviar alarmas si es necesario y automatizar los procesos. Además, si incluimos Internet, los datos se pueden ver de forma remota. El uso de esos sensores puede ayudar a la producción acuícola. En esta tesis mostramos el estudio de los requisitos y el diseño de sensores para monitorizar la calidad del agua y el proceso de alimentación en piscifactorías y otros entornos. Primero estudiamos en detalle los requisitos de los sensores en acuicultura. Luego mostramos el estado del arte de los sensores actuales para el monitoreo de la calidad del agua y para el monitoreo de la acuicultura. A continuación, presentamos el diseño y desarrollo de nuestros propios sensores de bajo costo y su aplicación en instalaciones de piscifactorías con sistema abierto y sistema de recirculación. Además, mostramos la posibilidad de monitorizar hasta 10 parámetros incluyendo calidad del agua (temperatura, salinidad, turbidez y presencia de hidrocarburo / capa de aceite), ambiente del tanque (nivel de agua, iluminación, presencia de trabajadores) y comportamiento de alimentación de peces (profundidad de natación de bajura, estimación de los cambios en la velocidad de nado de bajíos y la caída de alimento). El sistema propuesto, capaz de monitorear todos estos parámetros, tiene un bajo coste y bajo consumo de energía. El precio estimado es inferior a 100 € por tanque. Además, mostramos el uso de algunos de los sensores antes mencionados para el ajuste automático del proceso de alimentación de peces. Finalmente, mostramos como algunos de los sensores desarrollados se utilizan en otras áreas acuáticas naturales como manglares y estuarios. Además, se presenta un sistema inteligente para monitorear y rastrear la contaminación en los cuerpos de agua.There are many efforts done in the aquaculture to reach its sustainability, although in reality, it is far from being sustainable. Its negative impacts on the environment can be prevented and corrected by the use of sensors, developing precision aquaculture. The water quality affects to the fish performance. The temperature and salinity are some factors that affect to the fish growth. Nevertheless, other factors such as turbidity, photoperiod and dissolved oxygen among other can affect to the fish feeding needs. To adjust the amount of feed needed is crucial to ensure the sustainability of the aquaculture and to increase the economic profit of the facilities. Monitoring the water quality allows estimating the feed needs. However, it is not enough. To monitor the fish behavior, especially during the feeding period can help to adapt the provided feed. Then, if it is so clear that the monitoring can help to the aquaculture production, why we do not see this monitoring systems in the aquaculture facilities? Why in most of the facilities the feed is given manually without considering the fish feeding behavior? Nevertheless, the current price of the sensors for monitoring the fish farms is extremely high. The employed sensors are in most of the cases, the same that are used for oceanography. The proposed systems in the literature only cover some water quality parameters and usually do not consider fish feeding behavior. It is need low-cost sensors suitable for aquaculture monitoring. Those sensors must also be low-energy consumption, easy to use and with the option to include them in a network in order to send the data. Thus, we can use these sensors and sensors network to monitor the activity, to send alarms if it is necessary and to automatize processes. Moreover, including Internet, the data can be seen remotely. The use of those sensors can help to the aquaculture production. In this thesis, we show the study of requirements and design of sensors for monitoring water quality and feeding process in fish farms and other environments. First, we study in detail the requirements of sensors in aquaculture. Then, we show the state of the art of the current sensors for water quality monitoring and for aquaculture monitoring. Following, we present the design and development of some low-cost sensors and their applications in fish farm facilities with open system and recirculating system. Moreover we show a complete system which monitors up to 10 parameters including water quality (temperature, salinity, turbidity and presence of hydrocarbon/oil layer), tank environment (water level, illumination, presence of workers), and fish feeding behavior (shoal swimming depth, estimation of changes on shoal swimming velocity and feed falling). Moreover, it accomplishes the features of low-cost and low energy consumption. The estimated price for proposed system is less than 100€ per tank. In addition, we show the use of some of the aforementioned sensors for automatic adjustment of fish feeding process. Finally, some of the developed sensors are plied in other natural aquatic areas such as mangroves, and estuaries. Moreover, an intelligent system for pollution monitoring and tracking in water bodies are presented.S'estan realitzant molts esforços en l'aqüicultura per assolir la sostenibilitat, malgrat això, encara està lluny de ser sostenible. Els seus impactes sobre el medi ambient es poden prevenir i corregir mitjançant l'ús de sensors, desenvolupant la coneguda com a aqüicultura de precisió. La qualitat de l'aigua afecta el rendiment dels peixos. La temperatura i la salinitat són alguns factors que afecten el creixement dels peixos. A més a més, altres factors com la terbolesa, el fotoperíode i l'oli dissolt entre uns altres poden afectar a les necessitats nutritives dels peixos. Ajustar la quantitat d'aliment necessari és crucial per garantir la sostenibilitat de l'aqüicultura i per augmentar el benefici econòmic de les instal·lacions. Al monitoritzar la qualitat de l'aigua, és possible estimar les necessitats d'alimentació. No obstant això, no és suficient. Monitoritzar el comportament dels peixos, especialment durant el període d'alimentació, pot ajudar a adaptar el subministrament alimentari. Aleshores, si es tan clar que el monitoratge pot ajudar a la producció aqüícola, per què no veiem aquest sistema de monitoratge en les instal·lacions aquàtiques? Per què a la majoria de les instal·lacions la alimentació es dóna manualment sense considerar el comportament alimentari dels peixos? El preu dels sensors per controlar les piscifactories és extremadament alt. Els sensors empleats són, en la majoria dels casos, els mateixos que es fan servir per a l'oceanografia. Els sistemes proposats en la literatura monitoritzen pocs paràmetres de qualitat de l'aigua i generalment no consideren el comportament dels peixos durant l'alimentació. Són necessaris sensors de baix cost adequats per a la monitorització de l'aqüicultura. Aquests sensors han de ser de baix cost, baix consum d'energia, senzills d'usar i amb la possibilitat d'incloure'ls en una xarxa per enviar-los. Per tant, podrem utilitzar aquesta xarxa de sensors i sensors per controlar l'activitat, enviar alarmes si és necessari i automatitzar els processos. A més, si incloem Internet, les dades es podran veure de forma remota. L'ús d'aquests sensors pot ajudar a la producció aqüícola. En aquesta tesi es mostra l'estudi dels requisits i el disseny de sensors per a monitoritzar la qualitat de l'aigua i el procés d'alimentació en piscifactories i altres entorns. Primer, estudiem en detall els requisits dels sensors en aqüicultura. A continuació, es mostra el estat de l'art dels sensors actuals per al monitoratge de la qualitat de l'aigua i per al monitoratge de l'aqüicultura. A continuació, presentem el disseny i desenvolupament dels nostres propis sensors de baix cost i la seva aplicació en instal·lacions d'aqüicultura amb sistema obert i sistema de recirculació. A més, mostrem la possibilitat de monitoritzar fins a 10 paràmetres, incloent-hi la qualitat de l'aigua (temperatura, salinitat, terbolesa i presència d'hidrocarburs / capa d'oli), ambient del tanc (nivell d'aigua, il·luminació, presència de treballadors) i alimentació del consum de peces (profunditat de natació de baix, estimació dels canvis en la velocitat de naixement de baixos i la caiguda d'aliment). El sistema proposat, capaç de controlar tots aquests paràmetres, té un baix cost i baix consum d'energia. El preu estimat és inferior a 100 € per tanc. A més, mostrem l'ús d'alguns dels sensors abans esmentats per a l'ajust automàtic del procés d'alimentació de peces. Finalment, mostrem com alguns dels sensors desenvolupats es fan servir en altres àrees aquàtiques naturals com manglars i estuaris. A més, es presenta un sistema intel·ligent per monitoritzar i rastrejar la contaminació en els cossos d'aigua.Parra Boronat, L. (2018). Study of Requirements and Design of Sensors for Monitoring Water Quality and Feeding Process in Fish Farms and Other Environments [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/106369TESI

Laboratory Directed Research and Development FY-10 Annual Report

The FY 2010 Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Annual Report is a compendium of the diverse research performed to develop and ensure the INL's technical capabilities can support the future DOE missions and national research priorities. LDRD is essential to the INL -- it provides a means for the laboratory to pursue novel scientific and engineering research in areas that are deemed too basic or risky for programmatic investments. This research enhances technical capabilities at the laboratory, providing scientific and engineering staff with opportunities for skill building and partnership development