Real-time Sensor Data Research Articles

Di-CNN: Domain-Knowledge-Informed Convolutional Neural Network for Manufacturing Quality Prediction.

In manufacturing, convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are widely used on image sensor data for data-driven process monitoring and quality prediction. However, as purely data-driven models, CNNs do not integrate physical measures or practical considerations into the model structure or training procedure. Consequently, CNNs' prediction accuracy can be limited, and model outputs may be hard to interpret practically. This study aims to leverage manufacturing domain knowledge to improve the accuracy and interpretability of CNNs in quality prediction. A novel CNN model, named Di-CNN, was developed that learns from both design-stage information (such as working condition and operational mode) and real-time sensor data, and adaptively weighs these data sources during model training. It exploits domain knowledge to guide model training, thus improving prediction accuracy and model interpretability. A case study on resistance spot welding, a popular lightweight metal-joining process for automotive manufacturing, compared the performance of (1) a Di-CNN with adaptive weights (the proposed model), (2) a Di-CNN without adaptive weights, and (3) a conventional CNN. The quality prediction results were measured with the mean squared error (MSE) over sixfold cross-validation. Model (1) achieved a mean MSE of 6.8866 and a median MSE of 6.1916, Model (2) achieved 13.6171 and 13.1343, and Model (3) achieved 27.2935 and 25.6117, demonstrating the superior performance of the proposed model.

QoS-Based Contract Design for Profit Maximization in IoT-Enabled Data Markets

The massive deployment of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, including sensors and actuators, is ushering in smart and connected communities of the future. The massive deployment of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, including sensors and actuators, is ushering in smart and connected communities of the future. The availability of real-time and high-quality sensor data is crucial for various IoT applications, particularly in healthcare, energy, transportation, etc. However, data collection may have to be outsourced to external service providers (SPs) due to cost considerations or lack of specialized equipment. Hence, the data market plays a critical role in such scenarios where SPs have different quality levels of available data, and IoT users have different application-specific data needs. The pairing between data available to the SP and users in the data market requires an effective mechanism design that considers the SPs’ profitability and the quality-of-service (QoS) needs of the users. We develop a generic framework to analyze and enable such interactions efficiently, leveraging tools from contract theory and mechanism design theory. It can enable and empower emerging data sharing paradigms such as Sensing-as-a-Service (SaaS). The contract design creates a pricing structure for on-demand sensing data for IoT users. By considering a continuum of user types, we capture a diverse range of application requirements and propose optimal pricing and allocation rules that ensure QoS provisioning and maximum profitability for the SP. Furthermore, we provide analytical solutions for fixed distributions of user types to analyze the developed approach. For comparison, we consider the benchmark case assuming complete information of the user types and obtain optimal contract solutions. Finally, a case study based on the example of virtual reality application delivered using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is presented to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed contract design framework.

Enabling battery digital twins at the industrial scale

Digital twins are cyber-physical systems that fuse real-time sensor data with models to make accurate, asset-specific predictions and optimal decisions. For batteries, this concept has been applied across length scales, from materials to systems. However, a holistic approach with a strong conceptual and mathematical framework is needed for battery digital twins to achieve their full potential at the industrial scale. Developing a standardized and transparent approach for data sharing between stakeholders that respects confidentiality is essential. Industrial battery digital twins also need principled methods to quantify and propagate uncertainty from sensors and models to predictions. Ensuring retention of physical understanding is important for the identification of “stiff” parameters, which require careful measurement. Combined with uncertainty analysis, this can unlock optimal data-driven sensor selection and placement and improved root-cause analysis. However, better physical modeling and sensing approaches for battery manufacturing and thermal runaway are needed. Furthermore, immutability of data is also necessary for industrial uptake, with digital ledger technology providing new avenues of research. We believe that digital twins could be transformative for the current lithium-ion battery technologies and also as an enabler for emerging new battery technologies, optimizing lifetime and value through asset-specific control. Digital twins are cyber-physical systems that fuse real-time sensor data with models to make accurate, asset-specific predictions and optimal decisions. For batteries, this concept has been applied across length scales, from materials to systems. However, a holistic approach with a strong conceptual and mathematical framework is needed for battery digital twins to achieve their full potential at the industrial scale. Developing a standardized and transparent approach for data sharing between stakeholders that respects confidentiality is essential. Industrial battery digital twins also need principled methods to quantify and propagate uncertainty from sensors and models to predictions. Ensuring retention of physical understanding is important for the identification of “stiff” parameters, which require careful measurement. Combined with uncertainty analysis, this can unlock optimal data-driven sensor selection and placement and improved root-cause analysis. However, better physical modeling and sensing approaches for battery manufacturing and thermal runaway are needed. Furthermore, immutability of data is also necessary for industrial uptake, with digital ledger technology providing new avenues of research. We believe that digital twins could be transformative for the current lithium-ion battery technologies and also as an enabler for emerging new battery technologies, optimizing lifetime and value through asset-specific control.

A data-driven predictive maintenance model for hospital HVAC system with machine learning

ABSTRACT Corrective and preventive maintenance strategies are typically employed to maintain an efficient functionality of different facility systems. This entails the evaluation of current conditions and the prediction of future conditions. Such prediction is highly needed for critical building systems such as Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) of hospitals to maintain their functionality and extend their lifetime. Current literature highlights the benefits of adopting machine-learning algorithms for predictive modelling. Literature also reveals a gap in predictive modelling based on real-time sensor data and the prediction of both short-term and long-term future conditions. This paper presents a data-driven predictive maintenance model of a hospital’s HVAC system with a focus on the Air Handling Units (AHUs). The developed model adopts machine-learning using the sensor data acquired by the BMS and the database of the hospital’s CMMS. Support Vector Machine (SVM), Decision Trees (DT), and K-Nearest Neighbours (KNN) algorithms are used for the prediction of AHU’s short-term conditions. Prophet Forecasting and Seasonal Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA) algorithms are then used to predict the AHU’s long-term future conditions. The study also highlights the benefits of adopting the proposed model in terms of reduced maintenance cost and improved operational effectiveness of hospital AHUs.

IoT and AI-based Intelligent Agriculture Framework for Crop Prediction

Background: Currently, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) have transformed the field of agriculture with the innovative idea of automation and intelligence. The agriculture field completely relies on the uncertainty parameter of soil, atmosphere, and water. Technological advancement in IoT and AI assist in resolving this uncertainty factor and recommend the best crops to the farmers so that they can also enhance the productivity of the crops and meet the world's large food demand smartly. Objective: In this paper, we have suggested an IoT and AI-based model which trained with 2200 records of the dataset and seven attributes in Python. The model suggests 22 different crops to farmers after collecting samples through different sensor data. We used soil, temperature, humidity, pH, and rainfall sensors. Soil sensors were used to measure the amount of N, P, and K in soil. Methods: Various supervised machine learning algorithms such as KNN, Decision Tree, Naïve Bayes and Logistic Regression classifiers have applied to build the proposed model. The model is continuously monitoring the field via various sensor data as a sample data for the prediction of best crops to be grown for farmers. Results: In this research, we investigated the contribution of supervised machine learning classifiers like KNN, Decision Tree, Naïve Bayes and Logistic Regression classifiers. The maximum accuracy has been observed as 99.39% of the Naïve Bayes classifier. Conclusion: In this paper an AI and IoT based model is used to recommend/predict the best crop based on environmental factors. The proposed model will collect the real time sensor data to predict the crops and plants smartly.

Bayesian Uncertainty Inferencing for Fault Diagnosis of Intelligent Instruments in IoT Systems

Intelligent instruments are common components in industrial machinery, and fault diagnosis in IoT systems requires the handling of real-time sensor data and expert knowledge. IoT sensors cannot collect data for the diagnosis of all fault types in a specific instrument, and long-distance data transfer introduces additional uncertainties. However, because industrial equipment has complex fault causes and performances, it is typically difficult or expensive to obtain exact fault probabilities. Therefore, in this study, we proposed an innovative failure detection and diagnosis model for intelligent instruments in an IoT system using a Bayesian network, with a focus on handling uncertainties in expert knowledge and IoT monitoring information. The model addresses the challenge of complex fault causes and performances in industrial equipment, which make the obtainment of exact fault probabilities difficult or expensive. The trapezoidal intuitionistic fuzzy number (TrIFN)-based entropy method was applied in order to aggregate expert knowledge to generate priority probability, and the Leaky-OR gate was used to calculate CPT. The effectiveness of the proposed strategy was demonstrated through its application to an intelligent pressure transmitter (IPT) using the GeNIe software.

A Highly Interpretable Framework for Generic Low-Cost UAV Attack Detection

The increasing prevalence of cyber-attacks on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has led to research on effective detection methods. However, current approaches often lack transferability and interoperability, which limits their effectiveness. This study proposes a CNN-BiLSTM-Attention (CBA) model for efficient attack detection using real-time UAV sensor data. Additionally, the SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) method is used to improve the interpretability of the model. The proposed approach is tested on real attack scenarios, including denial-of-service (DoS) attacks and global positioning system (GPS) spoofing attacks, and demonstrates both effectiveness and interpretability.

Roughness prediction of end milling surface for behavior mapping of digital twined machine tools

Background: The quality of machined parts is considered as a relevant factor to evaluate the production performance of machine tools. For mapping the production performance into a digital twin machine tool, a virtual metrology model for surface roughness prediction, which affects products' mechanical capacity and aesthetic performance, is proposed in this paper. Methods: The proposed model applies a three-layer backpropagation neural network by using real-time vibration, force, and current sensor data collected during the end milling machining process. A grid search plan is used to settle down the number of neurons in the middle layer of the backpropagation neural network. Results: The experimental results indicate that the model with multiple signals as input performs better than it with a single signal. In detail, when the model input is the combination of force, vibration, and current sensor data, the prediction accuracy reaches the optimum with the mean absolute percentage error of 1.01%. Conclusions: Compared with the state-of-the-art convolutional neural network method with automatic feature extraction ability and other commonly used traditional machine learning methods, the proposed data preprocessing procedure integrated with a three-layer backpropagation neural network has a minimum prediction error.

Improving building occupant comfort through a digital twin approach: A Bayesian network model and predictive maintenance method

This study introduces a Bayesian network model to evaluate the comfort levels of occupants of two non-residential Norwegian buildings based on data collected from satisfaction surveys and building performance parameters. A Digital Twin approach is proposed to integrate building information modeling (BIM) with real-time sensor data, occupant feedback, and a probabilistic model of occupant comfort to detect and predict HVAC issues that may impact comfort. The study also uses 200000 points as historical data of various sensors to understand the previous building systems’ behavior. The study also presents new methods for using BIM as a visualization platform and for predictive maintenance to identify and address problems in the HVAC system. For predictive maintenance, nine machine learning algorithms were evaluated using metrics such as ROC, accuracy, F1-score, precision, and recall, where Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGB) was the best algorithm for prediction. XGB is on average 2.5% more accurate than Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP), and up to 5% more accurate than the other models. Random Forest is around 96% faster than XGBoost while being relatively easier to implement. The paper introduces a novel method that utilizes several standards to determine the remaining useful life of HVAC, leading to a potential increase in its lifetime by at least 10% and resulting in significant cost savings. The result shows that the most important factors that affect occupant comfort are poor air quality, lack of natural light, and uncomfortable temperature. To address the challenge of applying these methods to a wide range of buildings, the study proposes a framework using ontology graphs to integrate data from different systems, including FM, CMMS, BMS, and BIM. This study’s results provide insight into the factors that influence occupant comfort, help to expedite identifying equipment malfunctions and point towards potential solutions, leading to more sustainable and energy-efficient buildings.

A novel digital twin model for dynamical updating and real-time mapping of local defect extension in rolling bearings

The study of bearing local defect extension is of importance for bearing health monitoring and management. However, the local defect sizes of rolling bearings are difficult to monitor in real-time. To tackle this problem, a novel digital twin (DT) model is proposed in this paper for dynamical updating and real-time mapping of local defect extension in rolling bearings. The novel DT model is achieved through combining mechanism models and real-time sensor data, rather than relying solely on measured data as in the traditional DT model. By this means, the full life-cycle defect sizes can be mapped directly utilizing the novel DT model. The XJTU-SY bearing dataset is applied to assess the novel DT model. The result shows that the local defect extension of the full life-cycle in rolling bearings can be characterized accurately in the novel DT model.

Management of Climate Resilience: Exploring the Potential of Digital Twin Technology, 3D City Modelling, and Early Warning Systems.

Cities, and in particular those in coastal low-lying areas, are becoming increasingly susceptible to climate change, the impact of which is worsened by the tendency for population concentration in these areas. Therefore, comprehensive early warning systems are necessary to minimize harm from extreme climate events on communities. Ideally, such a system would allow all stakeholders to acquire accurate up-to-date information and respond effectively. This paper presents a systematic review that highlights the significance, potential, and future directions of 3D city modelling, early warning systems, and digital twins in the creation of technology for building climate resilience through the effective management of smart cities. In total, 68 papers were identified through the PRISMA approach. A total of 37 case studies were included, among which (n = 10) define the framework for a digital twin technology, (n = 14) involve the design of 3D virtual city models, and (n = 13) entail the generation of early warning alerts using the real-time sensor data. This review concludes that the bidirectional flow of data between a digital model and the real physical environment is an emerging concept for enhancing climate resilience. However, the research is primarily in the phase of theoretical concepts and discussion, and numerous research gaps remain regarding the implementation and use of a bidirectional data flow in a true digital twin. Nonetheless, ongoing innovative research projects are exploring the potential of digital twin technology to address the challenges faced by communities in vulnerable areas, which will hopefully lead to practical solutions for enhancing climate resilience in the near future.

Online transportation network cyber-attack detection based on stationary sensor data

Penetration of connected vehicles and crowdsourced mapping applications give rise to security vulnerabilities in transportation networks. Accurate detection of cyber-attacks on transportation networks is critical to minimize impacts on transportation systems. This task is particularly challenging because the impacts of regional cyber-attacks can be invisible on aggregated traffic data, especially when only sensor data is accessible to transportation agencies. We propose an analytical framework that leverages real-time road link sensory data to conduct online data-driven transportation network anomaly detection using non-parametric long short-term memory (LSTM) and parametric Gaussian process model. The online anomaly detection models can continuously update model coefficients as real-time sensory data arrives. We utilize a city-scale microscopic traffic simulation to validate our cyber-attack detecting framework. The cyber-attack detection model achieves a F1 score, which is a harmonic mean of the precision and recall of classifiers, between 84% to 96% considering different initial training data sizes. We compare with major offline models to demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of online models. In addition, we devised a meta-heuristic method to solve the multi-objective sensor location problem to simultaneously enhance anomaly detection efficiency and maximize traffic information gain. This study demonstrates a systematic approach to address the emerging concerns of cyber-security in transportation networks with minimum requirements for infrastructure upgrades. Our results can help transportation security authorities identify potential cyber-attacks and protect transportation infrastructure from malicious cyber-hackers.

A crop water stress index based internet of things decision support system for precision irrigation of wine grape

The goal of irrigation for wine grape grown in arid or semiarid regions is to sustain vine survival and to optimize berry attributes for quality wine production. Precision irrigation of wine grape is impeded by the lack of a smart, decision support system (DSS) to remotely monitor vine water status. The objectives of this study were to: develop and field test an Internet of Things (IoT) DSS system for precision irrigation of wine grape. The IoT system was comprised of a suite of in situ sensors used to monitor real-time weather conditions, grapevine canopy temperature, soil moisture, and irrigation amount. Sensor data were collected and stored on a field deployed data logger that calculated a daily thermal Crop Water Stress Index (CWSI) for grapevine using a neural network model with real-time sensor data model inputs. The data logger also hosted, via a cellular modem, webpages showing a running, 12-day history of daily CWSI, fraction of available soil moisture (fASW), irrigation amount, and other sensor data. The webpages were accessible to vineyard managers via cell phone or computer. The CWSI based IoT DDS system was installed at two small acreage, commercial estate vineyards in southwestern Idaho USA over four growing seasons. At each vineyard site, the DSS was used daily by the vineyard irrigation manager to schedule irrigation events. Neither vineyard manager used any other quantitative vine water status monitoring tool for irrigation management decisions. The midday leaf water potential (LWP) of grapevines was routinely measured by research project personnel. Data collected over the study period at each vineyard showed a significant (p < 0.001) correlation with LWP and fASW, providing evidence that, under the conditions of this study, the daily CWSI based IoT provided automated, remote monitoring of vine water status. Both vineyard managers reported daily use of the DSS for irrigation scheduling decisions. Over the four-year study, each vineyard manager was able to maintain consistent seasonal average CWSI daily values and irrigation application amounts, despite yearly differences in climatic conditions. The results of this study demonstrate that a CWSI based IoT DSS can be used for precision irrigation of wine grape in a commercial vineyard under semiarid growing conditions. The CWSI based IoT DSS used a unique combination of neural network modeling, edge computing, and IoT for real-time vine water stress monitoring for precision irrigation.

Development of an Open-source and Lightweight Sensor Recording Software System for Conducting Biomedical Research: Technical Report.

Digital sensing devices have become an increasingly important component of modern biomedical research, as they help provide objective insights into individuals' everyday behavior in terms of changes in motor and nonmotor symptoms. However, there are significant barriers to the adoption of sensor-enhanced biomedical solutions in terms of both technical expertise and associated costs. The currently available solutions neither allow easy integration of custom sensing devices nor offer a practicable methodology in cases of limited resources. This has become particularly relevant, given the need for real-time sensor data that could help lower health care costs by reducing the frequency of clinical assessments performed by specialists and improve access to health assessments (eg, for people living in remote areas or older adults living at home). The objective of this paper is to detail the end-to-end development of a novel sensor recording software system that supports the integration of heterogeneous sensor technologies, runs as an on-demand service on consumer-grade hardware to build sensor systems, and can be easily used to reliably record longitudinal sensor measurements in research settings. The proposed software system is based on a server-client architecture, consisting of multiple self-contained microservices that communicated with each other (eg, the web server transfers data to a database instance) and were implemented as Docker containers. The design of the software is based on state-of-the-art open-source technologies (eg, Node.js or MongoDB), which fulfill nonfunctional requirements and reduce associated costs. A series of programs to facilitate the use of the software were documented. To demonstrate performance, the software was tested in 3 studies (2 gait studies and 1 behavioral study assessing activities of daily living) that ran between 2 and 225 days, with a total of 114 participants. We used descriptive statistics to evaluate longitudinal measurements for reliability, error rates, throughput rates, latency, and usability (with the System Usability Scale [SUS] and the Post-Study System Usability Questionnaire [PSSUQ]). Three qualitative features (event annotation program, sample delay analysis program, and monitoring dashboard) were elaborated and realized as integrated programs. Our quantitative findings demonstrate that the system operates reliably on consumer-grade hardware, even across multiple months (>420 days), providing high throughput (2000 requests per second) with a low latency and error rate (<0.002%). In addition, the results of the usability tests indicate that the system is effective, efficient, and satisfactory to use (mean usability ratings for the SUS and PSSUQ were 89.5 and 1.62, respectively). Overall, this sensor recording software could be leveraged to test sensor devices, as well as to develop and validate algorithms that are able to extract digital measures (eg, gait parameters or actigraphy). The proposed software could help significantly reduce barriers related to sensor-enhanced biomedical research and allow researchers to focus on the research questions at hand rather than on developing recording technologies.

Anomaly Detection for Early Failure Identification on Automotive Field Data

The automotive industry is witnessing its next phase of transformation. The vehicles are getting defined by software, becoming intelligent, connected and more complex to design, develop and analyze. For these complex vehicles, prognostics and proactive maintenance has become ever more critical than before.OEMs and suppliers analyze probable failures that a vehicle component is likely to encounter, define fault codes to identify those failures, and provide procedure or guided steps to resolve them. For smarter vehicles, it is required that vehicles be capable to catch potential problems as soon as the component’s condition starts to deteriorate and becomes a failure. These failures could be known (defined) or new (undefined). Given the vehicle development timelines and increasing complexity, many problems are not analyzed at design stage and remain undetected before production. Hence, no fault code or test case exist for them. Diagnosing such problems become very difficult, postproduction.The aim of this paper is to propose a Machine Learning (ML) based framework which utilizes minimally labelled or unlabeled sensor data generated from a vehicle system at a given frequency. The framework utilizes an ML model to identify any anomalous behavior or aberration, and flag it for further review. This framework can be adopted on large amount of real time or time series data to identify known as well as undefined failures early. These models could be deployed on cloud or on edge (on vehicles) for analyzing real-time sensor data for a given system/component and flag any anomaly. It could further be utilized to create a part specific Predictive Maintenance (PM) model to provide proactive warnings and prevent downtime.

Digital twin-enabled automated anomaly detection and bottleneck identification in complex manufacturing systems using a multi-agent approach

Digital twin (DT) models are increasingly being used to improve the performance of complex manufacturing systems. In this context, DTs automatically enabling anomaly detection, such as increase in orders, and bottleneck identification, such as shortage of products, can significantly enhance decision-making to mitigate the consequences of the identified bottlenecks. The existing literature has mainly focused on implementing top-down approaches for analysing the bottlenecks without considering the emergent behaviour of micro-level agents, including inventory levels and human resources, and their impact on the macro-level system’s performance. In order to handle the aforementioned challenges, this paper extends the current literature by proposing a novel DT integrated in a multi-agent cyber physical system (CPS) for detecting anomalies in sensor data, while identifying and removing bottlenecks that emerge during the operation of complex manufacturing systems. An extended 5 C CPS architecture, using multi-agent approach, is implemented to allow DT integration. The agent-based simulation technique enables capturing the probabilistic variability, and aggregate parallelism and dynamism of parallel dynamic interactions within the DT-CPS. A new single agent at the exo-level of the multi-level agent-based modelling structure, called the ‘monitoring agent’, is introduced in this research. The agent detects anomalies and identify bottlenecks through communicating with other agents in different levels automatically. The DT-CPS provides feedback automatically to the physical space to remove and mitigate the identified bottlenecks. The proposed DT based multi-agent CPS has been tested successfully on a real case study in a cryogenic warehouse shop-floor from the cell and gene therapy industry. The performance of the studied cryogenic warehouse is continuously measured using real-time sensor data. The analyses of the results show that the proposed DT-CPS improves the utilisation rates of human resources, on average, by 30% supporting decision making and control in complex manufacturing systems.

Digital Twin of HVAC system (HVACDT) for multiobjective optimization of energy consumption and thermal comfort based on BIM framework with ANN-MOGA

ABSTRACT This study proposes a novel Digital Twin framework of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVACDT) system to reduce energy consumption while increasing thermal comfort. The framework is developed to help the facility managers better understand the building operation to enhance the HVAC system function. The Digital Twin framework is based on Building Information Modelling (BIM) combined with a newly created plug-in to receive real-time sensor data as well as thermal comfort and optimization process through Matlab programming. In order to determine if the suggested framework is practical, data were collected from a Norwegian office building between August 2019 and October 2021 and used to test the framework. An artificial neural network (ANN) in a Simulink model and a multiobjective genetic algorithm (MOGA) are then used to improve the HVAC system. The HVAC system is comprised of air distributors, cooling units, heating units, pressure regulators, valves, air gates, and fans, among other components. In this context, several characteristics, such as temperatures, pressure, airflow, cooling and heating operation control, and other factors are considered as decision variables. In order to determine objective functions, the predicted percentage of dissatisfied (PPD) and the HVAC energy usage are both calculated. As a result, ANN's decision variables and objective function correlated well. Furthermore, MOGA presents different design factors that can be used to obtain the best possible solution in terms of thermal comfort and energy usage. The results show that the average cooling energy savings for four days in summer is roughly 13.2%, and 10.8% for the three summer months (June, July, and August), keeping the PPD under 10%. Finally, compared to traditional approaches, the HVACDT framework displays a higher level of automation in terms of data management.

A Performance Analysis of Wireless Sensor Networks in Recent Years

Wireless Sensor networks (WSNs) have become one of the most interesting areas of research in the past few years. Undoubtedly, wireless transmission techniques are used for all node-to-node communication. Additionally, because wireless sensor networks are self- organized, independent of fixed infrastructure, and their topologies vary on a regular basis, broadcasting is the default method of communication in WSNs. But a handful of sensor nodes in long-lasting networks have dynamically accomplished it. They are autonomous systems that share common sensors, centralized nodes, and a back-end server. The real-time independent sensor data is initially transmitted by the common sensors, and finally, the back- end server receives the sensed data to do additional process and performance analysis. Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are hybrid nodes with wireless communication interfaces, data sensing, processing, and storage capabilities that are rapidly expanding in number. It is used for many different things in daily life, including tracking vehicles, keeping an eye out for fires in the forest, finding and tracking soldiers for military usage, keeping an eye on the oceans and seas, and creating intelligent places.

Towards Digital Twinning on the Web: Heterogeneous 3D Data Fusion Based on Open-Source Structure

Recent advances in Computer Science and the spread of internet connection have allowed specialists to virtualize complex environments on the web and offer further information with realistic exploration experiences. At the same time, the fruition of complex geospatial datasets (point clouds, Building Information Modelling (BIM) models, 2D and 3D models) on the web is still a challenge, because usually it involves the usage of different proprietary software solutions, and the input data need further simplification for computational effort reduction. Moreover, integrating geospatial datasets acquired in different ways with various sensors remains a challenge. An interesting question, in that respect, is how to integrate 3D information in a 3D GIS (Geographic Information System) environment and manage different scales of information in the same application. Integrating a multiscale level of information is currently the first step when it comes to digital twinning. It is needed to properly manage complex urban datasets in digital twins related to the management of the buildings (cadastral management, prevention of natural and anthropogenic hazards, structure monitoring, etc.). Therefore, the current research shows the development of a freely accessible 3D Web navigation model based on open-source technology that allows the visualization of heterogeneous complex geospatial datasets in the same virtual environment. This solution employs JavaScript libraries based on WebGL technology. The model is accessible through web browsers and does not need software installation from the user side. The case study is the new building of the University of Twente—Faculty of Geo-Information (ITC), located in Enschede (the Netherlands). The developed solution allows switching between heterogeneous datasets (point clouds, BIM, 2D and 3D models) at different scales and visualization (indoor first-person navigation, outdoor navigation, urban navigation). This solution could be employed by governmental stakeholders or the private sector to remotely visualize complex datasets on the web in a unique visualization, and take decisions only based on open-source solutions. Furthermore, this system can incorporate underground data or real-time sensor data from the IoT (Internet of Things) for digital twinning tasks.

Guest Editorial Special Issue on the Role of Smart Sensing for Communicable Diseases (Including COVID-19)

Communicable diseases spread quickly among people and animals by an infectious medium, including bacteria, viruses, etc. Recently, the world has witnessed the biggest outbreak of the century due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) disease. The immaculate amalgamation of sensor technology helps people to deal with such diseases. This led to motivation amongst the researchers to employ smart sensor technologies to detect, prevent, and control the lively growth of such communicable diseases. Smart sensors include biosensors, wearable sensors, unmanned vehicles, bedsheet sensors, etc., which help prevent and control communicable diseases. These smart sensors collect real-time data about the transmissibility of the disease that can be further processed using advanced machine-learning techniques. The huge real-time sensory data help obtain more precise outcomes and expedite the efficient use of smart sensors for diagnosing communicable disease viruses.