Béla Pátkai

Taxonomy, technology and applications of smart objects

Deployment of embedded technologies is increasingly being examined in industrial supply chains as a means for improving efficiency through greater control over purchase orders, inventory and product related information. Central to this development has been the advent of technologies such as bar codes, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems, and wireless sensors which when attached to a product, form part of the product’s embedded systems infrastructure. The increasing integration of these technologies dramatically contributes to the evolving notion of a “smart product”, a product which is capable of incorporating itself into both physical and information environments. The future of this revolution in objects equipped with smart embedded technologies is one in which objects can not only identify themselves, but can also sense and store their condition, communicate with other objects and distributed infrastructures, and take decisions related to managing their life cycle. The object can essentially “plug” itself into a compatible systems infrastructure owned by different partners in a supply chain. However, as in any development process that will involve more than one end user, the establishment of a common foundation and understanding is essential for interoperability, efficient communication among involved parties and for developing novel applications. In this paper, we contribute to creating that common ground by providing a characterization to aid the specification and construction of “smart objects” and their underlying technologies. Furthermore, our work provides an extensive set of examples and potential applications of different categories of smart objects.

From Cybernetics to Plectics: A Practical Approach to Systems Enquiry in Engineering

Summary. The most prominent systems theories from the 20th century are reviewed in this chapter and the arguments of complex system theorists is supported who use the term “plectics” instead of the overused and ambiguous “systems science” and “systems theory”. It is claimed that the measurement of complex systems cannot be separated from their modelling as the boundaries between the specific steps of the scientific method are necessarily blurred. A critical and extended interpretation of the complex system modelling method is provided and the importance of discipline-specific paradigms and their systematic interdisciplinary transfer is proposed.

Methodology for Development and Objective Comparison of Architectures for Networked RFID

The purpose of this paper is to address the problems presented by a heterogeneous environment of networked RFID implementations. These systems have a growing number of applications and these will have varying requirements that need to be modelled and communicated. The use of an ontology-centred methodology is suggested that can represent the entities in the system and also their relationships in a formalized manner. Such a formal methodology can support the planning, design, development, efficient operation and interconnection of various networked architectures.