Managing forest fires with i-protect fire simulation module

Emergency management is an essential capability in modern society. As disasters can happen at any time and can differ from each other considerably, it is necessary to develop a supple framework which can comply with each situation. This article discusses the fire simulation component of i-Protect. i-Protect is an Emergency Management Framework aiming to support emergency management process during the four phases of a crisis: mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. © 2012 IEEE

A Blockchained Secure and Integrity-Preserved Architecture for Military Logistics Operations

The employment of 5G Internet of Things (5G-IoT), smart automation, and AI analytics can provide improved military logistics, by enhancing inventory control, reordering, accuracy, flexibility mobility, and real-time monitoring, from the factory and warehouses to the battlefield. On the other hand, there are inherent risks that include cybersecurity issues, such as authentication, integrity, privacy, and confidentiality of the communicated data. Moreover, there are concerns relevant to prioritization, scalability, resilience, and continuous availability of the military supply chain operations. This paper introduces the development of a holistic blockchain integrity-focused scalable architecture, based on two main principles: the data is not stored in a central point and therefore make it vulnerable to attack and sensitive data is not transmitted through open communication channels. Fully homomorphic encryption is used to perform calculations and analysis. Remote independent observers who are eligible to have information access or to search for specific content with visual output, cannot determine the source of the information. The proposed architecture is based on the Hyperledger Fabric Project which provides the foundation for developing modular applications or solutions, allowing plug-and-play components, such as consensus and membership services. Its modular and versatile design satisfies a broad range of military operations. Besides, it offers a unique consensus approach that enables scalable performance, while preserving integrity and security. The significance of the proposed architecture is highlighted, by demonstrating its employment in the ammunition supply chain (from production to remote mobile ammunition consumers). Finally, the paper discusses the utilization of the architecture to other domains of military operations, beyond logistics such as C2 systems. © 2022, Springer Nature Switzerland AG

A Lipschitz - Shapley Explainable Defense Methodology Against Adversarial Attacks

Every learning algorithm, has a specific bias. This may be due to the choice of its hyperparameters, to the characteristics of its classification methodology, or even to the representation approach of the considered information. As a result, Machine Learning modeling algorithms are vulnerable to specialized attacks. Moreover, the training datasets are not always an accurate image of the real world. Their selection process and the assumption that they have the same distribution as all the unknown cases, introduce another level of bias. Global and Local Interpretability (GLI) is a very important process that allows the determination of the right architectures to solve Adversarial Attacks (ADA). It contributes towards a holistic view of the Intelligent Model, through which we can determine the most important features, we can understand the way the decisions are made and the interactions between the involved features. This research paper, introduces the innovative hybrid Lipschitz - Shapley approach for Explainable Defence Against Adversarial Attacks. The introduced methodology, employs the Lipschitz constant and it determines its evolution during the training process of the intelligent model. The use of the Shapley Values, offers clear explanations for the specific decisions made by the model. © 2021, IFIP International Federation for Information Processing

A framework for secure data delivery in wireless sensor networks

Typical sensor nodes are resource constrained devices containing user level applications, operating system components, and device drivers in a single address space, with no form of memory protection. A malicious user could easily capture a node and tamper the applications running on it, in order to perform different types of attacks. In this paper, we propose a 3-layer Security Framework composed by physical security schemes, cryptography of communication channels and live forensics protection techniques that allows for secure WSN deployments. Each of the abovementioned techniques maximizes the security levels leading to a tamper proof sensor node. By applying the proposed security framework, secure communication between nodes is guaranteed, identified captured nodes are silenced and their destructive effect on the rest of the network infrastructure is minimized due to the early measures applied. Our main concern is to propose a framework that balances its attributes between robustness, as long as security is concerned and cost effective implementation as far as resources (energy consumption) are concerned. © 2012 IFSA

Variational restricted Boltzmann machines to automated anomaly detection

Data-driven methods are implemented using particularly complex scenarios that reflect in-depth perennial knowledge and research. Hence, the available intelligent algorithms are completely dependent on the quality of the available data. This is not possible for real-time applications, due to the nature of the data and the computational cost that is required. This work introduces an Automatic Differentiation Variational Inference (ADVI) Restricted Boltzmann Machine (RBM) to perform real-time anomaly detection of industrial infrastructure. Using the ADVI methodology, local variables are automatically transformed into real coordinate space. This is an innovative algorithm that optimizes its parameters with mathematical methods by choosing an approach that is a function of the transformed variables. The ADVI RBM approach proposed herein identifies anomalies without the need for prior training and without the need to find a detailed solution, thus making the whole task computationally feasible. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag London Ltd., part of Springer Nature

Intelligent Parking Management System Based on Wireless Sensor Network Technology

Wireless Sensor Networks can be considered as one of the most challenging and emerging technologies empowering the provision of enhanced services to miscellaneous application domains. The objective of this paper is to examine and present an implementation of a real-time parking management system. This system adapts efficiently into a contemporary urban environment, and eventually provides to users the ability to find and navigate easily to a free curb space. The system is comprised of a deployed sensor network based on two collaborative vehicle detection schemes supported by an event-driven processing algorithm and a web based application. The evaluation of the system is performed by conducting a number of experiments in order to select the optimal sensing modality and confirm the feasibility of the proposed application system in actual running conditions. Results demonstrate that the proposed system is capable of effectively detecting overlying automobiles and robustly distinguishing false positive indications. © 2013 IFSA

Semantically enriched navigation for indoor environments

Location-based mobile services have been in use, and studied, for a long time. With the proliferation of wireless networking technologies, users are mostly interested in advanced services that render the surrounding environment (i.e., the building) highly intelligent and significantly facilitate their activities. In this paper our focus is on indoor navigation, one of the most important location services. Existing approaches for indoor navigation are driven by geometric information and neglect important aspects, such as the semantics of space and user capabilities and context. The derived applications are not intelligent enough to catalytically contribute to the pervasive computing vision. In this paper, a novel navigation mechanism is introduced. Such navigation scheme is enriched with user profiles and the adoption of an ontological framework. These enhancements introduce a series of technical challenges that are extensively discussed throughout the paper. © 2006 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd