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In the aerospace scenario, the use of sensors and sensor networks is to be encouraged as potentially versatile and reliable, but it is necessary to consider the constraints related to security that may limit the development of these structures. The possibility that there are technical criticalities that could damage the vehicles must be limited, so each device must be safe and reliable in every situation, and this implies the use of suitable components and specially designed structures. In this context, we propose an NFC type access structure to be applied to the sensors or to the network, for their possible configuration, activation or update. In this situation, the sensor is structured as a closed box without any physical access that could be damaged. The hardware and firmware structure has been realized. In order to communicate with even a mobile application has been developed. This object thus becomes a communication interface with the sensor, which becomes accessible without the need for serial or USB ports and so opening the possibility communicate with it by means of cell phones or tablets.

To detecting delaminations in honeycomb structures, shearography has great capability. It is commonly used by the aerospace industries for non-destructive testing (NDT). In this paper, we describe a simple and inexpensive shearography system suitable for routine control of composite material. In particular, the system is suitable for detecting delamination deriving from impact at low-velocity (tool drop, bird-strike, runway debris, etc.).

Applications of Big Data to smart cities are nearly limitless. However, challenges emerged with handling data with new magnitude of dimensionality, heterogeneity, required processing timeliness, and the lack of reported development experiences on how to turn Big Data into Smart Data may hinder the adoption of Big Data technologies in delivering smarter city services. This paper reports our experience in developing a Smart Big Data-centric software platform for tracking city performance. Here we examine how to design such a platform by exploiting architectural styles and open source technology for Big data management. We describe the actual development of an instance of it, the PELL Smart City Platform, for processing and managing urban data in the domain of public lighting. In particular, we focus on the formulation and evaluation of key performance indicators related to energy consumption to derive Smart Data from Big Data in the context of public street lighting.

Summary Within a project co-funded by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the final aim of which is to develop a WSN for smart monitoring of pesticides on agricultural land, the Italian and Serbian researchers have developed a hardware section of an electronic nose for pesticides. Since there are no specialized sensors which can smell the presence or absence of pesticides in the air, the electronic nose has been designed starting from an array of commercial gas sensors developed for other environmental applications. These sensors have a great advantage as they are COTS components. A measurement bench for testing the performance of the system has also been developed. Experimental tests have been conducted and the results have demonstrated the appropriateness of the idea. A test for calibration has been designed, as well, and it will be performed in the near future.

WSNs (Wireless sensor Networks) are a very robust and flexible structure which can be adapted to each scenario. The choice of the correct routing algorithm is a central point of a WSN, so a comparison between two routing algorithms, for an optical sensor network based on Lidar sensors, has been studied to propose a low consumption structure to improve security in aerospace scenario.

The environmental monitoring is particularly important in the agricultural sector to avoid or limit destructive phenomena or problems for human activities. Precision Agriculture, also known as Engineering for agriculture, uses innovative processes involving the use of integrated systems, such as electronic and automatic systems, to monitor and predict some critical situations. A great possibility for environmental monitoring is the use of Wireless sensor network, low cost structures that need little maintenance, and are simple to install and manage. Our study focuses in particular on the area relating to data transmission through the network, the routing protocols, in order to evaluate the best solution that allows energy savings and increases the reliability of the system. It compares the AODV (Ad hoc On Demand Distance Vector), LEACH (Low Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy), PEGASIS (Power-Efficient Gathering in Sensor Information Systems), MPRR (Multipath Ring Routing) and a modified version of MPRR, carrying out simulations through Castalia, a free tool specific for WSN. The simulations have shown that the modified version of multipath ring routing represents the best solution in terms of network duration and reliability.

A comparison between the most suitable routing protocols for WSNs applied in wide agriculture scenarios is shown. The protocols, already present in literature, have been conceived to better manage the power budget of the nodes and are particularly suitable to cover the energy issues that wide agriculture scenario can request. This study aims to indicate which of the protocols eligible for this scenario is the most suitable. Comparative simulation test will be shown.

Public lighting is one of higher expenditure for municipal administrations, in fact it is an energy-intensive service because of its inefficient functioning and consumption. One of the major problems is the lack of information about the actual state of public lighting systems, which would allow us to know its consumption, costs and performance, safety, compliance with standards and potential for improvement. Lunched by ENEA, PELL project has been developed as operative instrument of the Lumiere project, to improve the development of a new efficient and effective management model for public lighting to help turn urban centers into smart cities. This work describes the main goals of the project and the underlying infrastructure: big data platform, portal and related services provided to end users joining the PELL project directives.

Airport security is a very interesting scenario to investigate; in fact, the security in order to avoid accident is important to preserve human lives and to reduce airplane and instrument loss cost. An optical WSN can be proposed to scan the surface, ensuring the non-interference with airplane and airport instruments and security systems; we have identified a suitable sensor, and investigated particularly the best routing algorithm to guarantee the continuity of network’s functionality, through Castalia’s simulator.

The experimental observations of the photoelectric effect show the properties of quantum mechanics of the electromagnetic field. For this reason, this important effect is commonly used as an introductory topic for the study of quantum physics. The &ldquo, classical&rdquo, demonstration of the photoelectric effect is very incisive, unfortunately, the experimental apparatus is not cheap and easy to realize. The typical use of LEDs is as light emitters, but they can be used even as photosensors and, in this case, they are sensitive to wavelengths equal to or shorter than the predominant wavelength it emits. Furthermore, a LED used as detector is sensitive to wavelengths equal to or shorter than the predominant wavelength it emits. This ability of LEDs offers the possibility of developing a simple tool able to demonstrate the photoelectric effect. This paper describes the realization of an economic, simple, easy and safe system to use for the experimental demonstration of the photoelectric effect, based on the LED to LED structure. The paper has educational purposes, oriented towards laboratory teaching activities.

The paper deals with the possibility to improve the communications inside of aircrafts using specific cluster layout for Optical Wireless Sensor Networks. The paper shows as the implementation of a cluster layout increases the possibility to monitor the system under control making available a bigger quantity of data and allowing a punctual monitoring for specific sections considered more important. Some test have been realized to check the behavior of the net and to compare the new with respect to previous configuration.

the INS systems, from the first realizations on, have enjoyed a strong push to miniaturization. On the one hand, this has made them less prone to various mechanical-electrical problems and therefore reduced many of the errors due to technology. On the other hand, the intrinsic errors due to the inseparable error of the instrument remains. This paper examines a simple methodology for filtering and deleting the propagation errors of the INS systems. Most of the errors that can be mathematically compensated through an appropriate series of Kalman’s filters.

The paper shows a comparison between three routing protocols for WSN. The protocols are conceived for particular scenario easily findable in archeological site and take into account energy consumptions and robustness of the transmission. This study will show which of the three protocols better meets the needs of this particular scenario.