Mario Collotta

A novel approach for dynamic traffic lights management based on Wireless Sensor Networks and multiple fuzzy logic controllers

HighlightsFlexible, scalable traffic lights dynamic control system for isolated intersections.Multiple parallel fuzzy controllers dynamically manage both the phase and green time.Outperforms other works in terms of vehicle waiting time and balancing between phases.Very effective under heavy traffic and when phases have unbalanced arrival rates.Lightweight effective implementable on COTS devices: broad practical impact expected. This paper proposes a novel approach to dynamically manage the traffic lights cycles and phases in an isolated intersection. The target of the work is a system that, comparing with previous solutions, offers improved performance, is flexible and can be implemented on off-the-shelf components. The challenge here is to find an effective design that achieves the target while avoiding complex and computationally expensive solutions, which would not be appropriate for the problem at hand and would impair the practical applicability of the approach in real scenarios. The proposed solution is a traffic lights dynamic control system that combines an IEEE 802.15.4 Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) for real-time traffic monitoring with multiple fuzzy logic controllers, one for each phase, that work in parallel. Each fuzzy controller addresses vehicles turning movements and dynamically manages both the phase and the green time of traffic lights. The proposed system combines the advantages of the WSN, such as easy deployment and maintenance, flexibility, low cost, noninvasiveness, and scalability, with the benefits of using four parallel fuzzy controllers, i.e., better performance, fault-tolerance, and support for phase-specific management. Simulation results show that the proposed system outperforms other solutions in the literature, significantly reducing the vehicles waiting times. A proof-of-concept implementation on an off-the-shelf device proves that the proposed controller does not require powerful hardware and can be easily implemented on a low-cost device, thus paving the way for extensive usage in practice.

A Novel Energy Management Approach for Smart Homes Using Bluetooth Low Energy

Smart grids are an evolution of the existing electric distribution systems due to the growing demand of energy, the expansion in the use of renewable energy sources, and the development of novel and innovative information and communication technologies (ICT). The installation of systems based on wireless networks can play a key role in the extension of the smart grid toward smart homes, that can be deemed as one of the most important components of smart grids. In fact, monitoring and control applications, energy harvesting, and innovative metering methodologies through smart wireless devices are becoming increasingly important. This paper proposes a novel energy management approach for smart homes that combines a wireless network, based on bluetooth low energy (BLE), for communication among home appliances, with a home energy management (HEM) scheme. The proposed approach addresses the impact of standby appliances and high-power rating loads in peak hours to the energy consumption charges of consumers. Simulation results show that the proposed approach is efficient in terms of reducing peak load demand and electricity consumption charges with an increase in the comfort level of consumers.

Bluetooth for Internet of Things

Display Omitted Thanks to the introduction of the Internet of Things (IoT), the research and the implementation of home automation are getting more popular because the IoT holds promise for making homes smarter through wireless technologies. There is a main requirement that make a wireless protocol ideal for use in the IoT, that is the energy efficiency. Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) has a high potential in becoming an important technology for the IoT in low power, low cost, small devices. However, specific techniques can be used in such a way as to further reduce the energy consumption of BLE. To this end, this paper proposes a fuzzy logic based mechanism that determine the sleeping time of field devices in a home automation environment based on BLE. The proposed FLC determines the sleeping time of field devices according to the battery level and to the ratio of Throughput to Workload (Th/Wl). Simulation results reveal that using the proposed approach the device lifetime is increased by 30% with respect to the use of fixed sleeping time.

A fuzzy based algorithm to manage power consumption in industrial Wireless Sensor Networks

The network management plays an important role in Wireless Sensor Networks WSNs, to control both the sleep and the wake times of the nodes to make data transmissions in an energy-efficient way, thus prolonging network lifetime. In this paper, we propose an innovative approach to control the uptime of the nodes of an Industrial WSN using a fuzzy based algorithm. In a scenario of process control is not possible to separate power energy management from the need to ensure respect for real-time constraints imposed by the application such as deadline miss values of periodic traffic flows. The mechanism here described takes into account the timing requirements of the soft real-time application and, at the same time, minimizes energy consumption. Therefore the aim of this paper is to show how, using a fuzzy logic controller, implemented in an industrial WSN, it is possible increasing the life cycle of the batteries of the individual wireless nodes and by exerting continuous control on energy consumption of individual nodes and on network performance, by adapting in a dynamic way the sampling period of traffic flows of the WSN. To show the effectiveness of our approach, we also evaluated its performance in True-Time.

FLBA: A fuzzy algorithm for load balancing in IEEE 802.11 networks

Abstract Wireless networks (WNs) are today used in many areas thanks to several benefits deriving from the ease of installation and maintenance and the high scalability. Moreover, continuing advances in technology have led to the development of low cost devices characterized by always increasing performance. In large areas, the coverage is guaranteed by the presence of Access Points (APs) that are responsible for clients׳ connection. Performance of a large wireless network, covered by several APs, mainly depends on load balancing management policies. An overloaded access point may, in fact, compromise requirements in terms of timeliness of information exchanged among the clients. This paper proposes a load balancing technique for IEEE 802.11 networks based on fuzzy logic in order to ensure the achievement of typical Quality of Service (QoS) constraints that characterize a wireless scenario. To validate the goodness of the proposed approach, several real test-bed scenarios were implemented and many QoS parameters were evaluated.

Dynamic load balancing techniques for flexible wireless industrial networks

This paper deals with load management in flexible industrial networks, characterized by a hybrid wired/wireless architecture and mobile wireless nodes. Our target scenario is an industrial network, in which data is exchanged between sensors and actuators running on the wireless side and a wired automation network. As many unpredictable elements affect the performance of wireless data transmission, it is necessary to control the load over the different Access Points (AP) through dynamic balancing policies. In traditional WLANs, one station selects the AP to connect with on the basis of the received signal strength indicator (RSSI). This approach may cause all active mobile stations to connect to a small subset of the APs and saturate their capacity, while other APs may still be underloaded. This paper shows a dynamic technique to manage the unbalanced load caused by moving nodes and fluctuating channel characteristics. Simulation results highlight the advantage of the proposed technique over the standard AP selection mechanism and another load balancing approach in the literature.

Flexible IEEE 802.15.4 deadline-aware scheduling for DPCSs using priority-based CSMA-CA

Abstract The IEEE 802.15.4 protocol offers great potential in several application fields, such as industrial Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). An industrial automation cell (field level) is characterized mostly by periodic traffic flows. Using the IEEE 802.15.4 protocol, it is necessary to manage Guaranteed Time Slots (GTSs) allocation and at the same time ensure adequate performance both to other periodic traffic flows and network management/control flows. For these reasons, this paper shows a flexible approach in order to improve GTSs assignment and medium access performance. Analytical results are shown in order to demonstrate benefits introduced by deadline-aware algorithm (for guaranteed access to reserved slots) and CSMA-CA-priority based (for latencies reduction during medium access attempts). Otherwise, obtained results show that the proposed technique improves the number of deadlines met and the probability to find the channel free for transmissions.

Hexacopter trajectory control using a neural network

The modern flight control systems are complex due to their non-linear nature. In fact, modern aerospace vehicles are expected to have non-conventional flight envelopes and, then, they must guarantee a high level of robustness and adaptability in order to operate in uncertain environments. Neural Networks (NN), with real-time learning capability, for flight control can be used in applications with manned or unmanned aerial vehicles. Indeed, using proven lower level control algorithms with adaptive elements that exhibit long term learning could help in achieving better adaptation performance while performing aggressive maneuvers. In this paper we show a mathematical modeling and a Neural Network for a hexacopter dynamics in order to develop proper methods for stabilization and trajectory control.

A ZigBee-based network for home heating control

This paper presents a home monitoring system which enables a user to limit both methane (CH4) consumption and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by a proper control of the heating system. A case study on a real home automation scenario, where a wireless sensor network based on ZigBee is used for home heating control, is presented.

A dynamic algorithm to improve industrial Wireless Sensor Networks management

In industrial Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), traffic flows are characterized by regular arrival times and real-time constraints. Sampling times management is a key aspect in terms of timeliness in information retrieval and real-time management of critical events in factory automation. This paper shows an algorithm that dynamically update sampling times in an industrial monitoring system based on WSNs. Sampling times are determined using gathered information and network efficiency parameters.