George Dan Mois

A Low-Power Wireless Sensor for Online Ambient Monitoring

This paper presents the development of a compact battery-powered system that monitors the carbon dioxide level, temperature, relative humidity, absolute pressure, and intensity of light in indoor spaces, and that sends the measurement data using the existent wireless infrastructure based on the IEEE 802.11 b/g standards. The resulted devices characteristics and performance are comparable with the ones provided by recognized solutions, such as ZigBee-based sensor nodes. By combining Wi-Fi connectivity with ambient sensors, this solution can be used for the remote gathering and further processing of measurement data. Testing revealed that the system can operate continuously for up to three years on a single 3 V small battery.

A Cyber-Physical System for Environmental Monitoring

This paper presents the development of a cyber-physical system that monitors the environmental conditions or the ambient conditions in indoor spaces at remote locations. The communication between the systems components is performed using the existent wireless infrastructure based on the IEEE 802.11 b/g standards. The resulted solution provides the possibility of logging measurements from locations all over the world and of visualizing and analyzing the gathered data from any device connected to the Internet. This work encompasses the complete solution, a cyber-physical system, starting from the physical level, consisting of sensors and the communication protocol, and reaching data management and storage at the cyber level. The experimental results show that the proposed system represents a viable and straightforward solution for environmental and ambient monitoring applications.

An approach to model dependability of cyber-physical systems

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) represent a new generation of digital systems, where cyber entities and physical devices cooperate towards a set of common goals. The research presented in this paper aims to contribute to the development of CPSs by proposing: (1) an analysis methodology to model the CPSs behavior in terms of dependability; and (2) a CPS architecture with dependability facilities applicable in environmental monitoring, based on the Wireless Sensor Network, multi-agent and cloud computing technologies. The proposed methodology combines a primary dependability analysis technique with the representation of knowledge in order to support the development of CPSs capable to model the dependability at run-time. A dependability domain ontology has been implemented on a CPS case study based on this methodology and its effectiveness has been demonstrated, showing how the proposed approach is able to enhance system dependability. Also, the paper provides a detailed description of each architectural layer of the CPS case study, focusing on the wireless sensor node and on the intelligent decision system.

A cloud-based Cyber-Physical System for environmental monitoring

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) represent a new generation of digital systems, where cyber entities and physical devices cooperate towards a set of common goals. The research presented in this paper aims to contribute to the development of CPSs by proposing an open architecture applicable in environmental monitoring, consisting of three layers. The paper provides a detailed description of each one of the CPSs main components. The bottom layer, composed of wireless sensor nodes, allows the acquisition of data and their transfer to the upper layers. The top and middle layers, composed of a measurements database, a knowledge base, a multi-agent society and web services, assure the proper operation of the CPS based on decision rules and complex data analyses. The proposed architecture provides a high degree of flexibility and scalability.

Wi-sensors: A low power Wi-Fi solution for temperature and humidity measurement

This paper presents a complete solution for temperature and humidity monitoring using low-power wireless devices, called Wi-Sensors. The Wi-Sensors use a RN-131C Wi-Fi chip as the core microcontroller and 4 configurable digital input/output lines to which temperature sensors can be attached. The digital 1-Wire and DHT22 protocols had been implemented in the embedded application running on the device. Therefore, for temperature and humidity measurements, any of the sensors operating with one of these two protocols can be used. The existing Wi-Fi 802.11 infrastructure can be used in order to send measurement data to remote destinations. The proposed solution also incorporates a data viewer and data processing application, which provides functionalities for alarming the users by email or by SMS in case previously configured limits are exceeded.

Analysis of Three IoT-Based Wireless Sensors for Environmental Monitoring

The recent changes in climate have increased the importance of environmental monitoring, making it a topical and highly active research area. This field is based on remote sensing and on wireless sensor networks for gathering data about the environment. Recent advancements, such as the vision of the Internet of Things (IoT), the cloud computing model, and cyber-physical systems, provide support for the transmission and management of huge amounts of data regarding the trends observed in environmental parameters. In this context, the current work presents three different IoT-based wireless sensors for environmental and ambient monitoring: one employing User Datagram Protocol (UDP)-based Wi-Fi communication, one communicating through Wi-Fi and Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and a third one using Bluetooth Smart. All of the presented systems provide the possibility of recording data at remote locations and of visualizing them from every device with an Internet connection, enabling the monitoring of geographically large areas. The development details of these systems are described, along with the major differences and similarities between them. The feasibility of the three developed systems for implementing monitoring applications, taking into account their energy autonomy, ease of use, solution complexity, and Internet connectivity facility, was analyzed, and revealed that they make good candidates for IoT-based solutions.

A Cloud-Integrated, Multilayered, Agent-Based Cyber-Physical System Architecture

The cloud computing infrastructure has the power to increase the dependability, interoperability, and scalability of emerging cyber-physical systems (CPSs). Integrating intelligent agents and semantic ontologies can help manage the complexity of such systems and enable the development of large-scale CPSs.

Reconfiguration and hardware agents in testing and repair of distributed systems

This paper proposes a new approach for distributed system testing and repairing using mobile hardware agents. This way, we obtain a networked reconfigurable system which does not need human intervention for maintenance and testing. The proposed architecture uses two FPGA boards and a microprocessor (agent host) as components and is flexible and re-programmable.

A Portable Implementation on Industrial Devices of a Predictive Controller Using Graphical Programming

This paper presents an approach for developing an extended prediction self-adaptive controller employing graphical programming of industrial standard devices for controlling fast processes. For comparison purposes, the algorithm has been implemented on three different field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) chips. This paper presents research aspects regarding graphical-programming controller design, showing that a single advanced control application can run on different targets without requiring significant program modifications. Based on the time needed for processing the control signal and on the application, one can efficiently and easily select the most appropriate device. To exemplify the procedure, a conclusive case study is presented.

Battery lifetime testing using LabVIEW

The use of portable electric devices in a wide range of applications leads to the need for thorough battery testing and selection. This paper presents a system for battery lifetime evaluation using a CompactRIO™ programmable automation controller and a Touch Panel Computer. The LabVIEW™ environment is used for creating different scenarios which simulate the functioning of a battery powered Wi-Fi data acquisition device. The main contribution of this paper is the development of an independent system that measures battery lifetime by simulating the operation of an electronic device powered up by the battery under test. The application was built specially for the case of the Tag4M Wi-Fi device, but it can be used in selecting the appropriate supply for other battery powered portable systems.