Tomás Sánchez López

Adding sense to the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) concept is being widely presented as the next revolution toward massively distributed information, where any real-world object can automatically participate in the Internet and thus be globally discovered and queried. Despite the consensus on the great potential of the concept and the significant progress in a number of enabling technologies, there is a general lack of an integrated vision on how to realize it. This paper examines the technologies that will be fundamental for realizing the IoT and proposes an architecture that integrates them into a single platform. The architecture introduces the use of the Smart Object framework to encapsulate radio-frequency identification (RFID), sensor technologies, embedded object logic, object ad-hoc networking, and Internet-based information infrastructure. We evaluate the architecture against a number of energy-based performance measures, and also show that it outperforms existing industry standards in metrics such as network throughput, delivery ratio, or routing distance. Finally, we demonstrate the feasibility and flexibility of the architecture by detailing an implementation using Wireless Sensor Networks and Web Services, and describe a prototype for the real-time monitoring of goods flowing through a supply chain.

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.

RFID and sensor integration standards: State and future prospects

In the last few years, the standards development community has seen an increasing interest in the link between sensor and RFID standards. Standardization bodies such as the ISO/IEC and the IEEE are developing new specifications or updating their existing ones to reflect this interest. During this process, collaborations that span throughout several standardization documents and bodies have emerged in order to avoid the duplication of efforts and to speed up the standardization process. In the ever complex standardization world, this interconnection of standards makes the current status of the process difficult to understand, specially when most of the documents are still in development and constantly being updated. In this paper, we aim to provide a clearer view of the state of the sensor and RFID integration standardization activities, highlighting the collaboration among standardization bodies and discussing how these standardization processes are likely to evolve.

Resource Management in the Internet of Things: Clustering, Synchronisation and Software Agents

The objects of the Internet of Things will be empowered by embedded devices whose constrained resources will need to be managed efficiently. It is envisioned that these devices will be able to form ad-hoc networks, and that the connection from these networks to the Internet of Things infrastructure will not always be possible. In this chapter we propose the use of clustering, software agents and synchronisation techniques in order to overcome the challenges of managing the resources of the Internet of Things objects. We argue that clustering will be beneficial to reduce the energy expenditure and improve the scalability and robustness of the object networks. Software agents will aide in the automation of task, both for the objects and the Internet of Things users. Finally, synchronisations techniques will be necessary to address the various challenges of harmonising plenty of copies of object data with potentially partially disconnected Internet of Things architecture components.

Designing Automated Allocation Mechanisms for Service Procurement of Imperfectly Substitutable Services

Self-serving assets (SSAs) are a new interpretation of the intelligent product technology, set to transform product lifecycle management through automation. SSAs are engineering assets that autonomously monitor their health and expiry dates, search for suppliers, and negotiate with them, while they are still in use by the customer. The concept enables more timely and transparent supplier decision making while eliminating central database transactions and tedious manual effort. Autonomous self-interested agents that act on behalf of their stakeholders naturally give rise to an allocation problem, under the assumption of private information held by trade parties and capacity constrained suppliers providing imperfectly substitutable goods (ISGs). In this paper, we develop and compare three automated competition mechanisms, constructed as iterative games, and test them in the context of the aerospace service supply chain. The competition mechanisms include a prioritized selection mechanism, extended Vickrey, and reverse Dutch auctions. Our context drives us to seek mechanisms that will not only perform well in terms of economic theory, but also in terms of computational performance. Key findings are that extended Vickrey auctions can handle multiple criteria and provide higher market efficiency at lower computational cost, especially in small to medium markets. As scalability is an issue in large markets, the use of auctions is recommended only for complex high value assets or under uncertain market scenarios. As business-to-business (B2B) environments are becoming the norm for many global companies, our study aims to be exemplary to those who would like to implement automated auction mechanisms in highly complex environments.

Selecting a multi-agent system development tool for industrial applications: a case study of self-serving aircraft assets

Industrialists have few example processes they can benchmark against in order to choose a multi-agent development kit. In this paper we present a review of commercial and academic agent tools with the aim of selecting one for developing an intelligent, self-serving asset architecture. In doing so, we map and enhance relevant assessment criteria found in literature. After a preliminary review of 20 multi-agent platforms, we examine in further detail those of JADE, JACK and Cougaar. Our findings indicate that Cougaar is well suited for our requirements, showing excellent support for criteria such as scalability, persistence, mobility and lightweightness.