Call for Proposal: Internet-of-Things (IoT) for Intelligent Buildings and Transportation

Transcription

1 HKUST-MIT Research Alliance Consortium Call for Proposal: Internet-of-Things (IoT) for Intelligent Buildings and Transportation Lead Universities Participating Universities 1

2 The expansion of internet and networking technologies has led to large scale connectivity of devices in various applications including manufacturing, energy grids, healthcare facilities, building and transportation systems, to name few. Internet of things (IoT) has therefore evolved due to the convergence of wireless, sensor and internet technologies with an estimated 50 billion devices connected to the Internet by These devices will include a large number of fixed and mobile data-gathering sensors equipped with machineto-machine connectivity. A wide range of industries have realized the importance of IoT and it is believed that IoT will make everything in our lives from homes to automobiles smarter. This call for proposals invites pre-competitive research contributions in the area of IoT for intelligent buildings and transportation according to the following themes of research: 1. Theme 1: Core Enabling Technologies for Intelligent Buildings In a time of mounting concern for the environment and rapid population growth in regions of high economic development, there is a need to re-think the existing modes of human habitation. It is projected that within our generation, 70 % of the population will be living in urban environments. Megacities are a reality in many countries in Asia, and the expectations of quality and quantity of living space will lead to a doubling of buildings on the planet. This urbanization places an unprecedented burden on resources water, energy, materials, and how they are processed to support habitation. The anticipated strain on planetary resources merits research into intelligent new modes of environmentally sustainable living space. A Smart Green Building wherein human habitation is elegantly supported, should address Efficiency, Security and User Experience. Efficiency could be achieved by revolutionary use of intelligent systems in building s material, energy and water infrastructure with conscious avoidance of negative environmental impact associated with building use. Critical systems and data require security to be designed from the outset for the hardware, software and applications. A Smart Green Building should strive to harmonize form and function, promote health, comfort and security while allowing individual expression of elegance through customization. This merits an open-minded reflection on alternative modes of building praxis and life-styles that require minimal deployment of resources to offer maximum wellbeing and shelter. This call for proposals seeks to uncover challenging problems in various engineering domains such as advanced data analytics with a focus on enabling technologies for building infrastructure and user experience and the enabling technologies including, sensors and actuators, digitation and signal processing, communications and control. For instance, intelligent and customizable buildings rely on the ability to collect real-time data about the environment as well as the ability to react to real-time events. As such, ubiquitous sensor and actuator networks and systems will definitely play a key role. Furthermore, the data 2

3 collection and data fusion from the sensors to the backend is also very important. In many countries such as China and Korea, there are huge research initiatives about internet-ofthings (IoT) or device-to-device (D2D) communications over the next 5-10 years. There has been a lot of research on sensor networks over the past 10 years. However, the applications of sensor networks have been mostly restricted to industrial automation, military or other small-scale applications. This is partly due to the size, cost and power dissipation of current technologies as well as the scalability issues in the deployment, operation and maintenance of sensor networks. With the cost and size reduction of huge computational resources research breakthroughs are needed to make sensor networks truly ubiquitous and to develop the signal processing and data analytics to derive actionable information for building infrastructure and the user experience and to bring about proliferation of IoT technologies to our daily life. Some of the key research challenges are briefly elaborated from the highest level involving data analytics for efficient automated building management and the user experience to the underlying technological needs for sensors that operate with harvested energy and efficient network control including autonomous sensor network platforms Data Analytics for improved efficiency and automated facilities management in intelligent buildings Developing an intelligent building starts with sensing and data acquisition, but also requires a very important component related to data analysis. With the emergence of sensing technologies, it is now possible to gather a very large amount of data. These data include temperature, humidity, air quality, airflow, energy consumption data, and images, to name few. Most buildings collect a large amount of data, but unfortunately what is often missing is a centralized solution to analyze the data and use the analysis and the intelligence to improve building efficiency automate facilities management and enhance the user experience. The key question is once these data are gathered how can it be efficiently analyzed and then utilized to make the right corresponding action. This theme addresses these issues by developing the required tools to analyze smart building data and also derive the corresponding intelligence Knowledge-based and recommendation engine for daily lives With the massive data acquired by ubiquitous sensors, one of the most challenging tasks is to develop models to best describe daily user activities enabling the construction of algorithms that will improve user experience as well as building efficiency and intelligence. This theme will therefore encompass developing knowledge graph technologies focusing on daily user activities as well as recommendation algorithms based on the knowledge graph and user activities. 3

4 1.3. User Experience, Privacy / Security and Application Scenarios User experience is an important aspect of Iot for Intelligent Buildings and Transportation. Advanced data fusion algorithms and data mining will be required to harvest key events or context-aware information for intelligent decision making and to facilitate personalization of living spaces, environmental sensing and surveillance with deployable point of use solutions to ensure health, security and comfort as well as other potential application scenarios. It should support privacy and personal refinement Low-Power Sensor Technologies and Design It is important to reduce the cost and size as well as extending the reliability of a variety of sensors such as power sensors (for monitoring power consumption), bacteria and chemical sensors (for monitoring air and water quality), temperature and image sensors at wavelengths from visible to mm-wave. Miniaturization and low-cost sensor technologies and design are the key to the scalability and penetration of sensor networks. Furthermore, the cost for ubiquitous deployment and the energy for sustainable maintenance of these sensors should also be considered and addressed. In many applications, it is very expensive to replace the sensor battery and the sensors are expected to last for a very long time (e.g. >10 years). As such, it is very important to have advanced circuit designs and system algorithms to reduce the power consumption of sensors Smart Power Management & Energy Storage, Delivery and Harvesting Systems While low-power analog and digital circuit designs as well as intelligent and decentralized power management algorithms are important research areas to reduce power consumption, the high-level objective of "autonomous" sensor nodes will require a combination of innovative solutions in energy storage, such as smart battery management systems to interface with Li-ion batteries, novel energy delivery technologies, such as power over Ethernet and wireless access points, and various energy harvesting technologies. In particular, wireless power transfer (through near field and far field) and energy harvesting systems will also play a critical role to extend the battery life in ubiquitous sensor networks. For the various wall-plugged sensor infrastructures, such as actuators and motor controllers for building automation and environmental control, high-efficiency converter circuits and distribution circuits will be critical to the overall efficiency of the smart green buildings. Solid state lighting and lighting control must also be considered as an integral part of the overall green building technology. In addition, environmental modeling for operation in high electromagnetic interference conditions will be crucial for enabling systematic design of the sensor components to be deployed in noisy environments such as in HVAC and industrial buildings. 4

5 1.6. Efficient Signal Processing, Statistical Inference and Network Control A truly ubiquitous sensor network relies on the widely distributed smart devices, sensors and actuators to monitor the environment in real time, to react in time, to establish automated control and to collect information for intelligent decision making. The distributed processing and collection of information allows the sensor network to scale but at the same time poses fundamental challenges in both research and implementations. Smart building systems must be able to interoperate. Imagine a building with multiple smart systems that are completely unaware of other smart systems operating in the same environment. A very simple example is a motion/intruder detection system that does not recognize that the smart vacuum is programmed to run while the occupants are on vacation setting off the burglar alarm. The complex environment of multiple sensor systems will result in challenging problems where the ability to interoperate is imperative. These research problems involve in-depth theoretical study in new and exciting research areas in which the communication and information theory intersects with computation, signal processing and control Autonomous Self-Organizing Sensor Network Platform One of the key hurdles in the widespread penetration of sensor networking is the overhead of installation, customization and configuration of the sensor network. For instance, hundreds or thousands of sensors are involved in many application scenarios and the manpower cost associated with the operation and maintenance of such network may be very high. As such, it is very important to have network intelligence and decentralized management algorithms so as to minimize the effects of configuration and maintenance of the network involving many sensors or actuators. This involves advanced decentralized algorithm designs and distributed stochastic optimizations. 2. Theme 2: Core Enabling Technologies for Intelligent Transportation Traditional transport systems have the potential to be completely transformed using information and communication technology (ICT) and data analytics, in order to achieve safe, innovative, energy and cost-efficient transportation systems leading to the so-called intelligent transport systems (ITS). ITS consists of many subsystems, such as area traffic control, traffic surveillance, electronic parking, traffic information systems, to name few. On one hand, many of these systems belong to public sectors, and have been well developed to 5

6 enhance the performance of transport systems. On the other hand, with the emergence of new technologies, the private sector is playing an increasingly important role in transforming the whole transport system. Some of the key research challenges are briefly elaborated below. 2.1 Imaging and obstacle avoidance for Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). The core building block of any ITS system is imaging the real world scene using a variety of possible means including a camera (widely available in ITS) and/or Radar as well as LED sensors. Improved detection and recognition of non-vehicular objects and beings require new evasive actions to be taken depending on the criticality of avoidance. Beyond imaging and scene understanding, can we achieve some level of intent estimation for other actors in the scene such as a pedestrian stepping off the curb or hazard-prediction before it s present in the scene? This theme involves exploring new imaging technologies and the processing of that data that can be deployed for ITS in order to provide active safety driving features. 2.2 Communication and networking technologies for ITS ITS aims to revolutionize transportation connectivity in order to improve its safety and efficiency. Transportation connectivity includes vehicle-to-vehicle communication (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure communication (V2I), infrastructure-to-vehicle (I2V), as well as vehicle-to-device communication (V2D). To enable ITS and in particular communicationbased safety applications, wireless communication technologies represent a core essential part. Based on coverage area, there are two kinds of communication systems: (i) long-range communication and (ii) short-range communication. Long-range communication systems include, for example, cellular networks such as 3G and LTE/LTE-A in addition to satellite digital audio radio service (SDARS). Various short range RF wireless communication technologies have been applied in the past and these include Bluetooth, Ultra-wideband (UWB), in addition to dedicated short range communication (DSRC). Visible Light Communications is a new wireless communication technology using visible light between 400 and 800 THz, which is not regulated by the Radio Regulation Laws. Naturally, VLC has broadcasting capabilities, which can support local broadcast mode. It is a viable alternative to RF technologies to strengthen the performance of ITS by solving the channel congestion problem under highly dense traffic situation and expanding the capacity of data transmission. This theme mainly looks at exploring efficient communication technologies that can be deployed for smart transportation systems. This involves the design, implementation, and 6

7 optimization of dynamic data communications architecture that can potentially provide reliable and effective communication and networking for ITS. 2.3 Algorithmic solutions for fast target detection and tracking Transport systems are very dynamic as vehicles are moving at high speed on the road. The relative position of the transmitter and receiver is therefore dynamically changing quickly at all times, which requires very fast source detection and tracking in order to build a robust communication link. The ability of tracking the transmitter is therefore essential in maintaining reliable communication signal between the transmitter and the receiver. This particular theme involves potential solutions for fast target detection and tracking in a very dynamic environment such as transportation systems. This theme also encompasses algorithmic solutions and their efficient implementation in the area of object detection, recognition and tracking addressing features related to intelligent driving experience. 2.4 Data Analytics for improved transportation systems Developing a safer and smarter transportation system starts with data acquisition and sensing but also requires a very important component related to data analysis. The fundamental understanding of overall ITS system (vehicles + infrastructure) data analytics, and information flow that are required to provide high efficiency and safety is sill lacking. With the emergence of sensing technologies in automobile and transportation infrastructure, it is now possible to gather a very large amount of data from vehicles as well as infrastructure. Unfortunately what is often missing is a centralized solution to analyze the data and use the analysis and the intelligence to improve transportation efficiency and automate some critical parts of driving situations. The key question is once these data are gathered how can it be efficiently analyzed and then utilized to make the right corresponding action. This theme addresses these issues by looking at the required tools to analyze smart transportation data and also derive the corresponding intelligence to improve the safety and efficiency of transportation systems. Summary We solicit research proposals to conceive creative solutions to parts of these problems and related problems in the area of IoT for Intelligent Buildings and Transportation. The nature of the research should be more forward-looking and exploratory rather than short-term extensions of current architectures and technologies. Furthermore, the proposals may consist of excellent theoretical and experimental research, as well as potential applications 7

8 to the industry (such as proof-of-concept demonstration). Possible research topics include but are not limited to the following: Theme 1: Case study on user experience and application scenarios. Data Analytics for improved efficiency Automated facilities management in intelligent buildings Knowledge-based and recommendation engine for daily lives Low cost sensor technology, including new materials, analog and digital circuit designs. Low power energy harvesting sensor and protocol designs Wireless power transfer system architecture, protocols and algorithms. Power management algorithms and designs of ubiquitous sensor networks. Compressive sensing designs, including real-time measurement matrix design, robust sparse recovery algorithms, distributed compressed sensing. Distributed statistical inference and social learning algorithms. Network control theory, remote sensing and estimation, control with communication/computation constraints. Low overhead ubiquitous cooperative sensing and multi-source data fusion. Information interactions of sensor network with cellular networks and internet. Architecture, protocols and interoperation across heterogeneous platforms. Privacy and security issues of sensor networks. Energy efficient data collection and fusion. Robust and self-organizing sensor networks. Theme 2: Core enabling technologies for intelligent transportation systems. Visible light and mm-wave imaging for ITS. Obstacle avoidance systems for ITS Communication and networking technologies for ITS Visible Light Communication for ITS Algorithmic solutions for fast target detection and tracking Object detection, recognition and tracking for ITS. Data Analytics for improved safety and intelligent driving. Experimental testbeds VLSI architecture for ITS applications. Novel communication system designs in wireless, optical and satellite communications Integrated hybrid circuit and packet hardware Ultra-broadband mobile wireless networks Fast and reconfigurable heterogeneous networks Security, trust and privacy in ITS Software defined networks Heterogeneous network and internetworking and jointly optimized designs Physical layer aware and adaptive network control plane 8