Abstract
In the last years, the amount of devices that can be connected to a network grew significantly allowing to, among other tasks, collect data about the environment or the people in it in a non-intrusive way. This generated nowadays well-known topics such as Big Data or the Internet of Things. This also opened the door to the development of novel and interesting applications. In this paper we propose a distributed system for acquiring data about the users of technological devices in a non-intrusive way. We describe how this data can be collected and transformed to produce meaningful interaction features, that reveal the state of the individuals. We analyse the requirements of such a system, namely in terms of storage and speed, and describe three prototypes currently being used in three different domains of application.

Abstract
The IEEE 802.15.4e amendment provides important functionalities to address timeliness and reliability in timesensitive WSN applications, by extending the IEEE 802.15.4-2011 protocol. Nevertheless, in other to make the appropriate network design choices, it is mandatory to understand the behavior of such networks under worst-case conditions. This paper contributes in that direction by proposing a methodology based on Network Calculus that will, by modeling the fundamental performance limits of such networks, enable in the future a quick and efficient worst-case dimensioning of the networks’ schedule and resources.

Abstract

Abstract
The manufacturing industry is facing a technology paradigm change, as also captured in the Industrie 4.0 vision as the fourth industrial revolution. Future smart industries will require to optimize not only their own manufacturing processes but also the use of products and manufacturing resources, their maintenance and their recycling. In this context the strengths and weaknesses of two key concepts, namely Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) and Intelligent Product (IP) are discussed, and it is suggested that an integration of these two approaches to meet the introduced emergent requirements is beneficial. The integration of CPS and IP is shown via two real-world industrial cases, covering different phases of the product life-cycle, namely the production, use and maintenance phases.

Abstract

Abstract
Earthworks are part of the construction of any type of ground transport infrastructure. In many road and railway infrastructures earthworks represent up to 30 to 50% of total cost of the construction. Moreover, earthworks involve the use of heavy mechanical equipment (e.g., excavators, dumper trucks, bulldozers and rollers) and repetitive activities that are responsible for large amounts of carbon emissions with negative impact to the environment. In this context, the optimization of earthworks construction activities is becoming increasingly important in recent years, while effective and practical integrated solutions have not been established so far. As such, this work introduces a novel optimization integrated system for earthwork tasks. In this integrated system, the optimization is carried out on various fronts, namely minimization of execution cost and duration, while attempting to reduce environmental impacts, such as carbon emissions. In order to achieve this, the integration of a wide array of technologies is required, so as to allow for a proper adjustment to reality. These range from evolutionary computation and data mining (i.e., soft computing), to geographic information systems and linear programming. The former are used firstly to provide realistic estimates of the productivity of available resources (i.e., equipment), and secondly to perform their optimal allocation throughout the construction site. Concurrently, the latter are employed for supporting the optimization of resource and material management, as well as of the trajectories associated with transportation of material from excavation to embankment fronts. The system has been validated using real-world data stemming from a Portuguese road construction site. Results show that the proposed system is very competitive when compared with the manual allocation methodologies currently used for the design and construction of earthworks. In fact, the system can output several different resource distribution solutions, which comprehend a trade-off between the referred optimization objectives, enhancing the flexibility of design by allowing the user to select the solution that best fits the project restrictions (e.g., deadline, budget). As such, the system is capable of allocating the available equipment in a way that maximizes its potential and productivity, while indirectly guaranteeing minimum carbon emissions in each possible solution. These results emphasize the importance of using this kind of decision support/optimization tools in the design and construction of earthworks. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.