Andrés Iborra

Wireless Sensor Networks for Oceanographic Monitoring: A Systematic Review

Monitoring of the marine environment has come to be a field of scientific interest in the last ten years. The instruments used in this work have ranged from small-scale sensor networks to complex observation systems. Among small-scale networks, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are a highly attractive solution in that they are easy to deploy, operate and dismantle and are relatively inexpensive. The aim of this paper is to identify, appraise, select and synthesize all high quality research evidence relevant to the use of WSNs in oceanographic monitoring. The literature is systematically reviewed to offer an overview of the present state of this field of study and identify the principal resources that have been used to implement networks of this kind. Finally, this article details the challenges and difficulties that have to be overcome if these networks are to be successfully deployed.

Design of service robots

This article relates our experiences over the last 15 years in the development of robotic applications within the field of service robotics, using the techniques proposed by software engineering. The process began with domain engineering and reference architectures, moved on to component-oriented development, and currently centered on model-driven design. One of the key problems in software development for robotic systems is that the possibilities of reusing software in new applications are frequently limited. This means that we are forced over and over to solve the same problems starting practically from zero every time. The possible causes of this include the following: 1) robotics specialists normally concentrate more on developing algorithms and the way to solve concrete problems than on organizing the software; 2) lack of good standards for the development of robotic software and implementations of these standards; 3) the case studies conducted to demonstrate the viability of software engineering techniques traditionally deal with information management systems; and 4) the robotics community see software engineering not as a solution but as another problem that adds complexity to already complex problems. This research has helped to demonstrate the viability of using software engineering techniques in real industrial applications, albeit using academic tools that cannot readily be accepted by industry.

Wireless sensor network application development: an architecture-centric MDE approach

Nowadays, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are a very promising research field since they find application in many different areas. Current proposals for WSN system development are mainly focused on implementation issues and they rarely rely on a Software Engineering methodology which supports their entire development life-cycle. The Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) approach can contribute to solve this problem by allowing designers to model their systems at different abstraction levels, providing them with automatic model transformations to incrementally refine abstract models into more concrete ones. In this vein, this paper presents a MDE approach to WSN application development. Three levels of abstraction have been defined which allow designers to build: (1) domain-specific models, (2) component-based architecture descriptions, and (3) platform-specific models. Automatic model transformations between these three abstraction levels have been designed and, in order to demonstrate the viability of the proposal, a real WSN application has been developed using the implemented tools.

Robots in radioactive environments

With improving technology and the growing perception of the need to keep human workers away from high radiation areas, more competitive robotic systems are increasingly becoming available. This article describes our ten years of experience in developing telerobotic systems for maintenance operations in the Spanish nuclear industry. It also describes a teleoperation platform that can be used with standard robots or with specially designed service robots. The modular architecture of this teleoperation platform has allowed the reuse of software components designed for very different applications and drastically reduce development lead time.

Habitation: A Domain-Specific Language for Home Automation

The appearance of model-driven engineering (MDE) has invigorated research on domain-specific languages (DSLs) and automatic code generation. MDE uses models to build software, thereby displacing source code as the development processs main feature. DSLs provide easy, intuitive descriptions of the system using graphic models. In this new context, DSLs facilitate work in the first design stages. In addition, MDE helps reduce DSL development costs. It therefore represents a synergistic union that can significantly improve software development.

Development of a sensor node for precision horticulture.

This paper presents the design of a new wireless sensor node (GAIA Soil-Mote) for precision horticulture applications which permits the use of precision agricultural instruments based on the SDI-12 standard. Wireless communication is achieved with a transceiver compliant with the IEEE 802.15.4 standard. The GAIA Soil-Mote software implementation is based on TinyOS. A two-phase methodology was devised to validate the design of this sensor node. The first phase consisted of laboratory validation of the proposed hardware and software solution, including a study on power consumption and autonomy. The second phase consisted of implementing a monitoring application in a real broccoli (Brassica oleracea L. var Marathon) crop in Campo de Cartagena in south-east Spain. In this way the sensor node was validated in real operating conditions. This type of application was chosen because there is a large potential market for it in the farming sector, especially for the development of precision agriculture applications.

A framework for developing home automation systems: From requirements to code

This article presents an integrated framework for the development of home automation systems following the model-driven approach. By executing model transformations the environment allows developers to generate executable code for specific platforms. The tools presented in this work help developers to model home automation systems by means of a domain specific language which is later transformed into code for home automation specific platforms. These transformations have been defined by means of graph grammars and template engines extended with traceability capabilities. Our framework also allows the models to be reused for different applications since a catalogue of requirements is provided. This framework enables the development of home automation applications with techniques for improving the quality of both the process and the models obtained. In order to evaluate the benefits of the approach, we conducted a survey among developers that used the framework. The analysis of the outcome of this survey shows which conditions should be fulfilled in order to increase reusability.

Reference architecture for robot teleoperation:: development details and practical use

This work has been partially supported by the Spanish Government Programmes for Research in Electrical Power (project PIE-041049), and for Technological Actuation in Industry (PAUTA projects 753/ 95 y 53/96). TRON is supported inside EUREKA– MAINE program (EU1565).

APPLYING MDE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF FLEXIBLE AND REUSABLE WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are a very promising research field since they are applicable in many different areas. Current proposals for WSN system development are mainly focused on implementation issues and rarely use a Software Engineering methodology to support their development life cycle. The Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) approach can be used as a solution to this by allowing designers to model their systems at different abstraction levels, providing them with automatic model transformations to incrementally refine abstract models into more concrete ones. In this vein, this paper presents an MDE approach to WSN application development. Three levels of abstraction have been defined which allow designers to build: (1) domain-specific models, (2) component-based architecture descriptions, and (3) platform-specific models. Automatic model transformations between these three abstraction levels have been designed and, in order to demonstrate the viability of the proposal, a real WSN application has been developed using the implemented tools.

A cost-effective robotic solution for the cleaning of ships' hulls

Hull cleaning before repainting is a key operation in the maintenance of ships. For more than a decade, a means to improve this operation has been sought through robotization and the use of different techniques such as grit blasting and ultra high pressure water jetting. Despite this, it continues to be standard practice in shipyards that this process is carried out manually. This paper presents a family of robots that aims to offer important improvements to the process as well as satisfying, to a great extent, all the operative requirements of efficiency, security, and respect for the environment that shipyards nowadays demand. It is described the family of devices with emphasis on the mechanical design. This set consists of two vertical robotic towers and a robot climber. In addition, it is shown the control architecture of the global system. Finally, operative results are presented together with a comparison between the performance achieved in shipyards through the use of these robots and those obtained with a manual process.