Paula Fraga-Lamas

Universidade da Coruña | UDC · Department of Computer Engineering

This paper details the creation of a novel Virtual Reality-based application for the Industrial Metaverse aimed at shipboard fire emergency training for fire drill and evacuation, aligned with the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) convention requirements. Specifically, the application includes gamified scenarios with different levels (e.g., varying fir...

Calculating the effort required to complete a task has always been somewhat difficult, as it depends on each person and becomes very subjective. For this reason, different methodologies were developed to try to standardize these procedures. This article addresses some of the problems that arise when applying NASA-Task Load Index (NASA-TLX), a metho...

The demand for real-time Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) management has increased recently, since low-cost and modern sensors such as Particulate Matter (PM), Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), Carbon Monoxide (CO), Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Radon (Rn), among others, have been put forward with considerable accuracy. Although these low-cost sensors cannot be c...

The deployment of Internet of Things (IoT) systems in Defense and National Security faces some limitations that can be addressed with Edge Computing approaches. The Edge Computing and IoT paradigms combined bring potential benefits, since they confront the limitations of traditional centralized cloud computing approaches, which enable easy scalabil...

One of the main limitations for the development and deployment of many Green Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Internet of Things (IoT) systems is the access to energy sources. In this aspect batteries are the main option to be used in energy constrained scenarios, but their use is limited to certain cases, either because of the constraints...

Wireless communications are critical in the constantly changing environment of IoT and RFID technologies, where thousands of devices can be deployed across a wide range of scenarios. Whether connecting to cloud servers or local fog/edge devices, maintaining seamless communications is difficult, especially in demanding contexts like industrial wareh...

Although Blockchain has been successfully used in many different fields and applications, it has been traditionally regarded as an energy-intensive technology, essentially due to the past use of inefficient consensus algorithms that prioritized security over sustainability. However, in the last years, thanks to the significant progress made on key...

Decentralized Metaverses, built on Web 3.0 and Web 4.0 technologies, have attracted significant attention across various fields. This innovation leverages blockchain, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), Extended Reality (XR) and advanced technologies to create immersive and interconnected digital environments that mirror the real world....

Blockchain has been widely criticized due to the use of inefficient consensus protocols and energy-intensive mechanisms that derived into a global enormous power consumption. Fortunately, since the first blockchain was conceived in 2008 (the one that supports Bitcoin), hardware and consensus protocols have evolved, decreasing energy consumption sig...

The Industrial Metaverse can benefit from the concepts fostered by Industry 5.0, since it implies making use of dynamic and up-to-date content, as well as fast human-to-machine interactions. To enable such enhancements, this article proposes the concept of Meta-Operator, which is essentially an industrial worker that follows the principles of Indus...

Industry 5.0 is an evolving concept that aims to enhance the way modern factories operate by seeking long-term growth, production efficiency and the well-being of industrial workers. Human-centricity, sustainability and resilience are the three pillars of Industry 5.0, which are developed on Industry 4.0 enabling technologies. One of the most compe...

Asthma is a chronic disease that affects the respiratory tract, inflicting coughing, wheezing and difficulty for breathing. In order to mitigate these problems, this paper introduces an IoT wearable that is able to monitor the state of an asthma patient: breathing frequency, heart rate and oxygen saturation level. It also detects parameters that ma...

The shipyard of the future, called Shipyard 5.0, is a highly technological environment where real-time monitoring of products, by-products and transport vehicles is crucial. Among the technologies able to locate such elements indoors, Ultra Wideband (UWB) is a good option for providing accurate positioning. However, the use of UWB in shipyards face...

We are delighted to jointly introduce the proceedings of the 4th edition of the European Alliance for Innovation (EAI) International Conference on Smart Governance for Sustainable Smart Cities (SmartGov 2022) and the 3rd edition of the EAI International Conference on Intelligent Edge Processing in the IoT Era (Edge-IoT 2022). These conferences brou...

The Industry 5.0 paradigm focuses on industrial operator well-being and sustainable manufacturing practices, where humans play a central role, not only during the repetitive and collaborative tasks of the manufacturing process, but also in the management of the factory floor assets. Human factors, such as ergonomics, safety, and well-being, push th...

The deployment of internet of things (IoT) systems in Defense and National Security faces some limitations that can be addressed with Edge Computing approaches. The Edge Computing and IoT paradigms combined bring potential benefits, since they confront the limitations of traditional centralized cloud computing approaches, which enable easy scalabil...

Systems with voice control are an attractive option for increasing technological integration, not only for people with little knowledge on technology or constrained Internet access, but also for people with certain disabilities. In addition, devices based on Alexa or Google Home provide an interesting alternative for interacting with Internet of Th...

While many companies worldwide are still striving to adjust to Industry 4.0 principles, the transition to Industry 5.0 is already underway. Under such a paradigm, Cyber-Physical Human-centered Systems (CPHSs) have emerged to leverage operator capabilities in order to meet the goals of complex manufacturing systems towards human-centricity, resilien...

While many companies worldwide are still striving to adjust to Industry 4.0 principles, the transition to Industry 5.0 is already underway. Under such a paradigm, Cyber-Physical Human-centered Systems (CPHSs) have emerged to leverage operator capabilities in order to meet the goals of complex manufacturing systems towards human-centricity, resilien...

The limitations of many IoT devices in terms of storage, computing power and energy consumption require them to be connected to other devices when performing computationally intensive tasks, as happens with IoT systems based on edge computing architectures. However, the lack of wireless connectivity in the places where IoT nodes are deployed or thr...

IoT devices can be deployed almost anywhere, but they usually need to be connected to other IoT devices, either through the Internet or local area networks. For such communications, many IoT devices make use of wireless communications, whose coverage is key: if no coverage is available, an IoT device becomes isolated. This can happen both indoors (...

The Industry 5.0 paradigm focuses on industrial operator well-being and sustainable manufacturing practices, where humans play a central role, not only during the repetitive and collaborative tasks of the manufacturing process, but also in the management of the factory floor assets. Human factors, such as ergonomics, safety, and well-being, push th...

A new paradigm known as Industry 5.0 is guiding the transition to a sustainable, human-centered, and resilient industry, which complements the existing concepts of Industry 4.0. These novel systems focus on continuous improvement of manufacturing processes, leveraging relevant aspects related to digitization and enabling technologies at the data le...

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), called “Industry 4 [...]

Recent improvements in embedded device hardware have led to increased performance and energy-efficiency, enabling the development of new low-power Industrial IoT (IIoT) solutions. When it comes to the development of energy efficient industrial systems, the most commonly used options are Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) technologies. However, th...

Training of workshop operators and maintenance of industrial machinery is a major expense in large companies, since the lack of this process or its poor execution increase the cost and risks associated with the operation and handling of sensitive and/or hazardous machinery. Augmented Reality (AR), specifically Industrial Augmented Reality (IAR), ca...

The demand for real-time Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) management has increased recently, since low-cost and modern sensors such as Particulate Matter (PM), Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), Carbon Monoxide (CO), Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Radon (Rn), among others, have been put forward with considerable accuracy. Although these low-cost sensors cannot be c...

The development of multiple cultural and social related activities, such as shows related with the performing arts, conferences or presentations rely on facilities such as auditoriums, conference sites and theatres, which are progressively including multiple technological features in order to enhance user experience. In this sense, the adoption of...

Abstract: In the last years, Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs) have revolutionized the way many industries operate thanks to allowing non-trusted parties to perform transactions in a transparent and secure way, thus avoiding the participation of traditional intermediaries (e.g., banks, lawyers, or government agencies) and their...

Training of workshop operators and maintenance of industrial machinery is a major expense in large companies, since the lack of this process or its poor execution increase the cost and risks associated with the operation and handling of sensitive and/or hazardous machinery. Augmented Reality (AR), specifically Industrial Augmented Reality (IAR), ca...

This paper presents the design, implementation and initial evaluation of a wireless system for real-time oxygen monitoring in industrial confined areas. This type of working area is susceptible to sudden variations in oxygen levels, so, to ensure the safety of the operators, it is necessary to perform a real-time monitoring of oxygen values. Specif...

Industry 5.0 follows the steps of the Industry 4.0 paradigm and seeks for revolutionizing the way industries operate. In fact, Industry 5.0 focuses on research and innovation to support industrial production sustainability and place the well-being of industrial workers at the center of the production process. Thus, Industry 5.0 relies on three pill...

The progress of LPWAN technologies in recent years has increased their use in various types of environments as well as increased the applications in which they are used. However, due to the duty cycle limitations of license-free based technologies, they have a considerable limitation for applications with frequent data transmission or real-time dat...

Large companies use a lot of resources on workshop operator training and industrial machinery maintenance since the lack of this practice or its poor implementation increases the cost and risks of operating and handling sensitive and/or hazardous machinery. Industrial Augmented Reality (IAR), a major technology in the Industry 4.0 paradigm that may...

The emergence of the current pandemic has led to a new reality in which bureaucratic formalities have been affected in terms of health security, procedures, resource management, among others. Specifically, in the electoral processes, where the difficulty of fulfilling the social distance and the mobility restrictions reopen the debate on the implem...

This contribution presents an analysis of radio propagation in wireless context-aware environments, such as auditoriums, for the implementation of an Augmented Reality (AR) system dedicated to help and improve the user experience of people with disabilities in auditoriums. To evaluate the proposed system, an evaluation of the wireless channel has b...

This paper presents the design, implementation and initial evaluation of a wireless system for real-time oxygen monitoring in industrial confined areas. This type of working area is susceptible to sudden variations in oxygen levels, so, to ensure the safety of the operators, it is necessary to perform a real-time monitoring of oxygen values. Specif...

Internet of Things (IoT) can help to pave the way to the circular economy and to a more sustainable world by enabling the digitalization of many operations and processes, such as water distribution, preventive maintenance, or smart manufacturing. Paradoxically, IoT technologies and paradigms such as edge computing, although they have a huge potenti...

Augmented Reality (AR) provides an alternative to the traditional forms of interaction between humans and machines, and facilitates the access to certain technologies to groups of people with special needs like children. For instance, in pediatric healthcare, it is important to help children to feel comfortable during medical procedures and tests t...

The development of multiple cultural and social related activities, such as shows related with the performing arts, conferences or presentations rely on facilities such as auditoriums, theatres and conference sites, which are progressively including multiple technological features in order to enhance user experience. There are still however situati...

Industrial Augmented Reality (IAR) is one of the key technologies pointed out by the Industry 4.0 paradigm as a tool for improving industrial processes and for maximizing worker efficiency. Training and assistance are two of the most popular IAR-enabled applications, since they may significantly facilitate, support, and optimize production and asse...

Climate change is driving new solutions to manage water more efficiently. Such solutions involve the development of smart irrigation systems where Internet of Things (IoT) nodes are deployed throughout large areas. In addition, in the mentioned areas, wireless communications can be difficult due to the presence of obstacles and metallic objects tha...

In recent years, the education sector has incorporated the use of new technologies and computing devices into classrooms, which allowed for implementing new ways for enhancing teaching and learning. One of these new technologies is augmented reality (AR), which enables creating experiences that mix reality and virtual elements in an attractive and...

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought several limitations regarding physical distancing in order to reduce the interactions among large groups that could have prolonged close contact. For health reasons, such physical distancing requirements should be guaranteed in private and public spaces. In Spain, occupancy is restricted by law but, in practice, ce...

La transformación digital está impulsada por las tecnologías de la llamada Industria 4.0, un nuevo paradigma de evolución industrial basada en sistemas ciber-físicos habilitado por tecnologías como la inteligencia artificial, el internet de las cosas (IoT), la realidad aumentada/mixta/virtual, los nuevos modelos de computación (e.g., cloud, mist, e...

The recent increase in the number of connected IoT devices, as well as the heterogeneity of the environments where they are deployed, has derived into the growth of the complexity of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication protocols and technologies. In addition, the hardware used by IoT devices has become more powerful and efficient. Such enhanceme...

This paper presents the development of a novel Microsoft HoloLens collaborative application that allows shipyard operators to interact with a virtual clutch during its assembly in a real Turbine workshop. Such an Augmented Reality (AR) experience acts as a virtual guide while assembling different parts of a ship. In particular, the proposed applica...

Industry 4.0 and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) are paradigms that are driving current industrial revolution by connecting to the Internet industrial machinery, management tools or products so as to control and gather data about them. The problem is that many IIoT/Industry 4.0 devices have been connected to the Internet without considering th...

A smart campus is an intelligent infrastructure where smart sensors and actuators collaborate to collect information and interact with the machines, tools, and users of a university campus. As in a smart city, a smart campus represents a challenging scenario for Internet of Things (IoT) networks, especially in terms of cost, coverage, availability,...

Suppose that you are developing a critical application that handles sensitive data. Access to the data should be limited, and data should be changed only under specific circumstances. Moreover, at any point in time you may be asked to provide an audit trail for the entire history of any piece of data, for example, the entire history of changes for...

The traditional process of finding a vacant parking slot is often inefficient: it increases driving time, traffic congestion, fuel consumption and exhaust emissions. To address such problems, smart parking (SP) systems have been proposed to help drivers to find available parking slots faster thanks to the latest sensing and communication technologi...

Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR) devices have evolved significantly in the last years, providing immersive AR/MR experiences that allow users to interact with virtual elements placed on the real-world. However, to make AR/MR devices reach their full potential, it is necessary to go further and let them collaborate with the physical ele...

Shodan is a search engine for exploring the Internet and thus finding connected devices. Its main use is to provide a tool for cybersecurity researchers and developers to detect vulnerable Internet-connected devices without scanning them directly. Due to its features, Shodan can be used for performing cybersecurity audits on Internet of Things (IoT...

Navantia, one of largest European shipbuilders, is creating a fog computing based Industrial Cyber-Physical System (ICPS) for monitoring in real-time its pipe workshops in order to track pipes and keep their traceability. The deployment of the ICPS is a unique industrial challenge in terms of communications, since in a pipe workshop there is a sign...

The rise of ubiquitous deepfakes, misinformation, disinformation, and post-truth, often referred to as fake news, raises concerns over the role of the Internet and social media in modern democratic societies. Due to its rapid and widespread diffusion, digital deception has not only an individual or societal cost, but it can lead to significant econ...

Blockchain and other Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs) have evolved significantly in the last years and their use has been suggested for numerous applications due to their ability to provide transparency, redundancy and accountability. In the case of blockchain, such characteristics are provided through public-key cryptography and hash functio...

En el desarrollo de los UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), coloquialmente conocidos como drones, es importante disponer de sistemas de detección de obstáculos para posibilitar la autonomía del UAV y evitar colisiones durante el vuelo. En este proyecto se diseña, implementa y evalúa una plataforma IoT multi-tecnología, segura, interoperable y escalabl...

In some parts of the world, climate change has led to periods of drought that require to manage efficiently the scarce water and energy resources. This paper proposes an IoT smart irrigation system specifically designed for urban areas where remote IoT devices have no direct access to the Internet or to the electrical grid, and where wireless commu...

Auditoriums and theaters are buildings in which concerts, shows and conferences are held, offering a diverse and dynamic cultural offer to citizens. But people with impairment usually have difficulties in order to fully experience all those provided cultural activities, since such environments are not totally adapted to their necessities. For examp...

The latest Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR) systems are able to provide innovative methods for user interaction, but their full potential can only be achieved when they are able to exchange bidirectional information with the physical world that surround them, including the objects that belong to the Internet of Things (IoT). The proble...

The latest advances in the different Industry 4.0 technologies have enabled the automation and optimization of complex tasks of production processes thanks to their ability to monitor and track the state of physical elements like machinery, environmental sensors/actuators or industrial operators. This paper focuses on the latter and presents the de...

Smart campuses and smart universities make use of IT infrastructure that is similar to the one required by smart cities, which take advantage of Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing solutions to monitor and actuate on the multiple systems of a university. As a consequence, smart campuses and universities need to provide connectivity to IoT...

Advances in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, offer unprecedented opportunities to boost a wide array of large-scale Internet of Things (IoT) applications. Nevertheless, UAV platforms still face important limitations mainly related to autonomy and weight that impact their remote sensing capabilities when capturing and processin...