Showing papers by "Gian Marco Revel published in 2018"

A Smart Sensing Architecture for Domestic Monitoring: Methodological Approach and Experimental Validation

Abstract: Smart homes play a strategic role for improving life quality of people, enabling to monitor people at home with numerous intelligent devices. Sensors can be installed to provide a continuous assistance without limiting the resident's daily routine, giving her/him greater comfort, well-being and safety. This paper is based on the development of domestic technological solutions to improve the life quality of citizens and monitor the users and the domestic environment, based on features extracted from the collected data. The proposed smart sensing architecture is based on an integrated sensor network to monitor the user and the environment to derive information about the user's behavior and her/his health status. The proposed platform includes biomedical, wearable, and unobtrusive sensors for monitoring user's physiological parameters and home automation sensors to obtain information about her/his environment. The sensor network stores the heterogeneous data both locally and remotely in Cloud, where machine learning algorithms and data mining strategies are used for user behavior identification, classification of user health conditions, classification of the smart home profile, and data analytics to implement services for the community. The proposed solution has been experimentally tested in a pilot study based on the development of both sensors and services for elderly users at home.

Measuring Occupants’ Behaviour for Buildings’ Dynamic Cosimulation

Abstract: Measuring and identifying human behaviours are key aspects to support the simulation processes that have a significant role in buildings’ (and cities’) design and management. In fact, layout assessments and control strategies are deeply influenced by the prediction of building performance. However, the missing inclusion of the human component within the building-related processes leads to large discrepancies between actual and simulated outcomes. This paper presents a methodology for measuring specific human behaviours in buildings and developing human-in-the-loop design applied to retrofit and renovation interventions. The framework concerns the detailed building monitoring and the development of stochastic and data-driven behavioural models and their coupling within energy simulation software using a cosimulation approach. The methodology has been applied to a real case study to illustrate its applicability. A one-year monitoring has been carried out through a dedicated sensor network for the data recording and to identify the triggers of users’ actions. Then, two stochastic behavioural models (i.e., one for predicting light switching and one for window opening) have been developed (using the measured data) and coupled within the IESVE simulation software. A simplified energy model of the case study has been created to test the behavioural approach. The outcomes highlight that the behavioural approach provides more accurate results than a standard one when compared to real profiles. The adoption of behavioural profiles leads to a reduction of the discrepancy with respect to real profiles up to 58% and 26% when simulating light switching and ventilation, respectively, in comparison to standard profiles. Using data-driven techniques to include the human component in the simulation processes would lead to better predictions both in terms of energy use and occupants’ comfort sensations. These aspects can be also included in building control processes (e.g., building management systems) to enhance the environmental and system management.

Health@Home: pilot cases and preliminary results : Integrated residential sensor network to promote the active aging of real users

Abstract: This study is realized within the framework of the Health@Home Italian project. The focus of this paper is to provide a description of the experimentation in a pilot case in Veneto region (Italy). The integrated residential sensor network (composed by a mix of domotic equipment and biomedical devices), which will allow older people to improve their life-style in their houses, is discussed, together with the apartments selection (i.e. the specifications and requirements) and the users’ recruitment. The authors will also introduce the analysis of the expected results, based on measurements of preliminary data and signals in living lab and the first feedback from the 13 recruited users. The results of the preliminary tests are used to improve the architecture, following the user-acceptance and the data collection. In this phase of the study, the possible services have been hypothesized, and this aspect will be investigated after the end of the experimentation phase (end of 2018)

Measuring metabolic rate to improve comfort management in buildings

Abstract: Indoor environment significantly affects occupants’ health and productivity. However, in smart buildings and cities, it can be improved thanks to the implementation of innovative ICT systems and services. Thermal comfort is one of the most complex aspects to be considered to enhance occupants’ well-being, because of the relevant role played by subjective parameters (physiological, psychological and cultural) in its evaluation. This challenge can be tackled by integrating wearable devices into the monitoring framework. Thus, this paper presents an innovative methodology to measure metabolic rate (M) based on wearable devices, which can be used to apply Fanger’s comfort model. This model makes use of both environmental and physiological quantities to calculate the PMV (Predicted Mean Vote) index. The former can be easily acquired through standard sensors, on the contrary, providing a good evaluation of the physiological variables of the model (i.e. metabolic rate and clothing insulation) is more difficult. In the proposed methodology, a wearable multi-parametric device has been adopted to measure data from occupants and calculate the metabolic rate. Different sets of physiological data have been investigated to derive the optimal set providing the most accurate metabolic rate. Results from laboratory tests are presented, considering activities ranging from sedentary (1 met) to more active ones (4 met). Finally, a virtual test bench has been developed to simulate a building where the methodology proposed is used to control the indoor air temperature by means of a PMV-based set-point calculation. The methodology has then been compared to traditional approaches with constant M.

Plug-and-play solutions for energy-efficiency deep renovation of European building stock

Abstract: Ninety percent of the existing building stock in Europe was built before 1990. These buildings are in urgent need for a significant improvement of energy-efficiency through renovation. State-of-the-art renovation solutions are available, but costly and lengthy renovation processes and incomprehensible technical complexities hinder the achievement of a wide impact at a European scale. This paper presents a research on Plug-and-Play (PnP) technologies supported by Building Information Modelling (BIM) to provide affordable, interchangeable and quick-installation solutions to overcome the main barriers of building deep renovation.

Cardiac Activity Classification using an E-Health App for a Wearable Device

Abstract: In the paper, authors discuss the development and performance evaluation of an e-health Android App, which allows to monitor and classify ECG-related features. The mobile platform is composed of a wearable and non-obtrusive sensor and a smartphone, which collects and process data during the daily life. The main goal of this work has been the development of a real-time, wireless monitoring tool that is not related to an indoor environment. Five physiological quantities are continuously measured: Heart Rate (HR) and 4 ECG time intervals (i.e., QT, ST, PR, QR); together with the complete ECG waveform, these parameters are displayed in real-time, while the user is performing different activities, indoor or outside. A visual feedback (i.e., colour bars, according to the level of the measured quantities) is provided to the user, together with the possibility to save data for further analysis. A pilot study has been conducted to evaluate the accuracy and the uncertainty of the data computed in real-time by the mobile application, to those derived from a reference system (i.e., ECG signal coming from a standard electrocardiograph), in post-processing. Results have shown a good agreement with gold standard instrumentation. The Bland-Altman test has identified a high correlation between the data computed by the App with respect to the ones from the gold standard (i.e., R2 equal or higher than 90%), with a slight underestimation of the time intervals (3.6±1.5 ms for QT, 4.1±1.7 ms for ST, 3.0±1.2 ms for QR and 11.9±1.9 ms for PR interval).

Experimental investigation by Laser Ultrasonics for train wheelset flaw detection

Abstract: The transport safety is a key factor in the rail field and to ensure it the monitoring of train components structural integrity must be performed regularly and following strict regulations. Consequently, the development of Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) procedures is a topic of great interest and impact, it aiming at the early identification of cracks and inhomogeneities on train axle and wheels which propagation can causes faults and accidents undermining the passenger and crew safety. Ultrasound based nondestructive testing is currently applied in ordinary maintenance procedures, although they are applied to axle and wheels dismounted from the train wheelset. In fact, the technique requires ultrasonic probes to be in contact with the object under test and therefore the fretting surface between wheel and axle, where fatigue phenomenon induces cracks enucleation and propagation, cannot be monitored. The possibility of applying NDT systems to the whole wheelset, without dismounting it in its components, will allow drastically reducing the inspection time and increasing the inspection frequency. The present paper proposes a feasibility study for the development of a Laser-Ultrasonic Testing (LUT) procedure to improve performances of train wheelset ultrasonic inspection. The method exploits one or an array of air-coupled ultrasonic probes, which detects ultrasonic waves generated by a high-energy pulsed laser. Thanks to the non-contact nature of both the response measurement sensor and the excitation system, the experimental set-up is extremely flexible and it allows extremely speeding up the inspection time.

A social robot to support integrated person centered care

Abstract: Caring for a person with dementia PwD can be a significant personal and emotional challenge for informal carers. Informal caregivers frequently report experiencing high levels of stress, mental and physical fatigue, social withdrawal and sleeplessness 1,2. Several technologies and services have been developed to support the care for people with dementia 3. Lifestyle monitoring 4 can reduce caregiver’s distress and thereby extend the period that the informal caregiver can sustain the care and support needs for the PwD 5. With lifestyle monitoring, carers have insight in the daily pattern of a person with dementia and thereby communication between both can be enhanced 6. Nevertheless, lifestyle monitoring is unidirectional without the PwD in the communication loop. To support integrated person centered care, we added social robotics to lifestyle monitoring in the European eWare project 7 to support bidirectional communication. Furthermore, the lifestyle monitoring sensors add context awareness to the social robot and the social robot provides an interface between the PwD and the informal carer. With increasing context awareness, the social robot can provide context relevant suggestions to the PwD, yet, it is unknown which suggestions are most appropriate and effective. To gain an insight in these context relevant suggestions, six focus groups 3 with formal carers and 3 with informal carers were performed in three countries The Netherlands, Switzerland and Italy. From the results, 11 functionalities were extracted, rated and ranked with - among others - activity guidance and inactivity monitoring as relevant functionalities to include. The integration of lifestyle monitoring and social robotics is promising and of value to support integrated person centered care. References : 1- Laparidou D, Middlemass J, Mountain P, Karran T, Hudson J, Mansfield P, Siriwardena N. Challenges for carers of people with dementia and their support needs from health and social care providers: a qualitative study. In: Trent Regional SAPC Spring Meeting, 15 March 2016, Leicester. 2- Aguglia E, Onor ML, Trevisiol M, Negro C, Saina M, Maso E. Stress in the caregivers of Alzheimer's patients: An experimental investigation in ltaly. American journal of Alzheimer's Disease and other Dementias 2004;194:248-252; doi: 10.1177/153331750401900403 3. Susanna Spinsante, Ennio Gambi, Laura Raffaeli, Laura Montanini, Luca Paciello, Roberta Bevilacqua, Carlos Chiatti, Lorena Rossi. Technology-based assistance of people with dementia: state of the art, open challenges, and future developments in Human Monitoring, Smart Health and Assisted Living: Techniques and Technologies, pg.55, IET. 2017 4. Scalise, L., Pietroni, F., Casaccia, S., Revel, G. M., Monteriu, A., Prist, M., ... & Pescosolido, L. Implementation of an “at-home” e-health system using heterogeneous devices. In Smart Cities Conference ISC2, 2016 IEEE International pp. 1-4. IEEE. 2016, September. 5. Bhattacharyya, S., & Benbow, S.M. Assistive Technologies and the Carers of People with Dementia: Empowerment and Connection. International Journal of Reliable and Quality E-Healthcare IJRQEH, 2016;51:45-59. 6. Nap, H.H., Lukkien D.R.M., Cornelisse C.C. Leefstijlmonitoring in Friesland. Longitudinaal onderzoek naar de impact van leefstijlmonitoring op mantelzorgers en de zorg voor mensen met dementie, september 2016, Vilans. 2016 7. Retrieved, December 15, 2017, available from: https://aal-eware.eu/wp/

An IoT Solution for Energy Management at Building and District Level

Abstract: Today the monitoring of energy variables plays a key-role in the proper management of buildings to optimize costs along with the low emission profile and comfortable environments The monitoring could be augmented by adding also optimization aspects that could decrease the energy/costs Up to now the optimization is performed by using building and context (district) data, but with no or rough evaluation of comfort conditions delivered to the occupants The work presented in this paper is derived from the ENERGIS project that takes into account individual buildings and districts including detailed comfort conditions representing a novelty in the Energy Management System The monitoring is used to locally sense the energy demand while the optimization is performed at two different scales The first optimization tries to consider different aspects related to the thermal management of rooms, supported by a novel sensor that is able to evaluate the comfort taking into account the room model and to control the thermal actuators to track a comfort set-point The second level of optimization starts from the collected data from each building to set-up a district model that is able to map and then predict the energy demand enabling an energy management that is built on the concept of “sharing” This paper outlines the overall system architecture that exploits the benefit of IoT also showing the first optimization level performed on a business office showing the overall pipeline that starts from the sensing of environment and ends with the control of actuators to track an optimized set-point

Identification of Users’ Well-Being Related to External Stimuli: A Preliminary Investigation

Abstract: In this paper, the authors have investigated the possibility of evaluating the well-being of the user, in relation to external stimuli, by means of continuous monitoring of physiological quantities. This preliminary analysis has interested the extraction of features from Electro-Dermal Activity (EDA) signal and their correlation with different emotional states (i.e., Arousal). A low-cost system for continuous monitoring of EDA has been described, together with the experimental setup and the processing techniques applied. A unique indicator, which combines the features extracted from the raw waveform, has been discussed in the paper and applied in post-processing. The implementation of the processing algorithms and the computation of the novel indicator allow to discriminate, with a statistical significance, the user perception, in case of high emotion events (i.e., from low level Arousal 6). More investigation is needed to improve the processing technique and validate the preliminary results obtained.

A Discrete-Continuous Method for Predicting Thermochemical Phenomena in a Cement Kiln and Supporting Indirect Monitoring

Abstract: Thermochemical phenomena involved in cement kilns are still not well understood because of their complexity, besides technical difficulties in achieving direct measurements of critical process variables. This article addresses the problem of their comprehensive numerical prediction. The presented numerical model exploits Computational Fluid Dynamics and Finite Difference Method approaches for solving the gas domain and the rotating wall, respectively. The description of the thermochemical conversion and movement of the powder particles is addressed with a Lagrangian approach. Coupling between gas, particles and the rotating wall includes momentum, heat and mass transfer. Three-dimensional numerical predictions for a full-size cement kiln are presented and they show agreement with experimental data and benchmark literature. The quality and detail of the results are believed to provide a new insight into the functioning of a cement kiln. Attention is paid to the computational burden of the model and a methodology is presented for reducing the time-to-solution and paving the way for its exploitation in quasi-real-time, indirect monitoring.

A Sub-Zonal PMV-Based HVAC and Façade Control System for Curtain Wall Buildings

Abstract: This paper presents an experimental test room in a curtain wall building where an innovative monitoring and control system was implemented and tested. The proposed solution is composed by an IR-based comfort sensor that measures the PMV (Predicted Mean Vote) index for 2 room’s sub-zones and provides the optimal air temperature set-points. The overall control system includes a distributed sensors and actuators network, also embedded into the facade modules, to measure indoor and outdoor parameters and to regulate fan-coils, windows opening and shadings with a sub-zonal approach. Initial results turn out to provide an energy saving of about 20% with an improvement of thermal/visual comfort and IAQ conditions.

VERAM, for a sustainable and competitive future for EU Raw Materials

Abstract: The project, VERAM "Vision and Roadmap for European Raw Materials", aims to deliver a mapping of on-going initiatives on non-food, non-energy raw materials (including metals, industrial minerals, aggregates and wood) at European, Member State, and regional levels both from the Research and Innovation (R&I), industry, and policy perspectives. Moreover, based on a comprehensive gap analysis, VERAM will propose a common long term 2050 Vision and Roadmap in coordination and cooperation with all stakeholders across the value chain. For the first time, two European Technology Platforms (ETPs) together with their corresponding European Research Area Networks (ERA-NETs) are joining forces to develop a common roadmap.

Lo sviluppo intelligente nei comuni delle Marche: i risultati dell'indagine Smart Cities e Communities

Abstract: Questo lavoro nasce dall’esigenza di comprendere come i comuni marchigiani stiano affrontando la sfida dello sviluppo intelligente, ossia un percorso caratterizzato dalla sostenibilita economica, sociale ed ambientale. Si tratta di un tema, quello dello sviluppo intelligente, che, generalmente, viene declinato alla scala dei grandi sistemi urbani e metropolitani, ma che, partendo dalla centralita di istituzioni pubbliche, cittadini, imprese, centri di ricerca-universita e relativo ecosistema, e delle relazioni che fra essi si instaurano, puo essere considerato anche rispetto a contesti meno spiccatamente urbani, come quello marchigiano. Sulla base di questa affermazione, l’articolo cerca innanzitutto di capire quale sia il posizionamento relativo della Regione Marche rispetto ad una serie di indicatori normalmente utilizzati per valutare le performance delle Smart Cities e Communities . In secondo luogo, vengono proposti i risultati di un questionario somministrato ai comuni marchigiani, volto a reperire informazioni su alcune condizioni abilitanti rispetto alla formulazione di politiche intelligenti, e sulle caratteristiche di queste ultime. Confrontando i risultati che discendono dall’analisi degli indicatori delle politiche intelligenti con quelli del questionario, verranno, infine, forniti alcuni suggerimenti di policy relativi al caso marchigiano.

A framework for comfort assessment in buildings and districts retrofit process

Abstract: The retrofit design of buildings and districts cannot exclude the occupants’ perspective if comfortable and healthy conditions have to be obtained. For this reason, the NewTREND1 project developed a collaborative platform for the energy efficient buildings and districts retrofit that includes the users’ perspective. Three modules have been developed for thermal comfort, acoustic comfort and behavioural assessment. These modules are integrated into a Simulation and Design Hub that, after gathering data from on-site measurements, builds a simulation model of the district, calculates yearly results and exposes them to the design team through a dedicated District Information Model server and user interfaces. These modules perform deep investigations on the occupants’ sensation and behaviour, based on both measured and simulated datasets and provide comparisons of comfort performances, considering different retrofit scenarios and related uncertainties. In details, the thermal comfort module performs analysis according to both predictive and adaptive models, evaluates the variability around the design conditions together with sensitivity analysis that highlights which parameters are the most critical for the retrofit design. The acoustic module provides a complete tool to predict and assess the indoor acoustic comfort, taking into account the performance of building envelope and the impact of district noise. Finally, the behavioural module empowers the building energy simulation with co-simulation capabilities that reproduces the real occupants’ behaviours in relation to comfort conditions. The final goal of the framework is to support the decision-making process in selecting the optimal retrofit option that achieves the targeted energy efficiency without infringing the occupant’s expectation in terms of comfort and well-being.