TinyDomus

TinyDomus es un proyecto desarrollado para el TFC Sistemas Empotrados. Utiliza la plataforma TinyOS para gestionar una red inalámbrica de sensores (motas COU), que nos permitirán monitorizar ciertos aspectos físicos (picos magnéticos), y ambientales (temperatura y luminosidad). La funcionalidad de TinyDomus es la de simular un hogar domótico. Para ello dispone de una aplicación de escritorio con la que podemos visualizar la información de los sensores de las motas, controlar el funcionamiento del sistema y solicitar información a la red de sensores.

Diseño, implementación y validación de un sistema de localización híbrido basado en una red de sensores inalámbricos (WSN)

Aquest projecte estudia la implementació d’un sistema de localització híbrid amb la combinació del posicionament GPS y el posicionament obtingut mitjançant mesures de potència rebuda (RSS) utilitzant una xarxa de sensors sense fils (WSN). Inicialment s’analitzen les característiques principals de les WSN y les tècniques de posicionament GPS y RSS. A continuació es proposen tècniques de localització híbrides que combinen el posicionament bàsic brindat per la WSN (GPS y RSS)per obtenir posicionament tant en escenaris interiors com exteriors a més d’obtenir una precisió major que les precisions bàsiques. Una vegada s’han analitzat els conceptes bàsics y s’han proposat les tècniques a utilitzar en el sistema de localització híbrida s’expliquen els aspectes d’implementació relacionats amb la programació de la WSN. Finalment, després d’analitzar els resultats de diverses mesures, queda present la necessitat de tècniques d’estimació d’error en el posicionament, per això es proposa una tècnica d’estimació d’error per ser utilitzada en les estimacions híbrides y obtenir així el funcionament desitjat de les tècniques híbrides.

Improving the performance of a dismounted Future Force Warrior by means of C4I2SR

This thesis comprises seven peer-reviewed articles and examines systems and applications suitable for increasing Future Force Warrior performance, minimizing collateral damage, improving situational awareness and Common Operational Picture. Based on a literature study, missing functionalities of Future Force Warrior were identified and new ideas, concepts and solutions were created as part of early stages of Systems of Systems creation. These introduced ideas have not yet been implemented or tested in combat and for this reason benefit analyses are excluded. The main results of this thesis include the following: A new networking concept, Wireless Polling Sensor Network, which is a swarm of a few Unmanned Aerial Vehicles forming an ad-hoc network and polling a large number of fixed sensor nodes. The system is more robust in a military environment than traditional Wireless Sensor Networks. A Business Process approach to Service Oriented Architecture in a tactical setting is a concept for scheduling and sharing limited resources. New components to military Service Oriented Architecture have been introduced in the thesis. Other results of the thesis include an investigation of the use of Free Space Optics in tactical communications, a proposal for tracking neutral forces, a system for upgrading simple collaboration tools for command, control and collaboration purposes, a three-level hierarchy of Future Force Warrior, and methods for reducing incidents of fratricide.

Reusable formal architectures for networked systems

Today's networked systems are becoming increasingly complex and diverse. The current simulation and runtime verification techniques do not provide support for developing such systems efficiently; moreover, the reliability of the simulated/verified systems is not thoroughly ensured. To address these challenges, the use of formal techniques to reason about network system development is growing, while at the same time, the mathematical background necessary for using formal techniques is a barrier for network designers to efficiently employ them. Thus, these techniques are not vastly used for developing networked systems. The objective of this thesis is to propose formal approaches for the development of reliable networked systems, by taking efficiency into account. With respect to reliability, we propose the architectural development of correct-by-construction networked system models. With respect to efficiency, we propose reusable network architectures as well as network development. At the core of our development methodology, we employ the abstraction and refinement techniques for the development and analysis of networked systems. We evaluate our proposal by employing the proposed architectures to a pervasive class of dynamic networks, i.e., wireless sensor network architectures as well as to a pervasive class of static networks, i.e., network-on-chip architectures. The ultimate goal of our research is to put forward the idea of building libraries of pre-proved rules for the efficient modelling, development, and analysis of networked systems. We take into account both qualitative and quantitative analysis of networks via varied formal tool support, using a theorem prover the Rodin platform and a statistical model checker the SMC-Uppaal.

Understanding the indoor environment through mining sensory data - A case study

A wireless sensor network (WSN) is a group of sensors linked by wireless medium to perform distributed sensing tasks. WSNs have attracted a wide interest from academia and industry alike due to their diversity of applications, including home automation, smart environment, and emergency services, in various buildings. The primary goal of a WSN is to collect data sensed by sensors. These data are characteristic of being heavily noisy, exhibiting temporal and spatial correlation. In order to extract useful information from such data, as this paper will demonstrate, people need to utilise various techniques to analyse the data. Data mining is a process in which a wide spectrum of data analysis methods is used. It is applied in the paper to analyse data collected from WSNs monitoring an indoor environment in a building. A case study is given to demonstrate how data mining can be used to optimise the use of the office space in a building.

Coordinated management of intelligent pervasive spaces

The content of this paper is a snapshot of a current project looking at producing a real-time sensor-based building assessment tool, and a system that personalises workspaces using multi-agent technology. Both systems derive physical environment information from a wireless sensor network that allows clients to subscribe to real-time sensed data. The principal ideologies behind this project are energy efficiency and well-being of occupants; in the context of leveraging the current state-of-the-art in agent technology, wireless sensor networks and building assessment systems to enable the optimisation and assessment of buildings. Participants of this project are from both industry (construction and research) and academia.

The SAFEE on-board threat detection system

Under the framework of the European Union Funded SAFEE project(1), this paper gives an overview of a novel monitoring and scene analysis system developed for use onboard aircraft in spatially constrained environments. The techniques discussed herein aim to warn on-board crew about pre-determined indicators of threat intent (such as running or shouting in the cabin), as elicited from industry and security experts. The subject matter experts believe that activities such as these are strong indicators of the beginnings of undesirable chains of events or scenarios, which should not be allowed to develop aboard aircraft. This project aimes to detect these scenarios and provide advice to the crew. These events may involve unruly passengers or be indicative of the precursors to terrorist threats. With a state of the art tracking system using homography intersections of motion images, and probability based Petri nets for scene understanding, the SAFEE behavioural analysis system automatically assesses the output from multiple intelligent sensors, and creates. recommendations that are presented to the crew using an integrated airborn user interface. Evaluation of the system is conducted within a full size aircraft mockup, and experimental results are presented, showing that the SAFEE system is well suited to monitoring people in confined environments, and that meaningful and instructive output regarding human actions can be derived from the sensor network within the cabin.

Co-ordinated management of intelligent pervasive spaces

The content of this paper is a snapshot of a current project looking at producing a real-time sensor-based building assessment tool, and a system that personalises work-spaces using multi-agent technology. Both systems derive physical environment information from a wireless sensor network that allows clients to subscribe to real-time sensed data. The principal ideologies behind this project are energy efficiency and well-being of occupants; in the context of leveraging the current state-of-the-art in agent technology, wireless sensor networks and building assessment systems to enable the optimisation and assessment of buildings. Participants of this project are from both industry (construction and research) and academia.

A question of identity - wiring in the human

This paper discusses the RFID implants for identification via a sensor network. Brain-computer implants linked in to a wireless network. Biometric identification via body sensors is also discussed. The use of a network as a means for remote and distance monitoring of humans opens up a range of potential uses. Where implanted identification is concerned this immediately offers high security access to specific areas by means of only an RFID device. If a neural implant is employed then clearly the information exchanged with a network can take on a much richer form, allowing for identification and response to an individual's needs based on the signals apparent on their nervous system.

Case study on the maintenance of a construction monitoring using USN-based data acquisition

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the adoption of emerging ubiquitous sensor network (USN) technologies for instrumentation within a variety of sustainability systems. USN is emerging as a sensing paradigm that is being newly considered by the sustainability management field as an alternative to traditional tethered monitoring systems. Researchers have been discovering that USN is an exciting technology that should not be viewed simply as a substitute for traditional tethered monitoring systems. In this study, we investigate how a movement monitoring measurement system of a complex building is developed as a research environment for USN and related decision-supportive technologies. To address the apparent danger of building movement, agent-mediated communication concepts have been designed to autonomously manage large volumes of exchanged information. In this study, we additionally detail the design of the proposed system, including its principles, data processing algorithms, system architecture, and user interface specifics. Results of the test and case study demonstrate the effectiveness of the USN-based data acquisition system for real-time monitoring of movement operations.

Big data architecture for pervasive healthcare: a literature review

Pervasive healthcare aims to deliver deinstitutionalised healthcare services to patients anytime and anywhere. Pervasive healthcare involves remote data collection through mobile devices and sensor network which the data is usually in large volume, varied formats and high frequency. The nature of big data such as volume, variety, velocity and veracity, together with its analytical capabilities com-plements the delivery of pervasive healthcare. However, there is limited research in intertwining these two domains. Most research focus mainly on the technical context of big data application in the healthcare sector. Little attention has been paid to a strategic role of big data which impacts the quality of healthcare services provision at the organisational level. Therefore, this paper delivers a conceptual view of big data architecture for pervasive healthcare via an intensive literature review to address the aforementioned research problems. This paper provides three major contributions: 1) identifies the research themes of big data and pervasive healthcare, 2) establishes the relationship between research themes, which later composes the big data architecture for pervasive healthcare, and 3) sheds a light on future research, such as semiosis and sense-making, and enables practitioners to implement big data in the pervasive healthcare through the proposed architecture.

Enabling actor model for crowd sensing and IoT

The cloud is playing a very important role in wireless sensor network, crowd sensing and IoT data collection and processing. However, current cloud solutions lack of some features that hamper the innovation a number of other new services. We propose a cloud solution that provides these missing features as multi-cloud and device multi-tenancy relying in a whole different fully distributed paradigm, the actor model.

Sexual System, Sex Ratio, and Group Living in the Shrimp Thor amboinensis (De Man): Relevance to Resource-Monopolization and Sex-Allocation Theories

The sexual system of the symbiotic shrimp Thor amboinensis is described, along with observations on sex ratio and host-use pattern of different populations. We used a comprehensive approach to elucidate the previously unknown sexual system of this shrimp. Dissections, scanning electron microscopy, size-frequency distribution analysis, and laboratory observations demonstrated that T amboinensis is a protandric hermaphrodite: shrimp first mature as males and change into females later in life. Thor amboinensis inhabited the large and structurally heterogeneous sea anemone Stichoclactyla helianthus in large groups (up to 11 individuals) more frequently than expected by chance alone. Groups exhibited no particularly complex social structure and showed male-biased sex ratios more frequently than expected by chance alone. The adult sex ratio was male-biased in the four separate populations studied, one of them being thousands of kilometers apart from the others. This study supports predictions central to theories of resource monopolization and sex allocation. Dissections demonstrated that unusually large males were parasitized by an undescribed species of isopod (family Entoniscidae). Infestation rates were similarly low in both sexes (approximate to 11%-12%). The available information suggests that T. amboinensis uses pure search promiscuity as a mating system. This hypothesis needs to be formally tested with mating behavior observations and field measurements on the movement pattern of both sexes of the species. Further detailed studies on the lifestyle and sexual system of all the species within this genus and the development of a molecular phylogeny are necessary to elucidate the evolutionary history of gender expression in the genus Thor.

A Gradient-Type Method For Real-Time State Estimation Of Water Distribution Networks

Drinking water distribution networks risk exposure to malicious or accidental contamination. Several levels of responses are conceivable. One of them consists to install a sensor network to monitor the system on real time. Once a contamination has been detected, this is also important to take appropriate counter-measures. In the SMaRT-OnlineWDN project, this relies on modeling to predict both hydraulics and water quality. An online model use makes identification of the contaminant source and simulation of the contaminated area possible. The objective of this paper is to present SMaRT-OnlineWDN experience and research results for hydraulic state estimation with sampling frequency of few minutes. A least squares problem with bound constraints is formulated to adjust demand class coefficient to best fit the observed values at a given time. The criterion is a Huber function to limit the influence of outliers. A Tikhonov regularization is introduced for consideration of prior information on the parameter vector. Then the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm is applied that use derivative information for limiting the number of iterations. Confidence intervals for the state prediction are also given. The results are presented and discussed on real networks in France and Germany.

WISE-MANager: criação e gestão de sessões colaborativas em redes de sensores sem fio

As redes de sensores sem fios (WSN- WSN-Wireless Sensor Network) utilizam um grande número de dispositivos sem fios (sensores), que são de baixo custo e equipados com interfaces wireless. Utilizam um conjunto de sensores autónomos que colaboram entre si para efectuar a monitorização das condições ambientais, tais como: temperatura, oxigénio, luz, humidade, pressão, gases poluentes, entre outras. Estas redes podem operar durante largos períodos de tempo, sem intervenção humana, sendo que esse tempo depende do nível de bateria desses nós. De modo a que os gestores de um Museu possam gerir de forma mais adequada as obras de arte e arquivos históricos, surge o projecto WISE-MUSE – Environmental Monitoring based on Wireless Sensor Networks, que permite implementar soluções para a monitorização museológica, com a utilização de redes de sensores sem fios. Actualmente, a colaboração entre o utilizador e a WSN é muito ténue, sendo que apenas existe colaboração entre os nós sensores. De forma a aumentar esta colaboração, e no âmbito do projecto WISE-MUSE surge o CWSN – Collaborative Wireless Sensor Network Model, que define um modelo de colaboração na rede de sensores sem fios, permitindo a utilização de sessões colaborativas para a monitorização da rede. Com o intuito de obter o máximo rendimento da rede, é necessário definir qual o deployment a utilizar. O tipo de deployment de uma WSN é a forma como os nós são distribuídos pela rede. Em zonas longínquas, ou de difícil acesso, os nós são colocados de forma aleatória, por exemplo, caiem de um avião. Nos locais de fácil acesso, podem ser colocados no local exacto. Portanto, este projecto de Mestrado de Engenharia Informática apresenta duas contribuições principais: (i) um estudo de propagação no Museu da Baleia; e; (ii) o WISE-MANager, um sistema de gestão de sessões colaborativas. De forma a definir qual o deployment da rede a instalar no Museu da Baleia, será apresentado um estudo de propagação do sinal empírico, que determinou a melhor posição física dos nós, para que a rede tenha uma boa performance. O sistema WISE-MANager permite a criação, monitorização e gestão de sessões colaborativas numa WSN baseada no protocolo Zigbee. O intuito da utilização de sessões colaborativas é proporcionar uma melhor interacção entre o utilizador e a WSN, visto que o utilizador pode personalizar o tipo de monitorização a efectuar (por nó sensor, por fenómeno ou por intervalo de tempo), e interrogar à rede e aos seus componentes, aumentando assim a flexibilidade da WSN.A gestão de redes de sensores sem fios é muito importante para que o utilizador tenha controlo sobre a mesma ao saber quais os dispositivos da rede, assim como o seu nível de energia. Por tanto, através de WISE-MANager, os gestores do Museu serão capazes de analisar a rede, detectar eventuais problemas e obter parâmetros específicos.