LoRaWAN: Lost for Localization?

Nowadays, the flexible localization solution for various devices for work safety is one of the most demanding research questions. Notably, it is expected to provide an acceptable level of precision in different types of environments empowered by wearable technology and the Interent of Things (IoT) devices. Existing leading localization technologies are adapted for certain conditions, e.g., Wi-Fi, BLE, UWB are used for indoor areas and various GNSS-based ones for outdoor. This work focuses on investigating the LoRaWAN (868 MHz band) as a potential candidate to bridge this gap, being one of the most reliable and recognized communication technologies for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). In the past, the research community had a lot of critics with respect to the applicability of LoRaWAN for localization, while the vision is facing a tremendous change over the past two years. The purpose of this work is to assess the feasibility of LoRaWAN as a localization solution for work safety applications in the industrial scenario from different angles. The work is based on two measurement campaigns conducted at the Brno University of Technology (BUT), Brno, Czech Republic, and University Politechnica in Bucharest (UPB), Bucharest, Romania. The campaigns cover both indoor and outdoor scenarios, provide the practical limitations of the positioning in standalone and k-NN powered localization systems. According to the results, LoRaWAN-based localization with relatively dense gateways deployment allows for achieving a meter-level accuracy, which may be suitable for the localization of workers

Wearables for Industrial Work Safety: A Survey

Today, ensuring work safety is considered to be one of the top priorities for various industries. Workplace injuries, illnesses, and deaths often entail substantial production and financial losses, governmental checks, series of dismissals, and loss of reputation. Wearable devices are one of the technologies that flourished with the fourth industrial revolution or Industry 4.0, allowing employers to monitor and maintain safety at workplaces. The purpose of this article is to systematize knowledge in the field of industrial wearables’ safety to assess the relevance of their use in enterprises as the technology maintaining occupational safety, to correlate the benefits and costs of their implementation, and, by identifying research gaps, to outline promising directions for future work in this area. We categorize industrial wearable functions into four classes (monitoring, supporting, training, and tracking) and provide a classification of the metrics collected by wearables to better understand the potential role of wearable technology in preserving workplace safety. Furthermore, we discuss key communication technologies and localization techniques utilized in wearable-based work safety solutions. Finally, we analyze the main challenges that need to be addressed to further enable and support the use of wearable devices for industrial work safety

End-User Attitudes towards Location-Based Services and Future Mobile Wireless Devices: The Students' Perspective

Nowadays, location-enabled mobile phones are becoming more and more widespread. Various players in the mobile business forecast that, in the future, a significant part of total wireless revenue will come from Location-Based Services (LBS). An LBS system extracts information about the user’s geographical location and provides services based on the positioning information. A successful LBS service should create value for the end-user, by satisfying some of the users’ needs or wants, and at the same time preserving the key factors of the mobile wireless device, such as low costs, low battery consumption, and small size. From many users’ perspectives, location services and mobile location capabilities are still rather poorly known and poorly understood. The aim of this research is to investigate users’ views on the LBS, their requirements in terms of mobile device characteristics, their concerns in terms of privacy and usability, and their opinion on LBS applications that might increase the social wellbeing in the future wireless world. Our research is based on two surveys performed among 105 students (average student age: 24 years) from two European technical universities. The survey questions were intended to solicit the youngsters’ views on present and future technological trends and on their perceived needs and wishes regarding Location-Based Services, with the aim of obtaining a better understanding of designer constraints when building a location receiver and generating new ideas related to potential future killer LBS applications.Peer reviewe

Development of the Romanian Radar Sensor for Space Surveillance and Tracking Activities

The constant increase in the number of space objects and debris orbiting the Earth poses risks to satellites and other spacecraft, both in orbit and during the launching process. Therefore, the monitoring of space hazards to assess risk and prevent collisions has become part of the European Space Policy and requires the establishment of a dedicated Framework for Space Surveillance and Tracking (EU SST) Support. This article presents the CHEIA SST Radar, a new space tracking radar sensor developed and installed in Romania with the purpose of being included in the EU SST sensor network and of contributing to the joint database of space objects orbiting the Earth. The paper describes the processes of design, simulation, and implementation of the hardware and software building blocks that make up the radar system. It emphasizes the particular case of using an already existing system of two large parabolic antennas requiring an innovative retrofitting design to include them as the basis for a new quasi-monostatic radar using LFMCW probing signals. The preliminary design was validated by extensive simulations, and the initial operational testing carried out in December 2021 demonstrated the good performance of the radar in the measuring range and radial speed of LEO space objects

Evaluation of Real-Life LoRaWAN Localization : Accuracy Dependencies Analysis Based on Outdoor Measurement Datasets

Modern outdoor localization is commonly dependent on various Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSSs). On the other hand, they are known to be power-hungry and not suitable for resource-constrained devices currently flooding the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). Nonetheless, some of those devices may be equipped with Low-Power Wide-Area Network (LPWAN) communication chip that could be utilized for positioning. Current work examines two outdoor datasets collected using LoRaWAN in Brno, Czech Republic, to assess the possibility of applying technology for localization solutions for industrial outdoor scenarios. The main localization approach applied in this is work is k-NN fingerprinting. For the first dataset gathered over the whole city, the minimal mean localization error turned out to be not stable, while accuracy for the second one covering a small rectangular area 8.5 x 70 m is 6.42 m that sounds promising in terms of LoRaWAN-based localization. Moreover, by analyzing data collected in two independent measurements campaigns, this work provides some derivations related to the accuracy dependencies on parameters of the measurement campaign (gateways (GWs), coverage area, the average distance between measurement points). It makes a step towards comparing the results of published papers in this area obtained for different datasets.Peer reviewe

Applications and Innovations on Sensor-Enabled Wearable Devices

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