1,720,966 research outputs found
An Intelligence-based Tool for Energy Management by Device Interoperability in Smart Houses
No full textThe recent developments in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Internet of Things (IoT) make several house devices cooperate to each other to achieve higher energy performances and offer new services. However, the increasing embedded intelligence of smart devices is also generating a huge quantity of data, which must be properly managed. In fact, it is difficult to easily manage data to make certain functions available and to define a strategy for results maximization. This paper defines a methodology to improve smart home information management based on the selection, aggregation and classification of the sensible data and the correlation with the device typology, nature, and destination of use. Furthermore, a case study focused on washing machine is presented to demonstrate how this methodology can be implemented to realize a supporting tool encouraging service ideation to benefit the different subjects involved. The proposed model represents a first step towards the creation of a standard for smart house information management and device interoperability
A smart home information management model for device interoperability simulation
Full text linkNumerous smart home systems have been created in the recent years, but they still lack of high interoperability and research has been focused on single smart technologies instead of the system interoperability as a whole. Furthermore, available systems are usually strongly technology-oriented and they neglect the user’s satisfaction and the benefits’ analysis. In addition to this, modern systems impose the intelligent management of a huger amount of data, which needs to be properly coordinated to achieve higher performances and offer new energy-control services.
This paper defines an information management model to improve device interoperability in smart homes. It allows selecting and classifying the devices, visualizing their data model, aggregating the necessary data according to the desired service functions, and finally defining a set of rules to coordinate device operations according to user preferences and external events. A case study focused on washing machines is presented to demonstrate the methodology implementation; it allows designing and developing an energy-control service for the selected device and optimizing its functions according to the users’ needs and preferences as well as the constraints of the use scenario. Finally, the benefits achieved with such a new service are evaluated in terms of energy consumption, costs reduction and user satisfaction in a simulated home environment that represents practical scenarios of use
Designing and simulating smart home environments and related services
No full textThe recent advances in smart devices and communication technologies offer many opportunities to the creation of innovative smart environments and services. In particular, there is a strong interest about smart homes and energy-cost control services. Indeed, firstly the residential sector has been proved to be one of the most energy-intensive [Bertoldi et al. 2012]; secondly a lot of research recently focuses on smart device connectivity issues and information management models [Kofler et al. 2012] as well as energy efficiency architectures and services for the smart home [Torunski et al. 2012]. However, energy control is only one of the possible enabling functionalities; in fact, smart homes can make several intelligent objects cooperate each other to achieve higher performances and support the users’ everyday life: higher safety, better comfort, improved quality of life, reduced operative costs, or assisted living functionalities
Methodology to improve devices interoperability for energy efficiency in smart homes
No full textThe advances in home automation and communication technologies offer several attractive benefits for the modern smart home, such as increased energy efficiency, improved residential comfort and reduced operative costs for the homeowner. As the residential sector is responsible for about 20% of the total energy consumption, a strong interest to the smart home capabilities is growing all over the world. On the other hand, the increasing embedded intelligence of smart devices is also generating a huge quantity of data, which needs to be properly managed and coordinated. This paper defines a methodology to improve smart home information management and proposes a smart home data model able to exploit devices’ information and provide energy-control services. It allows aggregating significant data and defining a set of rules to manage the correlation between devices, desired functions and smart home events. The proposed approach is validated by the implementation on a real smart home environment, where several devices intelligently interoperate to provide energy-control services involving a cluster of companies and utilities
A methodology to design a knowledge-based tool for residential buildings simulation
No full textThe actual growing world energy demand is generating strong attention to the energy efficiency and to the environmental sustainability. The residential sector is one of the most energy-intensive reaching about 25% of global energy consumption. Furthermore, it is difficult to understand the real energy use in residential buildings suggesting the development of methodologies and tools to monitor and assess their energy performances. Such an analysis requires defining all the actors, their interaction rules and the intelligent management of a large amount of data. In addition to this, the energy performances of the home environment are closely related to the specific case under investigation, in fact it imposes the analysis of the particular application scenario and the target users to extract parameters able to describe the building behavior. They are related to the technological characteristics of the systems, to the external environment (e.g. external temperature, solar irradiation, etc.) and to the user needs and habits. It introduces some complexities, because many of these data are difficult to find and to predict. Another cause of complexity was introduced by the information and communication technologies (ICT) that creates new relationship between home devices fostering the spread of smart systems. In this scenario, simulation tools have been developed to grasp the real energy performance of a building, but they require a high level of detail for the input data which are often difficult to find. Otherwise, other tools are built for much simplified simulations and typically addressed to inexperienced users neglecting the real complexities of the system. For this reason, the paper presents a new design approach that aims to develop knowledge-based tools with architecture able to simulate the real behavior of the building considering all the actors and their interaction rules, but at the same time containing the features that allow them to be used in fast simulations or by inexperienced users. One of the focuses is the development of an intelligent user interface that, when requested, is able to automate and simplify data entry process. It is particularly useful when the user does not know the necessary input data for the simulation, e.g. energy consumption profiles, detailed features of the building, etc. All the steps of the proposed approach are described in the paper. In the first section is highlighted how the key parameters have been found and how they are organized as creating a knowledge base, while in the second section is shown the operation of the smart user interface and of the simulation tool. The results demonstrate that the proposed knowledge-based approach generates real benefits by simplifying and speeding up the data entry. Furthermore, the study shows how the smart user interface allows performing complex simulations also to novice users
On the manipulation of articulated objects in human-robot cooperation scenarios
No full textArticulated and flexible objects constitute a challenge for robot manipulation tasks, but are present in different real-world settings, including home and
industrial environments. Approaches to the manipulation of such objects employ ad hoc strategies to sequence and perform actions on them depending on their physical or geometrical features, and on a priori target object configurations, whereas principled strategies to sequence basic manipulation actions for these objects have not been fully explored in the literature. In this paper, we propose a novel action planning and execution framework for the manipulation of articulated objects, which (i) employs action planning to sequence a set of actions leading to a target articulated object configuration,
and (ii) allows humans to collaboratively carry out the plan with the robot, also interrupting its execution if needed. The framework adopts a formally defined representation of articulated objects. A link exists between the way articulated objects are perceived by the robot, how they are formally represented in the action planning and execution framework, and the complexity of the planning process. Results related to planning performance, and examples with a Baxter dualarm manipulator operating on articulated objects with humans are shown
A methodology for interoperability and information management in smart home environments
Full text linkThe environmental impact reduction and the growing world energy demand have generated a strong interest to smart home all over the world. Indeed, thanks to the recent developments in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Internet of Things (IoT), it is possible to create smart home system by making several objects installed at home cooperate each other and offering new services to end users. However, smart home system design is not a trivial task: the increasing embedded intelligence of smart devices is generating a huge quantity of data, which needs to be properly structured and managed, and the related services must be designed and personalized according to the specific users’ needs. This paper defines a methodology to support smart home system design and improve smart home information management by selection, aggregation and classification of relevant data, and their correlation to smart home services. The methodology implementation shows how it can support the design of services able to bring benefits to the subjects involved. It also represents the first step towards the creation of a standard by data management and device interoperability for smart home systems’ design
Designing and simulating smart home environments and related services
No full textThe recent advances in smart devices and communication technologies offer many opportunities to the creation of innovative smart environments and services. In particular, there is a strong interest about smart homes and energy-cost control services. Indeed, firstly the residential sector has been proved to be one of the most energy-intensive [Bertoldi et al. 2012]; secondly a lot of research recently focuses on smart device connectivity issues and information management models [Kofler et al. 2012] as well as energy efficiency architectures and services for the smart home [Torunski et al. 2012]. However, energy control is only one of the possible enabling functionalities; in fact, smart homes can make several intelligent objects cooperate each other to achieve higher performances and support the users’ everyday life: higher safety, better comfort, improved quality of life, reduced operative costs, or assisted living functionalities
A methodology for interoperability and information management in smart home environments
No full textThe environmental impact reduction and the growing world energy demand have generated a strong interest to smart home all over the world. Indeed, thanks to the recent developments in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Internet of Things (IoT), it is possible to create smart home system by making several objects installed at home cooperate each other and offering new services to end users. However, smart home system design is not a trivial task: the increasing embedded intelligence of smart devices is generating a huge quantity of data, which needs to be properly structured and managed, and the related services must be designed and personalized according to the specific users’ needs. This paper defines a methodology to support smart home system design and improve smart home information management by selection, aggregation and classification of relevant data, and their correlation to smart home services. The methodology implementation shows how it can support the design of services able to bring benefits to the subjects involved. It also represents the first step towards the creation of a standard by data management and device interoperability for smart home systems’ design
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