scholarly journals Open-Source Electronics Platforms as Enabling Technologies for Smart Cities: Recent Developments and Perspectives

Electronics ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
pp. 404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Costa ◽  
Cristian Duran-Faundez

With the increasing availability of affordable open-source embedded hardware platforms, the development of low-cost programmable devices for uncountable tasks has accelerated in recent years. In this sense, the large development community that is being created around popular platforms is also contributing to the construction of Internet of Things applications, which can ultimately support the maturation of the smart-cities era. Popular platforms such as Raspberry Pi, BeagleBoard and Arduino come as single-board open-source platforms that have enough computational power for different types of smart-city applications, while keeping affordable prices and encompassing many programming libraries and useful hardware extensions. As a result, smart-city solutions based on such platforms are becoming common and the surveying of recent research in this area can support a better understanding of this scenario, as presented in this article. Moreover, discussions about the continuous developments in these platforms can also indicate promising perspectives when using these boards as key elements to build smart cities.

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Claudia Campolo ◽  
Giacomo Genovese ◽  
Antonio Iera ◽  
Antonella Molinaro

Several Internet of Things (IoT) applications are booming which rely on advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and, in particular, machine learning (ML) algorithms to assist the users and make decisions on their behalf in a large variety of contexts, such as smart homes, smart cities, smart factories. Although the traditional approach is to deploy such compute-intensive algorithms into the centralized cloud, the recent proliferation of low-cost, AI-powered microcontrollers and consumer devices paves the way for having the intelligence pervasively spread along the cloud-to-things continuum. The take off of such a promising vision may be hurdled by the resource constraints of IoT devices and by the heterogeneity of (mostly proprietary) AI-embedded software and hardware platforms. In this paper, we propose a solution for the AI distributed deployment at the deep edge, which lays its foundation in the IoT virtualization concept. We design a virtualization layer hosted at the network edge that is in charge of the semantic description of AI-embedded IoT devices, and, hence, it can expose as well as augment their cognitive capabilities in order to feed intelligent IoT applications. The proposal has been mainly devised with the twofold aim of (i) relieving the pressure on constrained devices that are solicited by multiple parties interested in accessing their generated data and inference, and (ii) and targeting interoperability among AI-powered platforms. A Proof-of-Concept (PoC) is provided to showcase the viability and advantages of the proposed solution.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (20) ◽  
pp. 8443
Author(s):  
Ramon Sanchez-Iborra ◽  
Luis Bernal-Escobedo ◽  
José Santa

Cooperative-Intelligent Transportation Systems (C-ITS) have brought a technological revolution, especially for ground vehicles, in terms of road safety, traffic efficiency, as well as in the experience of drivers and passengers. So far, these advances have been focused on traditional transportation means, leaving aside the new generation of personal vehicles that are nowadays flooding our streets. Together with bicycles and motorcycles, personal mobility devices such as segways or electric scooters are firm sustainable alternatives that represent the future to achieve eco-friendly personal mobility in urban settings. In a near future, smart cities will become hyper-connected spaces where these vehicles should be integrated within the underlying C-ITS ecosystem. In this paper, we provide a wide overview of the opportunities and challenges related to this necessary integration as well as the communication solutions that are already in the market to provide these moving devices with low-cost and efficient connectivity. We also present an On-Board Unit (OBU) prototype with different communication options based on the Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) paradigm and several sensors to gather environmental information to facilitate eco-efficiency services. As the attained results suggest, this module allows personal vehicles to be fully integrated in smart city environments, presenting the possibilities of LoRaWAN and Narrow Band-Internet of Things (NB-IoT) communication technologies to provide vehicle connectivity and enable mobile urban sensing.


Now-days the electronic devices play a major role in day-to-day life. Where as in case of electricity, people are using it for 24by7 as of there were of having household appliances are of electronic devices. So if there is any power loss in meantime of running any electronic devices it may leads to damage, so to predict they were of using the battery to work instant after power loss. As we know that there are different types of battery that runs with distilled water. So in this paper we would like to discuss about how to control the batteries voltage using IOT (Internet of Things). It was of having low cost and reduces the human resources and time-efficiency and cost the system used in it was of Voltmeter. It were of using the Raspberry pi for monitoring & updating the values. While they were of using Arduino, cloud for transmitting the data.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria A Brovelli ◽  
Candan E Kilsedar ◽  
Patrick J Hogan ◽  
Gabriele Prestifilippo ◽  
Giorgo Zamboni

In this paper, the open source framework NASA WorldWind is presented. NASA WorldWind comes with two versions. The Java version is well established in the market and has many customers. On the other side the new version, which is the Web version, Web WorldWind, is still at the dawn of development cycle, with many features implemented and already used in several applications, with a great future ahead. Moreover, some of the features available in the Web WorldWind are listed and a short comparison with Cesium library is provided. Additionally, an interesting application developed in the smart cities context with Web WorldWind is described.


Author(s):  
Chaitra Hegde ◽  
Zifan Jiang ◽  
Pradyumna Byappanahalli Suresha ◽  
Jacob Zelko ◽  
Salman Seyedi ◽  
...  

AbstractWith the recent COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare systems all over the world are struggling to manage the massive increase in emergency department (ED) visits. This has put an enormous demand on medical professionals. Increased wait times in the ED increases the risk of infection transmission. In this work we present an open-source, low cost, off-body system to assist in the automatic triage of patients in the ED based on widely available hardware. The system initially focuses on two symptoms of the infection fever and cyanosis. The use of visible and far-infrared cameras allows for rapid assessment at a 1m distance, thus reducing the load on medical staff and lowering the risk of spreading the infection within hospitals. Its utility can be extended to a general clinical setting in non-emergency times as well to reduce wait time, channel the time and effort of healthcare professionals to more critical tasks and also prioritize severe cases.Our system consists of a Raspberry Pi 4, a Google Coral USB accelerator, a Raspberry Pi Camera v2 and a FLIR Lepton 3.5 Radiometry Long-Wave Infrared Camera with an associated IO module. Algorithms running in real-time detect the presence and body parts of individual(s) in view, and segments out the forehead and lip regions using PoseNet. The temperature of the forehead-eye area is estimated from the infrared camera image and cyanosis is assessed from the image of the lips in the visible spectrum. In our preliminary experiments, an accuracy of 97% was achieved for detecting fever and 77% for the detection of cyanosis, with a sensitivity of 91% and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.91. Heart rate and respiratory effort are also estimated from the visible camera.Although preliminary results are promising, we note that the entire system needs to be optimized before use and assessed for efficacy. The use of low-cost instrumentation will not produce temperature readings and identification of cyanosis that is acceptable in many situations. For this reason, we are releasing the full code stack and system design to allow others to rapidly iterate and improve the system. This may be of particular benefit in low-resource settings, and low-to-middle income countries in particular, which are just beginning to be affected by COVID-19.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (16) ◽  
pp. 5191
Author(s):  
Andrzej Sobczak ◽  
Leszek Ziora

Smart cities are an extremely important, multi-faceted subject, both in terms of their practical aspects and in terms of research. This is expressed, among other things, in the multitude of approaches to this concept. These approaches differ based on the emphasis placed on individual aspects: some focus more on technology, and others put more weight on social issues, while still others value sustainable development issues. Currently, an important topic of discussion about the development of the smart city—the importance of which has become even greater in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic—is the digital transformation of the city. The use of robotic process automation (RPA) tools can be a part of such a transformation, as such tools, using advanced software, enable the automation of those tasks carried out thus far by humans. Although such an approach has, to date, been widespread in the case of enterprises (in particular, those operating in the financial and BPO/SSC sectors, but less often in the utilities sector, the first applications of these solutions in the context of process automation for cities are also beginning to emerge in various parts of the world. This article is based on a case study approach. The implementation conditions (including the constraints) of such an approach, the benefits achieved, and the lessons learned (which can be important for other local government units) are outlined using the example of the Bydgoszcz city hall’s (Poland) electricity billing document management. The results of the case study presented here lead to the conclusion that the use of RPA tools enables, very quickly and at relatively low cost, measurable results to be achieved that are related to the processing of electricity billing documentation for the city of Bydgoszcz. This allows the assertion to be made that robotic process automation can be taken into consideration as one of the tools used to build smart cities.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (17) ◽  
pp. 5812
Author(s):  
Andres Henao ◽  
Philippe Apparicio ◽  
David Maignan

During the last decade, bicycles equipped with sensors became an essential tool for research, particularly for studies analyzing the lateral passing distance between motorized vehicles and bicycles. The objective of this article is to describe a low-cost open-source sensor called one metre plus (1m+) capable of measuring lateral passing distance, registering the geographical position of the cyclist, and video-recording the trip. The plans, codes, and schematic design are open and therefore easily accessible for the scientific community. This study describes in detail the conceptualization process, the characteristics of the device, and the materials from which they are made. The study also provides an evaluation of the product and describes the sensor’s functionalities and its field of application. The objective of this project is to democratize research and develop a platform/participative project that offers tools to researchers worldwide, in order to standardize knowledge sharing and facilitate the comparability of results in various contexts.


Author(s):  
S. Shaharuddin ◽  
K. N. Abdul Maulud ◽  
S. A. F. Syed Abdul Rahman ◽  
A. I. Che Ani

Abstract. Technology has advanced and progressed tremendously, and the term city is being elevated to a new level where the smart city has been introduced globally. Recent developments in the concept of smart city have led to a renewed interest in Digital Twin. Using precise Building Information Modelling (BIM) consolidated with big data and sensors, several attempts have been made to establish digital twin smart cities. In recent years, several researchers have sought to determine the capability of smart city and digital twin for various taxonomies such as development and urban planning purposes, built environment, manufacturing, environmental, disaster management, and healthcare. Despite being beneficial in many disciplines, especially in manufacturing, built environment, and urban planning, these existing studies have shown a lack of aspect in terms of emergency or disaster-related as opposed to the elements mentioned above. This is because the researcher has not treated emergencies or disasters in much detail. Therefore, an extensive review on smart city, digital twin, BIM and disaster management and technology that revolves around these terms were summarised. In general, 39 articles from prominent multidisciplinary databases were retrieved over the last two decades based on the suggested PRISMA workflow. These final articles were analysed and categorised into four themes based on the research content, gist, and keywords. Based on the review of 39 articles related to smart city, digital twin and BIM, a workflow for the smart city digital twin and the conceptual framework for indoor disaster management was proposed accordingly. The establishment of smart city digital twins solely for an indoor emergency can be beneficial to urbanites, and it could provide numerous benefits for enhanced situation assessment, decision making, coordination, and resource allocation.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria A Brovelli ◽  
Candan E Kilsedar ◽  
Patrick J Hogan ◽  
Gabriele Prestifilippo ◽  
Giorgo Zamboni

In this paper, the open source framework NASA WorldWind is presented. NASA WorldWind comes with two versions. The Java version is well established in the market and has many customers. On the other side the new version, which is the Web version, Web WorldWind, is still at the dawn of development cycle, with many features implemented and already used in several applications, with a great future ahead. Moreover, some of the features available in the Web WorldWind are listed and a short comparison with Cesium library is provided. Additionally, an interesting application developed in the smart cities context with Web WorldWind is described.


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