Advancing the Ultra High Frequency RFID in Industrial Applications: A Review

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology transmits data wirelessly and falls under the broad classification of Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC). The advances in RFID technology continue to be accepted worldwide for various tracking and monitoring type applications. This paper reviews the principle of RFID system operation using an extensive search of relevant articles from technology management and related journals, over the past two decades. It explores 1) the RFID tags operating in the ultra-high frequency (UHF) band, 2) analyses some of the major advancements of this technology in the field of sensor tagging solutions in the past two decades, and 3) discusses industry-based applications utilising UHF RFID sensor tagging solutions for process measurement data acquisition. The main challenges identified are privacy and security concerns on their applications in industry. The paper contributes to amalgamating a list of UHF RFID industry-based applications. It is expected that the findings from this review exercise would shed light on critical areas of the UHF RFID Technology.

Barbados towards 100% Renewable Energy: Case Scenarios for 2030 National Energy Target Plans

The integration of renewable energy (RE) into the overall energy mix of Caribbean nations has been increasing in recent times. The volatile nature of the carbon-based industry through fluctuations in prices of fossil fuel based-products renders it necessary to promote an aggressive energy profile transition to renewable energy, as this is crucial to energy security in these vulnerable Small Island Developing States (SIDS). The nation of Barbados has notably understood this reality and, as such, its government has endorsed the approach of 100% RE implementation by 2030. This paper explores three distinctive annual growth rate (AGR) scenarios to assess the impact on the expected power generation, economic and environmental parameters through the period of 2019-2030. Notable findings at a high case scenario for 2030 (at an AGR of 3%) projects a power generation of 1.343 Tera-watts-hour (TWh), which will displace 790,500 barrels of oil equivalent (boe), resulting in an abatement of approximately 0.95 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Assessment of the Emerging Landscape of Unmanned Aerial Systems in Trinidad and Tobago

Interest in the civilian applications of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) has been growing worldwide, especially in government and commercial tasks such as surveillance, search and rescue, inspection of infrastructure, agriculture, mining, and mapping. Likewise, Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) has been witnessing a growing interest and application of commercial and non-commercial UAS operations. However, there is little assessment for the growth of the UAS market nor is there characterisation of UAS-based activities since the pertinent regulations established in 2016. This study seeks to formally identify the emerging UAS landscape in T&T during the period 2015 to 2019. As such, this study maps and characterises the spatial and temporal patterns of UAS distribution, then appraises the various categories for the existing operations. To achieve these goals, this study utilised qualitative and quantitative techniques of Geoinformatics. The intent for this study is to provide a perspective on the growth and the implications of the UAS industry in T&T, and to guide strategic planning among organisations with a stake in the emergence of UAS into civil airspace.

Spatio-temporal Kriging of Lower Caribbean Wind Data

Planning of a wind farm location requires significant data. However, wind speed data sets in the lower Caribbean are usually incomplete. This paper considers imputation by spatio-temporal kriging using data from neighbouring locations. Temporal basis functions with spatial covariates are used to model diurnal wind speed cyclicity. The residual set of our spatio-temporal model is modelled as a Gaussian spatial random field. Fitted models may be used for spatial prediction as well as imputation. Examples of predictions are illustrated using two months of hourly data from eight Caribbean locations with prediction accuracy being assessed by cross validation and residuals.

Effectiveness of Paired Next Generation Firewalls in Securing Industrial Automation and Control Systems: A Case Study

Industrial automation and control systems (IACS) are oftentimes the backbone of businesses and critical infrastructure (CI) around the world. They underpin control of nuclear plants, refineries, manufacturing and distribution systems. Today, organisations are routinely targeted by cyber-attackers. Cyberattacks have been increasing in frequency and sophistication. This is especially true of those attacks directed against high-profile operations such as petrochemical refineries. Attackers invest considerable time and money to study a target and probe inherent weaknesses, which they eventually attempt, and succeed in some cases, to exploit. Historically, industrial networks were kept separate from corporate networks. However, significant efficiency gains and demands for digital interconnectivity have driven a convergence between operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT) systems. The business of cybersecurity has been evolving dramatically, posing significant challenges to management teams, across all industries and business domains. Countries within the Caribbean, such as Trinidad and Tobago (T&T), are by no means an exception given their dependence on the energy sector and supporting IACSs. This paper examines the effectiveness of next generation firewalls (NGFWs) in their defense of Process Control Networks (PCNs) against malware. It focuses on the case of a process plant complex in T&T.