Real-Time Systems in Emerging IoT-Embedded Applications

A special issue of Computers (ISSN 2073-431X). This special issue belongs to the section "Internet of Things (IoT) and Industrial IoT".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 September 2021) | Viewed by 32192

Special Issue Editor

Department of Digital Systems, University of Thessaly, 41500 Larissa, Greece
Interests: computer systems design; computer architectures; operating systems; real-time systems; computer-based control; robotics; mechatronics, modelling and simulation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The objective of this Special Issue is the design, development, and implementation of real-time systems for emerging IoT and industrial IoT-embedded systems and their applications. Research on real-time control of time-sensitive systems has attracted great interest in recent years due to the increasing utilization of embedded control systems in the IoT and cloud. Embedded systems have made possible the realization of highly-effective controllers in many domains (smart manufacturing, smart home, smart autonomous vehicles, smart mobile devices, UAVs, etc.). The increase in implementations of such applications and their special timing requirements, in particular, for safety-critical systems, brings new challenges and issues in real-time systems. There is a need to research and propose novel efficient solutions. Therefore, we focus on real-time systems issues (e.g., efficiency, reliability, timely response, energy consumption, cost) from an architectural point of view, as well as from an operating systems perspective (e.g., real-time operating systems). There will be special emphasis on new designs and developments and their applications in various sectors (healthcare, manufacturing, industrial IoT, cloud systems, automotive, aerospace, etc.).

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Real-time systems and applications performance issues
  • Real-time system architectures and real-time operating systems
  • Real-time systems and application studies in various environments (e.g., manufacturing, IoT, cloud and edge computing, control systems, mechatronics and robotics, healthcare services)
  • Emerging and future real-time systems.

Dr. George K. Adam
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Computers is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Real-time systems
  • Internet of things
  • Industrial Internet of things
  • Design methods and tools
  • Real-time performance metrics
  • Efficiency, reliability, and adaptability
  • Embedded real-time systems and applications
  • Real-time control systems
  • Time-sensitive control systems
  • Safety-critical systems
  • Intelligent real-time systems and applications
  • COTS-based real-time systems
  • Distributed, networked, and mobile real-time systems
  • Peripherals and sensors
  • Performance evaluation and testing
  • Verification and validation
  • Modeling and simulation

Published Papers (8 papers)

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Research

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17 pages, 3935 KiB  
Article
Experimental and Mathematical Models for Real-Time Monitoring and Auto Watering Using IoT Architecture
by Jabar H. Yousif and Khaled Abdalgader
Computers 2022, 11(1), 7; https://doi.org/10.3390/computers11010007 - 03 Jan 2022
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 5629
Abstract
Manufacturing industries based on Internet of Things (IoT) technologies play an important role in the economic development of intelligent agriculture and watering. Water availability has become a global problem that afflicts many countries, especially in remote and desert areas. An efficient irrigation system [...] Read more.
Manufacturing industries based on Internet of Things (IoT) technologies play an important role in the economic development of intelligent agriculture and watering. Water availability has become a global problem that afflicts many countries, especially in remote and desert areas. An efficient irrigation system is needed for optimizing the amount of water consumption, agriculture monitoring, and reducing energy costs. This paper proposes a real-time monitoring and auto-watering system based on predicting mathematical models that efficiently control the water rate needed. It gives the plant the optimal amount of required water level, which helps to save water. It also ensures interoperability among heterogeneous sensing data streams to support large-scale agricultural analytics. The mathematical model is embedded in the Arduino Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for sensing the soil moisture level and checking whether it is less than the pre-defined threshold value, then plant watering is performed automatically. The proposed system enhances the watering system’s efficiency by reducing the water consumption by more than 70% and increasing production due to irrigation optimization. It also reduces the water and energy consumption amount and decreases the maintenance costs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Real-Time Systems in Emerging IoT-Embedded Applications)
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21 pages, 1417 KiB  
Article
On the Optimization of Self-Organization and Self-Management Hardware Resource Allocation for Heterogeneous Clouds
by Konstantinos M. Giannoutakis, Christos K. Filelis-Papadopoulos, George A. Gravvanis and Dimitrios Tzovaras
Computers 2021, 10(11), 147; https://doi.org/10.3390/computers10110147 - 09 Nov 2021
Viewed by 1715
Abstract
There is a tendency, during the last years, to migrate from the traditional homogeneous clouds and centralized provisioning of resources to heterogeneous clouds with specialized hardware governed in a distributed and autonomous manner. The CloudLightning architecture proposed recently introduced a dynamic way to [...] Read more.
There is a tendency, during the last years, to migrate from the traditional homogeneous clouds and centralized provisioning of resources to heterogeneous clouds with specialized hardware governed in a distributed and autonomous manner. The CloudLightning architecture proposed recently introduced a dynamic way to provision heterogeneous cloud resources, by shifting the selection of underlying resources from the end-user to the system in an efficient way. In this work, an optimized Suitability Index and assessment function are proposed, along with their theoretical analysis, for improving the computational efficiency, energy consumption, service delivery and scalability of the distributed orchestration. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is being evaluated with the use of simulation, by comparing the optimized methods with the original approach and the traditional centralized resource management, on real and synthetic High Performance Computing applications. Finally, numerical results are presented and discussed regarding the improvements over the defined evaluation criteria. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Real-Time Systems in Emerging IoT-Embedded Applications)
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24 pages, 12397 KiB  
Article
IoTSAS: An Integrated System for Real-Time Semantic Annotation and Interpretation of IoT Sensor Stream Data
by Besmir Sejdiu, Florije Ismaili and Lule Ahmedi
Computers 2021, 10(10), 127; https://doi.org/10.3390/computers10100127 - 11 Oct 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2616
Abstract
Sensors and other Internet of Things (IoT) technologies are increasingly finding application in various fields, such as air quality monitoring, weather alerts monitoring, water quality monitoring, healthcare monitoring, etc. IoT sensors continuously generate large volumes of observed stream data; therefore, processing requires a [...] Read more.
Sensors and other Internet of Things (IoT) technologies are increasingly finding application in various fields, such as air quality monitoring, weather alerts monitoring, water quality monitoring, healthcare monitoring, etc. IoT sensors continuously generate large volumes of observed stream data; therefore, processing requires a special approach. Extracting the contextual information essential for situational knowledge from sensor stream data is very difficult, especially when processing and interpretation of these data are required in real time. This paper focuses on processing and interpreting sensor stream data in real time by integrating different semantic annotations. In this context, a system named IoT Semantic Annotations System (IoTSAS) is developed. Furthermore, the performance of the IoTSAS System is presented by testing air quality and weather alerts monitoring IoT domains by extending the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards and the Sensor Observations Service (SOS) standards, respectively. The developed system provides information in real time to citizens about the health implications from air pollution and weather conditions, e.g., blizzard, flurry, etc. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Real-Time Systems in Emerging IoT-Embedded Applications)
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19 pages, 673 KiB  
Article
Invariant-Based Safety Assessment of FPGA Projects: Conception and Technique
by Vyacheslav Kharchenko, Oleg Illiashenko and Vladimir Sklyar
Computers 2021, 10(10), 125; https://doi.org/10.3390/computers10100125 - 10 Oct 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2095
Abstract
This paper describes a proposed method and technology of safety assessment of projects based on field programmable gate arrays (FPGA). Safety assessment is based on special invariants, e.g., properties which remain unchanged when a specified transformation is applied. A classification and examples of [...] Read more.
This paper describes a proposed method and technology of safety assessment of projects based on field programmable gate arrays (FPGA). Safety assessment is based on special invariants, e.g., properties which remain unchanged when a specified transformation is applied. A classification and examples of FPGA project invariants are provided. In the paper, two types of invariants are described. The first type of invariants used for such assessment are those which are versatile since they reflect the unchanged properties of FPGA projects, hardware description languages, etc. These invariants can be replenished as experience gained in project implementation accumulates. The second type of invariants is formed based on an analysis of the specifics of a particular FPGA project and reflects the features of the tasks to be solved, the algorithms that are implemented, the hardware FPGA chips used, and the computer-aided design tools, etc. The paper contains a description of the overall conception and particular stages of FPGA projects invariant-based safety assessment. As examples for solving some tasks (using of invariants and defect injections), the paper contains several algorithms written in the VHSIC hardware description language (VHDL). The paper summarizes the results obtained during several years of practical and theoretical research. It can be of practical use for engineers and researchers in the field of quality, reliability, and security of embedded systems, software and information management systems for critical and business applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Real-Time Systems in Emerging IoT-Embedded Applications)
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18 pages, 3724 KiB  
Article
Real-Time Performance and Response Latency Measurements of Linux Kernels on Single-Board Computers
by George K. Adam
Computers 2021, 10(5), 64; https://doi.org/10.3390/computers10050064 - 16 May 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 4242
Abstract
This research performs real-time measurements of Linux kernels with real-time support provided by the PREEMPT_RT patch on embedded development devices such as BeagleBoard and Raspberry Pi. The experimental measurements of the Linux real-time performance on these devices are based on real-time software modules [...] Read more.
This research performs real-time measurements of Linux kernels with real-time support provided by the PREEMPT_RT patch on embedded development devices such as BeagleBoard and Raspberry Pi. The experimental measurements of the Linux real-time performance on these devices are based on real-time software modules developed specifically for the purposes of this research. Taking in consideration the constraints of the specific hardware platforms under investigation, new measurements software was developed. The measurement algorithms are designed upon response and periodic task models. Measurements investigate latencies of real-time applications at user and kernel space. An outcome of this research is that the proposed performance measurements approach and evaluation methodology could be applied and deployed on other Linux-based boards and platforms. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that the PREEMPT_RT patch overall improves the Linux kernel real-time performance compared to the standard one. The reduced worst-case latencies on such devices running Linux with real-time support could make them potentially more suitable for real-time applications as long as a latency value of about 160 μs, as an upper bound, is an acceptable safety margin. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Real-Time Systems in Emerging IoT-Embedded Applications)
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24 pages, 6083 KiB  
Article
Symptom Tracking and Experimentation Platform for Covid-19 or Similar Infections
by Nikos Petrellis and George K. Adam
Computers 2021, 10(2), 22; https://doi.org/10.3390/computers10020022 - 07 Feb 2021
Viewed by 2905
Abstract
Remote symptom tracking is critical for the prevention of Covid-19 spread. The qualified medical staff working in the call centers of primary health care units have to take critical decisions often based on vague information about the patient condition. The congestion and the [...] Read more.
Remote symptom tracking is critical for the prevention of Covid-19 spread. The qualified medical staff working in the call centers of primary health care units have to take critical decisions often based on vague information about the patient condition. The congestion and the medical protocols that are constantly changing often lead to incorrect decisions. The proposed platform allows the remote assessment of symptoms and can be useful for patients, health institutes and researchers. It consists of mobile desktop applications and medical sensors connected to cloud infrastructure. The unique features offered by the proposed solution are: (a) dynamic adaptation of Medical Protocols (MP) is supported (for the definition of alert rules, sensor sampling strategy and questionnaire structure) covering different medical cases (pre- or post-hospitalization, vulnerable population, etc.), (b) anonymous medical data can be statistically processed in the context of the research about an infection such as Covid-19, (c) reliable diagnosis is supported since several factors are taken into consideration, (d) the platform can be used to drastically reduce the congestion in various healthcare units. For the demonstration of (b), new classification methods based on similarity metrics have been tested for cough sound classification with an accuracy in the order of 90%. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Real-Time Systems in Emerging IoT-Embedded Applications)
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21 pages, 2016 KiB  
Article
Energy-Efficient Task Partitioning for Real-Time Scheduling on Multi-Core Platforms
by Manal A. El Sayed, El Sayed M. Saad, Rasha F. Aly and Shahira M. Habashy
Computers 2021, 10(1), 10; https://doi.org/10.3390/computers10010010 - 08 Jan 2021
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 4227
Abstract
Multi-core processors have become widespread computing engines for recent embedded real-time systems. Efficient task partitioning plays a significant role in real-time computing for achieving higher performance alongside sustaining system correctness and predictability and meeting all hard deadlines. This paper deals with the problem [...] Read more.
Multi-core processors have become widespread computing engines for recent embedded real-time systems. Efficient task partitioning plays a significant role in real-time computing for achieving higher performance alongside sustaining system correctness and predictability and meeting all hard deadlines. This paper deals with the problem of energy-aware static partitioning of periodic, dependent real-time tasks on a homogenous multi-core platform. Concurrent access of the tasks to shared resources by multiple tasks running on different cores induced a higher blocking time, which increases the worst-case execution time (WCET) of tasks and can cause missing the hard deadlines, consequently resulting in system failure. The proposed blocking-aware-based partitioning (BABP) algorithm aims to reduce the overall energy consumption while avoiding deadline violations. Compared to existing partitioning strategies, the proposed technique achieves more energy-saving. A series of experiments test the capabilities of the suggested algorithm compared to popular heuristics partitioning algorithms. A comparison was made between the most used bin-packing algorithms and the proposed algorithm in terms of energy consumption and system schedulability. Experimental results demonstrate that the designed algorithm outperforms the Worst Fit Decreasing (WFD), Best Fit Decreasing (BFD), and Similarity-Based Partitioning (SBP) algorithms of bin-packing algorithms, reduces the energy consumption of the overall system, and improves schedulability. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Real-Time Systems in Emerging IoT-Embedded Applications)
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Review

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20 pages, 3099 KiB  
Review
Recent Advancement of the Sensors for Monitoring the Water Quality Parameters in Smart Fisheries Farming
by Fowzia Akhter, Hasin Reza Siddiquei, Md Eshrat E. Alahi and Subhas C. Mukhopadhyay
Computers 2021, 10(3), 26; https://doi.org/10.3390/computers10030026 - 27 Feb 2021
Cited by 35 | Viewed by 6849
Abstract
Water quality is the most critical factor affecting fish health and performance in aquaculture production systems. Fish life is mostly dependent on the water fishes live in for all their needs. Therefore, it is essential to have a clear understanding of the water [...] Read more.
Water quality is the most critical factor affecting fish health and performance in aquaculture production systems. Fish life is mostly dependent on the water fishes live in for all their needs. Therefore, it is essential to have a clear understanding of the water quality requirements of the fish. This research discusses the critical water parameters (temperature, pH, nitrate, phosphate, calcium, magnesium, and dissolved oxygen (DO)) for fisheries and reviews the existing sensors to detect those parameters. Moreover, this paper proposes a prospective solution for smart fisheries that will help to monitor water quality factors, make decisions based on the collected data, and adapt more quickly to changing conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Real-Time Systems in Emerging IoT-Embedded Applications)
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