Deployment of embedded technologies is increasingly being examined in industrial supply chains as a means for improving efficiency through greater control over purchase orders, inventory and product related information. Central to this development has been the advent of technologies such as bar codes, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems, and wireless sensors which when attached to a product, form part of the product's embedded systems infrastructure. The increasing integration of these technologies dramatically contributes to the evolving notion of a "smart product", a product which is capable of incorporating itself into both physical and information environments. The future of this revolution in objects equipped with smart embedded technologies is one in which objects can not only identify themselves, but can also sense and store their condition, communicate with other objects and distributed infrastructures, and take decisions related to managing their life cycle. The object can essentially "plug" itself into a compatible systems infrastructure owned by different partners in a supply chain. However, as in any development process that will involve more than one end user, the establishment of a common foundation and understanding is essential for interoperability, efficient communication among involved parties and for developing novel applications. In this paper, we contribute to creating that common ground by providing a characterization to aid the specification and construction of "smart objects" and their underlying technologies. Furthermore, our work provides an extensive set of examples and potential applications of different categories of smart objects.

http://autoidlab.cs.adelaide.edu.au/sites/default/files/publications/papers/art%253A10.1007%252Fs10796-009-9218-4.pdf

Taxonomy, technology and applications of smart objects

Novel air traffic management (ATM) strategies are proposed through the Next Generation Air Transportation and Single European Sky for ATM Research projects to improve the capacity of the airspace and to meet the demands of the future air traffic. The implementation of the proposed solutions leads to increasing use of wireless data for aeronautical communications. Another emerging trend is the unmanned aerial vehicles. The unmanned aerial systems (UASs) need reliable wireless data link and dedicated spectrum allocation for its operation. On-board broadband connectivity also needs dedicated spectrum to satisfy the quality of service requirements of the users. With the growing demand, the aeronautical spectrum is expected to be congested. However, the studies revealed that the aeronautical spectrum is underutilized due to the static spectrum allocation strategy. The aeronautical communication systems, such as air–air and air–ground communication systems, inflight infotainment systems, wireless avionics intra-communications, and UAS, can benefit significantly from the introduction of cognitive radio-based transmission schemes. This paper summarizes the current trends in aeronautical spectrum management followed by the major applications and contributions of cognitive radio in solving the spectrum scarcity crisis in the aeronautical domain. Also, to cope with the evolving technological advancement, researchers have prioritized the issues in the case of cognitive radio that needs to be addressed depending on the domain of operation. The proposed cognitive aeronautical communication systems should also be compliant with the Aeronautical Radio Incorporated and Aerospace Recommended Practice standards. An overview of these standards and the challenges that need immediate attention to make the solution feasible for a large-scale operation, along with the future avenues of research is also furnished.

Cognitive Radio for Aeronautical Communications: A Survey

The development of health monitoring technologies for aerospace systems creates a number of challenges for the community of engineers and technical specialists as they seek to integrate the technology into well defined working practices. These challenges do not just extend to the technical, but require a number of commercial questions to be addressed. It is of vital importance, that there is a clearly identified need for aerospace health monitoring, both from a technological and commercial viewpoint. If these needs cannot be identified, then any attempt for marketing health monitoring as a necessary future technological requirement is doomed for failure. Health monitoring technology will need to either deliver significant cost saving benefits to the aircraft operator or demonstrated increases in aircraft safety. The objective of the paper is to provide an assessment of the commercial benefits and development of aircraft landing gear health monitoring. The commercial need and challenges for health monitoring systems are explored in this paper within the context of a changing aerospace maintenance industry and the role in which new systems technology will play. The key findings of the research study are that within the aerospace industry there is a desired paradigm shift within aircraft maintenance towards offering maintenance systems with predictive capabilities. This maintenance revolution will not just incorporate new technologies, but will result in aircraft maintenance packages tailored towards individual customer requirements. The study illustrates the state-of-the-art in health monitoring currently restricts aerospace integration and a number of key technical and commercial issues need to be addressed. Predictive health monitoring offers a variety of commercial benefits for maintenance providers, aircraft operators and manufacturers. However, in order for these benefits to be realised increased transparency in maintenance related information is required between these key players.

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Perspectives on the commercial development of landing gear health monitoring systems

A method for health monitoring of a damper associated with a landing gear is described which includes receiving sensor data from a pressure transducer and an accelerometer and optionally a thermal sensor operably mounted on or near the damper, a computer system, and applying, using the computer system, a diagnostic algorithm to the sensor data to induce and predict the health of the damper.

Systems and methods for monitoring health of vibration damping components

The emergence and deployment of connected devices in many domains of application (e.g. industrial production, buildings and facilities, urban environment, etc.) have resulted in the need to achieve integration of multiple and more complex systems. This new environment is stressing the intrinsic limits imposed by monolithic standards, data models and integration methods that focus on specific domains of application, types of systems, or specific aspects of a system. This paper describes the Plant Description Service developed as part of the Arrowhead Interoperability framework (EU ECSEL funded project). The manuscript contains a description of the abstract system descriptive model based on which the Plant Description service was implemented, and describes how the service can be used to achieve integration of several industry standards and data models. One use case and one case study is provided that illustrates how the service was practically implemented to support engineering scenarios in the domain of industrial production. The paper concludes with a critical review of the approach and suggestion for future work and developments.

/pdf/plant-descriptions-for-engineering-tool-interoperability-bi0w016l3o.pdf

Plant descriptions for engineering tool interoperability

Report Abstract: This case study aims at analysing the requirements for the integration of RFID and sensors in the integrated system health management process of aircraft landing gears. The study is based on a number of interviews and site visits at Messier-Dowty and Messier Services as well as on previous research conducted at the Cambridge Auto-ID Lab. The discussion, vision and the conclusions all aim at presenting the gathered requirements and the establishments for system design at a general level, hence the information about specific sensors and data requirements should be regarded as illustrative, realistic examples, not as an actual design specification.

/pdf/requirements-for-rfid-based-sensor-integration-in-landing-16dw3mlbf5.pdf

Requirements for RFID- based Sensor Integration in Landing Gear Monitoring - A Case Study

The complex task of identifying and monitoring mobile objects remotely — for example, perishable goods, containers, vehicles and machine parts — requires the efficient integration of sensors and a number of other technologies. This case study aims at analysing the requirements for such an integrated system and evaluating the functionality, applications and applicability of the GlobalTrak™ product of the System Planning Corporation against these requirements.

/pdf/identification-and-condition-monitoring-of-mobile-objects-by-1gtcwqwb7x.pdf

L Theodorou

Papers

Requirements for RFID- based Sensor Integration in Landing Gear Monitoring - A Case Study

Identification and Condition Monitoring of Mobile Objects by ID-based Sensor Integration - A Case Study