Intelligent manufacturing under Industry 4.0 assimilates sophisticated technologies and artificial intelligence for sustainable production and outcomes. Blockchain paradigms are coined with Industry 4.0 for concurrent and well-monitored flawless production. This article introduces Sustainable Production concerned with External Demands (SP-ED). This method is more specific about energy production and the distribution for flawless and outage-less supply. First, the energy demand is identified for internal and external users based on which sustainability is planned. Secondly, Ethereum blockchain monitoring for a similar production and demand satisfaction is coupled with the production system. From two perspectives, the monitoring and condition satisfaction processes are validated using federated learning (FL). The perspectives include demand distribution and production sustainability. In the demand distribution, the condition of meeting the actual requirement is validated. Contrarily, the... [more]

Digital images can be easily shared or stored using different imaging devices, storage tools, and computer networks or wireless communication systems. However, these digital images, such as headshots or medical images, may contain private information. Hence, to protect the confidentiality, reliability, and availability of digital images on online processing applications, it is crucial to increase the infosecurity of these images. Therefore, an authorization encryption scheme should ensure a high security level of digital images. The present study aimed to establish a multilayer convolutional processing network (MCPN)-based cryptography mechanism for performing two-round image encryption and decryption processes. In the MCPN layer, two-dimensional (2D) spatial convolutional operations were used to extract the image features and perform scramble operations from grayscale to gray gradient values for the first-image encryption and second-image decryption processes, respectively. In the MCP... [more]

Saudi Arabia initiated its much-anticipated Vision 2030 campaign, a long-term economic roadmap aimed at reducing the country’s reliance on oil. The vision, which is anticipated to be accomplished in the future, underlines compliance, fiscal, and strategy adjustments that will significantly affect all the important features of Saudi economic growth. Technology will be a critical facilitator, as well as controller, of the initiative’s significant transformation. Cloud computing, with the Internet of things (IoT), could make significant contributions to Saudi Vision 2030’s efficient governance strategy. There are multiple IoT applications that cover every part of everyday life, as well as enabling users to use a variety of IoT applications. Choosing the best IoT applications for specific customers is a difficult task. This paper concentrates on the Kingdom’s advancement towards a fresh, as well as enhanced, method of advancing the development phases pertaining to digital transformation, t... [more]

Wind turbine blades will suffer various surface damages due to their operating environment and high-speed rotation. Accurate identification in the early stage of damage formation is crucial. The damage detection of wind turbine blades is a primarily manual operation, which has problems such as high cost, low efficiency, intense subjectivity, and high risk. The rise of deep learning provides a new method for detecting wind turbine blade damage. However, in detecting wind turbine blade damage in general network models, there will be an insufficient fusion of multiscale small target features. This paper proposes a lightweight cascaded feature fusion neural network model based on YOLOX. Firstly, the lightweight area of the backbone feature extraction network concerning the RepVGG network structure is enhanced, improving the model’s inference speed. Second, a cascaded feature fusion module is designed to cascade and interactively fuse multilevel features to enhance the small target area fea... [more]

This paper presents a novel framework that mathematically and optimally quantifies demand response (DR) provisions, considering the power availability of Internet of Things (IoT)-based house load management for the provision of flexibility in the smart grid. The proposed framework first models house loads using IoT windows and occupant behavior, and then integrates IoT-based house loads into DR programs based on a novel mathematical optimization model to provide the optimal power flexibility considering the penetration of IoT-based houses in distribution systems. Numerical results that consider a 33-bus distribution system are reported and discussed to demonstrate the effectiveness of flexibility provisions, from integrating IoT-based houses into DR programs, on peak load reduction and system capacity enhancement.

GPS has become an attractive feature for geolocalization enabling asset tracking IoT devices. GPS satellite antennas radiate RHCP (right-hand circularly polarized) electromagnetic waves; thus, the typical antenna at the receiver is also RHCP. However, when the orientation of the receiving device is random, linear polarization antennas operate better in terms of TTFF (time to first fix). Through field measurements (urban and field) and considering different positions of the device in a vehicle, an RHCP microstrip patch antenna and a linear non-resonant antenna element called an antenna booster were compared. TTFF averaged for several positions was 7 s better for the linearly polarized antenna booster than for the microstrip RHCP patch antenna. The results demonstrate that the behavior of the linear polarization antenna booster technology is more robust in terms of TTFF to the arbitrary position of the IoT device while keeping a small size and simplicity.sdf

Regular and reliable access to energy is critical to the foundations of a stable and growing economy. The Nigerian transmission network generates more electricity than is consumed but, due to unpredicted outages, customers are often left without electrical power for several hours during the year. This paper aims to assess the present reliability indices of the Nigerian transmission network, and to determine the impact of HVDCs on system reliability. In the first part of this paper, the reliability of the Nigerian transmission system is quantified by building a model in DIgSILENT PowerFactory and carrying out a reliability study based on data provided by the Nigerian transmission-system operator. Both network indices and load-point indices are evaluated, and the weakest points in the network are identified. In the second part of the paper, an HVDC model is built and integrated into the existing network at the locations identified by the reliability study. A comparative study using two d... [more]

The IT infrastructure is the basis for the efficient and effective flow of logistic information between the individual elements of the logistical system. Therefore, the aim of this research was to assess the diversification of equipment in IT infrastructure in enterprises in Central Pomerania in Poland. The research was conducted in 2021 using the CAWI method. The research covers five categories of IT infrastructure: IT equipment, software/applications, means of communication, devices cooperating in the smart internet network and other devices. The study was conducted on a sample of 353 enterprises located in the area of Central Pomerania. The results of the conducted research indicate that the degree of use of the IT infrastructure in the analyzed enterprises varies. Taking into account the size of the enterprise, IT infrastructure is much more often used by large and medium enterprises than by small and micro enterprises. In addition, the results also show the diversification of the... [more]

In 2022, Thailand’s Demand Response (DR) business model was shifting from the Traditional Utility (TU) model to the Load Aggregator (LA) model in accordance with Thailand’s smart grid master plan. This research studied the current demand response model and mechanism to draw possible gaps in operations. This research deals with the data system owned by the individual load aggregator. The load aggregators collect meter data and evaluate demand adaptations before sending the results to claim compensation on behalf of their customers. This approach lacks transparency and facilitates distortion of the facts. Hence, this research introduces the data execution by smart contracts and data records on the blockchain that enhance transparent data sharing among multiple parties and maintain data integrity. Moreover, the proposed bidding algorithm allows customers to offer an expected price under the maximum incentive payment determined by the avoided costs of running the peaking power plants. Henc... [more]

Challenges associated with plastic waste management range from littering to high collection costs to low recycling rates. Effective collection of plastics is obviously an important step in the management of plastic waste and has an impact on recycling rates. For this reason, several countries have transformed their collection systems in recent decades. Collecting more plastic packaging comes at a cost, as the feedstock for the sorting process becomes more complex and leads to cross-contamination within the sorted fractions. Therefore, a balance must be obtained between some elements, such as the design of packaging, collection and recycling rates, and finally, the quality of fractions that have been sorted. Further investment to improve pretreatment, sorting, and recycling technologies and simpler recyclable packaging designs are, therefore, key to further increasing plastic recycling rates. It is essential to possess more data, especially on the type of containers and plastics, and ex... [more]

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a global network of interconnected computing, sensing, and networking devices that can exchange data and information via various network protocols. It can connect numerous smart devices thanks to recent advances in wired, wireless, and hybrid technologies. Lightweight IoT protocols can compensate for IoT devices with restricted hardware characteristics in terms of storage, Central Processing Unit (CPU), energy, etc. Hence, it is critical to identify the optimal communication protocol for system architects. This necessitates an evaluation of next-generation networks with improved characteristics for connectivity. This paper highlights significant wireless and wired IoT technologies and their applications, offering a new categorization for conventional IoT network protocols. It provides an in-depth analysis of IoT communication protocols with detailed technical information about their stacks, limitations, and applications. The study further compares indust... [more]

The paper proposes a method for improving the accuracy of early detection of cyber attacks with a small impact, in which the mathematical expectation is a fraction of the total, and the pulse repetition period is quite long. Early detection of attacks against telecommunication networks is based on traffic analysis using extreme filtering. The algorithm of fuzzy logic for deciding on the results of extreme filtering is suggested. The results of an experimental evaluation of the proposed method are presented. They demonstrate that the method is sensitive even with minor effects. In order to eliminate the redundancy of the analyzed parameters, it is enough to use the standard deviation and the correlation interval for decision making.

Micro-grid (MG) deployment has dramatically become more popular with the high penetration of renewable energy resources (RER). This trend brings with it the merits of independent power grid clean energy resource-based systems, and simultaneously the demerits of an unstable grid due to the intermittent nature of RER. Control and monitoring of MG through robust and ubiquitous communication system infrastructure is the solution to overcoming this intermittency. There has been an increasing focus in recent years on using wireless communication technologies as a prominent candidate in holistic proposal for the micro-grid management system (MGMS). The MGMS has been developed using the multi-agent system (MAS), multi-micro-grid (multi-MG), Internet of things (IoT) integration, and cloud concepts requiring new communication specifications, which can be satisfied by next-generation wireless technologies. There is, however, a lack of comprehensive corresponding investigation into management leve... [more]

Numerical relays have become essential tools for carrying out the protection and surveillance tasks of electrical power systems. These relays implement their functions from the phasors of the electrical network signals, estimated by digital processing using digital filters. Digital filters must meet certain requirements, such as providing a fast and effective response to increasingly complex transient signals made up of components that make the estimation process difficult. In addition to the decreasing exponential (decaying dc offset), harmonics, and signal noise, it must be added that the interharmonic components that in recent years have acquired great relevance, mainly because of the increase in non-linear loads and the extensive use of power electronic systems. The presence of these interharmonic components causes a poor response in most of the filters implemented today. This article presents the design of a new digital filter, C-CharmDF (Cleaned Characteristic Harmonic Digital Fi... [more]

Advancement in electricity is the key ingredient that can actively take part in alleviating poverty and drastically improve the socio-economic status of the people of Bangladesh. The incorporation of renewable energy sources would help the country meet the energy requirement as well as contribute positively towards building a sustainable planet. The paper has extensively discussed the potential aspects of renewable energy resources in Bangladesh and how the Internet of Things can facilitate the implementation of intermittent sources. The regulatory and socio-economic aspects of the renewable energy industry have been explored and sustainable solutions will be discussed to fast-track the process of integrating various renewable energy sources in the power grid to meet the energy demand. The paper discusses the challenges associated with the RE integration in Bangladesh’s power mix and tries to mitigate it through the IoT. Besides that, an RE map for Bangladesh along with prospective pow... [more]

As micro grids are gradually being deployed in many areas, communication technology is becoming important for collecting data and controlling devices in micro grids. In a micro grid, various devices are distributed and perform their respective functions. These devices exchange information with each other and transmit information to the micro grid management system. This micro grid environment is similar to the IoT environment in which information is exchanged in the presence of a large number of devices. Recent studies have tried to apply various IoT protocols as a communication protocol in the micro grid. However, the data model used in current research is limited in proprietary data mapping. Recently, IEC TC 57 published another IEC 61850 series which maps the IEC 61850 services to XMPP (eXtensible Messaging Presence Protocol), which was the first IoT protocol mapping of IEC 61850. Few research has shown that the mapping of the IEC 61850 data model to the IoT protocol and communicati... [more]

Batteryless Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices need to schedule tasks on very limited energy budgets from intermittent energy harvesting. Creating an energy-aware scheduler allows the device to schedule tasks in an efficient manner to avoid power loss during execution. To achieve this, we need insight in the Worst-Case Energy Consumption (WCEC) of each schedulable task on the device. Different methodologies exist to determine or approximate the energy consumption. However, these approaches are computationally expensive and infeasible to perform on all type of devices; or are not accurate enough to acquire safe upper bounds. We propose a hybrid methodology that combines machine learning-based prediction on small code sections, called hybrid blocks, with static analysis to combine the predictions to a final upper bound estimation for the WCEC. In this paper, we present our work on an automated testbench for the Code Behaviour Framework (COBRA) that measures and profiles the upper bound ene... [more]

The possibility of the application of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in search and rescue activities in a deep underground mine has been investigated. In the presented case study, a UAV is searching for a lost or injured human who is able to call for help but is not able to move or use any communication device. A UAV capturing acoustic data while flying through underground corridors is used. The acoustic signal is very noisy since during the flight the UAV contributes high-energetic emission. The main goal of the paper is to present an automatic signal processing procedure for detection of a specific sound (supposed to contain voice activity) in presence of heavy, time-varying noise from UAV. The proposed acoustic signal processing technique is based on time-frequency representation and Euclidean distance measurement between reference spectrum (UAV noise only) and captured data. As both the UAV and “injured” person were equipped with synchronized microphones during the experiment, va... [more]

Since awareness of the influence of home energy management services (HEMS) with Internet of things (IoT) has grown, the study on the acceptance of IoT services has been expanded. Previous studies, however, have not paid attention to the acceptance itself, focusing only on factors affecting the acceptance. This study attempts to draw meaningful implications by exploring the relationships between the acceptance and the factors affecting it with distinctions between passive acceptance and active acceptance. This study analyzed the ordinal logistic regression models based on a survey of 909 adults 19 years of age and older in Korea on HEMS with IoT. In addition, we attempt the ordinal forest to increase the reliability of the research results. As a result, this study showed that consumers’ perception of usefulness was noticeably important to enhance active acceptance and that those who had high sensitivity to new technology acceptance showed high active acceptance, and older women had high... [more]

In an electrical safe microenvironment, all kinds of electrical appliances can be operated safely to ensure the safety of life and property. The significance of safety hazard factors detection is to detect safety hazards in advance, to remind the administrators to exclude risk, to reduce the unnecessary loss, and to ensure that the electrical operation is healthy and orderly before the occurrence of accidents. In this paper, batteries are selected as the primary research subject of safety detection because batteries are used more and more in the Internet of Things (IOT), and they often cause fire in the process of discharging and charging. The existing algorithms need to be embedded into the specialized sensor for each important electrical appliance. However, they are limited by the actual deployment, so it is extremely difficult to spread widely. According to the opinions above, an improved load disaggregation algorithm based on dictionary learning and sparse coding with optimal dicti... [more]

Sound localization is a field of signal processing that deals with identifying the origin of a detected sound signal. This involves determining the direction and distance of the source of the sound. Some useful applications of this phenomenon exists in speech enhancement, communication, radars and in the medical field as well. The experimental arrangement requires the use of microphone arrays which record the sound signal. Some methods involve using ad-hoc arrays of microphones because of their demonstrated advantages over other arrays. In this research project, the existing sound localization methods have been explored to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of each method. A novel sound localization routine has been formulated which uses both the direction of arrival (DOA) of the sound signal along with the location estimation in three-dimensional space to precisely locate a sound source. The experimental arrangement consists of four microphones and a single sound source. Previou... [more]

This paper presents issues related to the adaptive control of the drive system with an elastic clutch connecting the main motor and the load machine. Firstly, the problems and the main algorithms often implemented for the mentioned object are analyzed. Then, the control concept based on the RNN (recurrent neural network) for the drive system with the flexible coupling is thoroughly described. For this purpose, an adaptive model inspired by the Elman model is selected, which is related to internal feedback in the neural network. The indicated feature improves the processing of dynamic signals. During the design process, for the selection of constant coefficients of the controller, the PSO (particle swarm optimizer) is applied. Moreover, in order to obtain better dynamic properties and improve work in real conditions, one model based on the ADALINE (adaptive linear neuron) is introduced into the structure. Details of the algorithm used for the weights’ adaptation are presented (including... [more]

Multiple applications of sensor devices in the form of a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN), such as those represented by the Internet of Things and monitoring dangerous geographical spaces, have attracted the attention by several scientific communities. Despite their interesting properties, sensors present an adverse characteristic: they manage very limited energy. Under such conditions, saving energy represents one of the most important concepts in designing effective protocols for WSNs. The objective of a protocol is to increase the network lifetime through the reduction of energy consumed by each sensor. In this paper, a robust clustering routing protocol for WSNs is introduced. The scheme uses the Locust Search (LS-II) method to determine the number of cluster heads and to identify the optimal cluster heads. Once the cluster heads are recognized, the other sensor elements are assigned to their nearest corresponding cluster head. Numerical simulations exhibit competitive results and dem... [more]

In order to investigate the grid integration of wind turbines (WT) of various scales and designs, a wind turbine emulator (WTE) is being built in Flensburg within the state-funded project GrinSH. The special feature of this WTE is the use of a large gas engine instead of an electric motor to emulate the behavior of a WT. In order to develop the controls of this innovative WTE and to design the upcoming test runs under safe conditions, a software in the loop model (SILM) was applied. This SILM contained a mathematical model of the wind turbine, mathematical models of the gas engine with an integrated controller, and a model of the generator and frequency converter unit, as well as a preventive modulator of the reference signal (PMRS). The PMRS module converts the reference signal of the emulated WT in such a way that the dynamics of the engine components can be calculated and balanced in advance to enable the required behavior of the entire SILM despite the dynamics of the gas engine. I... [more]

Competition on the local and global market forces enterprises to implement modern solutions and adapt to technological changes. Applying modern solutions allows an increase in the quality of the product and reduces production costs. The acoustic sensor, as a relatively cheap solution, allows signals to be obtained which, after appropriate processing, can be used to develop an automatic control of the longwall shearer, together with the recognition of the type of shale. This paper presents an introductory research, the goal of which has been to check whether acoustic signals carry useful information on what kind of material−shale or coal−is being cut by the cutting head of a longwall shearer. For this purpose, the fast Fourier transform and short-time Fourier transform functions implemented in MatLab were used. The results of the analysis are presented in the form of three-dimensional graphs and spectrograms. To sum up, the research carried out so far justifies the need for continuation... [more]