Dans le domaine de “smart cities” ou “villes connectées”, les technologies de l’information et de la communication sont intégrées aux services traditionnels de la ville (eau, électricité, gaz, transports collectifs, équipements publics, bâtiments, etc.) pour améliorer la qualité des services urbains ou encore pour réduire les coûts. Les données dans la ville connectée sont généralement produites par une grande variété d’acteurs. Ces données devraient être partagées entre diverses applications ou services. Or, il y a un problème, comment les acteurs peuvent-ils exercer un contrôle sur la façon dont leurs données vont être utilisées? C’est important car pour encourager le partage des données, nous devons établir des relations de confiance entre acteurs. Les acteurs ont confiance s’ils ont la capacité à contrôler l’utilisation de leurs données. Nous prendrons en compte les obligations définies par les acteurs pour leurs données : (i) Abstraction de certaines informations, (ii) Granularité spatio-temporelle, (iii) Classification des acteurs et des objectifs, et (iv) Monétisation des données. Mes contributions sont: (i) Un modèle de contrôle d’utilisation des données. Ce modèle répond aux obligations définies par les acteurs pour leur données. (ii) Une plateforme en tant que service. La plateforme a rajouté des composants nécessaire pour permettre la transparence et la traçabilité d’utilisation des données basée sur le modèle. (iii) Un outil de visualisation. C’est l’implémentation d’un prototype pour que les acteurs puissent exercer un contrôle sur la façon dont leurs données vont être utilisées. (iv) Une évaluation de la performance et l’impact de notre solution. Ces solutions permettent l’établissement des relations de confiance pour le partage des données de Smart Cities basées sur le modèle de contrôle d’utilisation des données. Les résultats de ma thèse peuvent être appliqués à la plateforme IoT Datavenue d’Orange / In smart cities, Information and Communication Technologies, in particular Internet of Things (IoT) Technologies, are integrated into traditional services of our city, for example waste management, air pollution monitoring, and parking to improve quality while reducing costs of these services. IoT data in this context are generated by different actors, such as service providers, developers, and municipal authorities. These data should be shared among applications or services. However, in traditional scenario, there is no sharing of IoT data between them. Each actor consumes data from sensors deployed on behalf of that actor, and network infrastructure maybe shared. In order to encourage IoT data sharing, we need to establish the confidence between the actors. Exercising control over the usage of data by other actors is critical in building trust. Thus, the actors should have an ability to exercise control on how their data are going to be used. This major issue have not been treated in IoT namely Usage Control. In this thesis, we take into account obligations defined by the actors for their data (i) Abstraction of certain information, (ii) Spatial and temporal granularity, (iii) Classification of actors and purposes, and (iv) Monetization of data. For example, requirements of data usage in Intelligent parking applications are (i) Data owners have full access to all the details, (ii) Municipal authorities can access the average occupancy of parking place per street on an hourly basis, (iii) Commercial service providers can access only statistical data over a zone and a weekly basis, and (iv) Monetization of data can be based on subscription types or users roles. Thesis contributions include: (i) Policy-based Data Usage Control Model (DUPO) responds to the obligations defined by actors to their data. (ii) Trustworthy Data Sharing Platform as a Service allows transparency and traceability of data usage with open APIs based on the DUPO and Semantic technologies. (iii) Visualization Tool Prototype enables actors to exercise control on how their data will be used. (iv) Evaluation of the performance and the impact of our solution. The results show that the performance of the added trust is not affecting of the system. Mistrust might hamper public acceptance of IoT data sharing in smart cities. Our solution is key which will establish the trust between data owners and consumers by taking into account the obligations of the data owners. It is useful for data operators who would like to provide an open data platform with efficient enablers to partners, data-based services to clients, and ability to attract partners to share data on their platforms

I takt med den exponentiella tillväxten av Internet of Things (IoT) har utmaningen att hantera den enorma mängden genererade data blivit allt större. Denna studie undersöker paradigmen med distribuerade dimdatorer, där kostnadseffektiva IoT-enheter används som dimnoder, som en potentiell lösning på de utmaningarna som det centraliserade molnet står inför. Skalbarheten och prestandan hos ett dimdatorsystem utvärderades under en rad olika arbetsbelastningar genererade av beräkningsintensiva uppgifter. Resultaten visade att en ökning av antal dimnoder förbättrade systemets skalbarhet och minskade den totala latensen. Dock visade det sig att konfigurationer med färre dimnoder presterade bättre vid lägre arbetsbelastningar, vilket understryker vikten av balansen mellan beräkningsuppgifter och kommunikationskostnaden. Sammantaget framhäver denna studie dimdatorkonceptets genomförbarhet som en effektiv och skalbar lösning för beräkningsintensiva databearbetning inom IoT. Trots att studiens fokus låg på latens, kan de insikter som vunnits vägleda framtida design och implementering av dimdatorsystem och bidra till de pågående diskussionerna om strategier för datahantering inom IoT. / With the exponential growth of the Internet of Things (IoT), managing the enormous amount of data generated has become a significant challenge. This study investigates the distributed paradigm of fog computing, using cost-effective IoT devices as fog nodes, as a potential solution for the centralized cloud. The scalability and performance of a fog computing system were evaluated under a range of workloads, using computationally intensive tasks reflective of real-world scenarios. Results indicated that with an increase in the number of fog nodes, system scalability improved, and the overall latency decreased. However, at lower workloads, configurations with fewer fog nodes outperformed those with more, highlighting the importance of the balance between computation and communication overheads. Overall, this study emphasizes the viability of fog computing as an efficient and scalable solution for data processing in IoT systems. Although the study primarily focused on latency, the insights gained could guide future design and implementation of fog computing systems and contribute to the ongoing discussions on IoT data processing strategies.

In the era of Industry 4.0, the Internet-of-Things (IoT) plays the driving role comparable to steam power in the first industrial revolution. IoT provides the potential to combine machine-to-machine (M2M) interaction and real time data collection within the field of manufacturing. Therefore, the adoption of IoT in industry enhances dynamic optimization, control and data-driven decision making. However, the domain suffers due to interoperability issues, with massive numbers of IoT devices connecting to the internet despite the absence of communication standards upon. Heterogeneity is pervasive in IoT ranging from the low levels (device connectivity, network connectivity, communication protocols) to high levels (services, applications, and platforms). The project investigates the current state of industrial IoT (IIoT) ecosystem, to draw a comprehensive understanding on interoperability challenges and current solutions in supporting of IoT-based smart manufacturing. Based upon a literature review, IIoT interoperability issues were classified into four levels: technical, syntactical, semantic, and organizational level interoperability. Regarding each level of interoperability, the current solutions that addressing interoperability were grouped and analyzed. Nine reference architectures were compared in the context of supporting industrial interoperability. Based on the analysis, interoperability research trends and challenges were identified. FIWARE Generic Enablers (FIWARE GEs) were identified as a possible solution in supporting interoperability for manufacturing applications. FIWARE GEs were evaluated with a scenario-based Method for Evaluating Middleware Architectures (MEMS).  Nine key scenarios were identified in order to evaluate the interoperability attribute of FIWARE GEs. A smart manufacturing use case was prototyped and a test bed adopting FIWARE Orion Context Broker as its main component was designed. The evaluation shows that FIWARE GEs meet eight out of nine key scenarios’ requirements. These results show that FIWARE GEs have the ability to enhance industrial IoT interoperability for a smart manufacturing use case. The overall performance of FIWARE GEs was also evaluated from the perspectives of CPU usage, network traffic, and request execution time. Different request loads were simulated and tested in our testbed. The results show an acceptable performance in terms with a maximum CPU usage (on a Macbook Pro (2018) with a 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5 processor) of less than 25% with a load of 1000 devices, and an average execution time of less than 5 seconds for 500 devices to publish their measurements under the prototyped implementation. / I en tid präglad av Industry 4.0, Internet-of-things (IoT) spelar drivande roll jämförbar med ångkraft i den första industriella revolutionen. IoT ger potentialen att kombinera maskin-till-maskin (M2M) -interaktion och realtidsdatainsamling inom tillverkningsområdet. Därför förbättrar antagandet av IoT i branschen dynamisk optimering, kontroll och datadriven beslutsfattande. Domänen lider dock på grund av interoperabilitetsproblem, med enorma antal IoT-enheter som ansluter till internet trots avsaknaden av kommunikationsstandarder på. Heterogenitet är genomgripande i IoT som sträcker sig från de låga nivåerna (enhetskonnektivitet, nätverksanslutning, kommunikationsprotokoll) till höga nivåer (tjänster, applikationer och plattformar). Projektet undersöker det nuvarande tillståndet för det industriella IoT (IIoT) ekosystemet, för att få en omfattande förståelse för interoperabilitetsutmaningar och aktuella lösningar för att stödja IoT-baserad smart tillverkning. Baserat på en litteraturöversikt klassificerades IIoT-interoperabilitetsfrågor i fyra nivåer: teknisk, syntaktisk, semantisk och organisatorisk nivå interoperabilitet. När det gäller varje nivå av driftskompatibilitet grupperades och analyserades de nuvarande lösningarna för adressering av interoperabilitet. Nio referensarkitekturer jämfördes i samband med att stödja industriell driftskompatibilitet. Baserat på analysen identifierades interoperabilitetstrender och utmaningar. FIWARE Generic Enablers (FIWARE GEs) identifierades som en möjlig lösning för att stödja interoperabilitet för tillverkningstillämpningar. FIWARE GEs utvärderades med en scenariebaserad metod för utvärdering av Middleware Architectures (MEMS). Nio nyckelscenarier identifierades för att utvärdera interoperabilitetsattributet för FIWARE GEs. Ett smart tillverkningsfodral tillverkades med prototyper och en testbädd som antog FIWARE Orion Context Broker som huvudkomponent designades. Utvärderingen visar att FIWARE GE uppfyller åtta av nio krav på nyckelscenarier. Dessa resultat visar att FIWARE GE har förmågan att förbättra industriell IoT-interoperabilitet för ett smart tillverkningsfodral. FIWARE GEs totala prestanda utvärderades också utifrån perspektivet för CPU-användning, nätverkstrafik och begär exekveringstid. Olika förfrågningsbelastningar simulerades och testades i vår testbädd. Resultaten visar en acceptabel prestanda i termer av en maximal CPU-användning (på en Macbook Pro (2018) med en 2,3 GHz Intel Core i5-processor) på mindre än 25% med en belastning på 1000 enheter och en genomsnittlig körningstid på mindre än 5 sekunder för 500 enheter att publicera sina mätningar under den prototyperna implementateringen.

[ES] Los sistemas de salud actuales están viendo cómo la cantidad de pacientes a atender y de servicios diferentes que han de prestar, es cada vez mayor, por lo que se cuestiona si serán sostenibles a largo plazo. Uno de los factores importantes de este aumento es el envejecimiento de la población, lo que implica un mayor número de pacientes crónicos y de personas dependientes. Al mismo tiempo, se genera la necesidad de abordar soluciones de prevención sobre la población general. Para hacer frente a estos problemas, se está recurriendo a la aplicación de las TIC en el ámbito de la salud, son los llamados sistemas de eSalud. En el desarrollo de sistemas de eSalud es necesario tener en cuenta que deben trabajar en entornos altamente heterogéneos y cambiantes. Además, han de ser capaces de adaptarse a las nuevas necesidades demandadas por la población, todo ello sin reducir la calidad de los servicios ya prestados y sin disparar los costes del sistema. Al desarrollar un sistema software, el modelo de arquitectura elegido marca qué características se van a potenciar. El paradigma de Arquitectura Orientada a Servicios (SOA) presenta entre sus principales beneficios una alta flexibilidad, reducción de costes y desarrollo rápido, así como permite la escalabilidad de sistemas. Por lo que puede ser un buen candidato a la hora de crear sistemas de eSalud. Existen diferentes formas de construir una arquitectura SOA, atendiendo a cómo se componen sus servicios y a cómo se aplican las directrices SOA. En esta tesis se propone el uso del paradigma de coreografía de procesos, siendo éste un modelo en el que se busca construir la arquitectura del sistema desde el punto de vista de los procesos de negocio de la organización. Este paradigma trabaja desde el concepto de un proceso único definido de forma distribuida, empleando coreografía de servicios para la composición. Es decir, no existe un elemento que centralice la toma de decisiones, donde cada servicio es consciente de qué debe realizar y cómo interactuar con el resto. En la coreografía de procesos se prioriza la eficiencia del sistema, aumentando el acoplamiento entre servicios, lo que puede reducir la flexibilidad del sistema SOA. Pero genera un sistema con mayor rendimiento y con una mejor alineación con los procesos de negocio. Además, la coreografía es más robusta que otros mecanismos de composición y ayuda con la integración de sistemas entre empresas. El objetivo de esta tesis es validar si el paradigma de coreografía de procesos es aplicable al desarrollo de sistemas de eSalud. Para ello se ha realizado la aplicación de este paradigma en tres escenarios de eSalud diferentes. En el primero de los escenarios, se creó un sistema para integrar y evaluar un dispositivo tecnológico puntero, las Google Glass. Esto demostró que se puede crear un sistema de eSalud basado en coreografía de procesos que integre dispositivos tecnológicos complejos. En el segundo de los escenarios, se validó el paradigma en un entorno real, creando un sistema distribuido de ejecución de modelos híbridos para la predicción y detección de diabetes tipo 2. El sistema permitió construir servicios para la ejecución de los modelos híbridos, integrando motores estadísticos externos y sistemas de terceros de acceso a datos clínicos. De esta forma se validó que la coreografía de procesos ayuda a la integración con sistemas externos, permitiendo un desarrollo rápido y la creación de sistemas distribuidos. En el tercero de los escenarios, se aplica el paradigma orientado al modelo de IoT integrando sensores portables para crear un sistema de eSalud. El sistema desarrollado integra un kit de sensores de eSalud para el seguimiento y monitorización remota de pacientes, comparando su rendimiento en un ordenador y en una Raspberry Pi. El resultado refrenda la hipótesis de que la coreografía de procesos permite aplicarse para crear fácilmente sistemas de eSalud orientados a IoT e integrar sensores portables de este ámbito. / [CA] Els sistemes de salut actuals estan veient com la quantitat de pacients a atendre i de servicis diferents que han de prestar, és cada vegada major, per la qual cosa es qüestiona si seran sostenibles a llarg termini. Un dels factors importants d'aquest augment és l'envelliment de la població, la qual cosa implica un major nombre de pacients crònics i de persones dependents. Al mateix temps, es genera la necessitat d'abordar solucions de prevenció sobre la població general. Per a fer front a aquests problemes, s'està recorrent a l'aplicació de les TIC en l'àmbit de la salut, són els cridats sistemes d'eSalut. En el desenvolupament de sistemes d'eSalut és necessari tindre en compte que han de treballar en entorns altament heterogenis i canviants. A més, han de ser capaços d'adaptar-se a les noves necessitats demandades per la població, tot això sense reduir la qualitat dels servicis ja prestats i sense disparar els costos del sistema. En desenvolupar un sistema programari, el model d'arquitectura triat marca quines característiques es potenciaran. El paradigma d'Arquitectura Orientada a Servicis (SOA) presenta entre els seus principals beneficis una alta flexibilitat, reducció de costos i desenrotllament ràpid, així com permet l'escalabilitat de sistemes. Pel que pot ser un bon candidat a l'hora de crear sistemes d'eSalut. Hi ha diferents formes de construir una arquitectura SOA, atenent a com es componen els seus servicis i a com s'apliquen les directrius SOA. En esta tesi es proposa l'ús del paradigma de coreografia de processos, sent aquest un model en el qual es busca construir l'arquitectura del sistema des del punt de vista dels processos de negoci de l'organització. Este paradigma treballa des del concepte d'un procés únic definit de forma distribuïda, emprant coreografia de servicis per a la composició. És a dir, no hi ha un element que centralitze la presa de decisions, on cada servici és conscient de què ha de realitzar i com interactuar amb la resta. En la coreografia de processos es prioritza l'eficiència del sistema, augmentant l'adaptament entre servicis, la qual cosa pot reduir la flexibilitat del sistema SOA. Però genera un sistema amb major rendiment i amb una millor alineació amb els processos de negoci. A més, la coreografia és més robusta que altres mecanismes de composició i ajuda amb la integració de sistemes entre empreses. L'objectiu d'aquesta tesi és validar si el paradigma de coreografia de processos és aplicable al desenrotllament de sistemes d'eSalut. Per a això s'ha realitzat l'aplicació d'aquest paradigma en tres escenaris d'eSalut diferents. En el primer dels escenaris, es va crear un sistema per a integrar i avaluar un dispositiu tecnològic punter, les Google Glass. Açò va demostrar que es pot crear un sistema d'eSalut basat en coreografia de processos que integre dispositius tecnològics complexos. En el segon dels escenaris, es va validar el paradigma en un entorn real, creant un sistema distribuït d'execució de models híbrids per a la predicció i detecció de diabetis tipus 2. El sistema va permetre construir servicis per a l'execució dels models híbrids, integrant motors estadístics externs i sistemes de tercers d'accés a dades clíniques. D'aquesta manera es va validar que la coreografia de processos ajuda amb la integració amb sistemes externs, permetent un desenrotllament ràpid i la creació de sistemes distribuïts. En el tercer dels escenaris, s'aplica el paradigma orientat al model d'IoT integrant sensors portables per a crear un sistema d'eSalut. El sistema desenrotllat integra un kit de sensors d'eSalut per al seguiment i monitorització remota de pacients, comparant el seu rendiment en un ordinador i en una Raspberry Pi. El resultat referenda la hipòtesi que la coreografia de processos permet aplicar-se per a crear fàcilment sistemes d'eSalut orientats a IoT i integrar sensors portables d'este àmbit. / [EN] Today's health systems are seeing an increasing number of patients to be cared for, as well as different services to be provided, raising questions as to whether they will be sustainable in the long term. One of the critical factors in this increase is the ageing of the population, which implies a more significant number of chronic patients and dependents. At the same time, there is a need to address prevention solutions in the general population. To address these problems, the application of ICTs in the health field, the so-called eHealth systems, is being used. In the development of eHealth systems, it is necessary to consider that they have to work in highly heterogeneous and changing environments. Moreover, they must be able to adapt to the new needs demanded by the population, without reducing the quality of the services already provided and without increasing the costs of the system. When developing a software system, the architecture model chosen determines which characteristics are to be enhanced. The Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) paradigm has among its main benefits high flexibility, cost reduction and rapid development, as well as allowing the scalability of systems. Therefore, it can be a good candidate when creating eHealth systems. There are different ways to build an SOA architecture, depending on how its services are composed and how SOA guidelines are applied. This thesis proposes the use of the process choreography paradigm, which is a model that seeks to build the architecture of the system from the point of view of the organisation's business processes. This paradigm works from the concept of a single process defined in a distributed way, using service choreography for the composition. In other words, there is no centralised decision-making element, where each service is aware of what it must do and how to interact with the rest. Process choreography prioritises system efficiency by increasing coupling between services, which can reduce the flexibility of the SOA system. But it generates a system with higher performance and better alignment with business processes. In addition, choreography is more robust than other composition mechanisms and helps with cross-company system integration. The aim of this thesis is to validate whether the process choreography paradigm is applicable to the development of eHealth systems. To this end, the application of this paradigm has been carried out in three different eHealth scenarios. In the first scenario, a system was created to integrate and evaluate a cutting-edge technological device, Google Glass. This demonstrated that it is possible to create an eHealth system based on process choreography that integrates complex technological devices. In the second scenario, the paradigm was validated in a real environment, creating a distributed hybrid model execution system for the prediction and detection of type 2 diabetes. The system allowed building services for hybrid model execution, integrating external statistical engines and third-party services to access clinical data. This scenario validated that the process choreography aids integration with external systems, enabling rapid development and the creation of distributed systems. In the third scenario, the paradigm is applied to the IoT model by integrating wearable sensors to create an eHealth system. The developed system integrates an eHealth sensor kit for remote patient tracking and monitoring, comparing its performance on a computer and a Raspberry Pi. The result supports the hypothesis that process choreography can be applied to easily create IoT-oriented eHealth systems and integrate IoT wearable sensors. / Bayo Montón, JL. (2023). Propuesta de uso del paradigma de coreografía de procesos para crear sistemas de eSalud en entornos heterogéneos [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/192822

<p>The advent and spread of counterfeit goods in medical supply chains is an opportunistic activity by actors who take advantage of information asymmetry between themselves and the rest of the supply chain. Counterfeiters, fraudsters, and companies who intend to cut corners have asymmetric knowledge of the quality (substandard) of the products they possess and are not obligated, but have a disincentive, to share that asymmetric knowledge. This has led to a medical supply chain that is riddled with asymmetric information from consumers, all the way upstream to manufacturers. The asymmetric information present in the supply chain allows agents to take advantage of the demand and chaos in the system to act contrary to the principal’s, in this case the supply chain, best interest as described in the agent-principal theory. The problem related to information asymmetry in principal-agent relationships, including those encapsulated in supply chains, is well documented in prior literature. The missing piece of research deals with quantification of information asymmetry metrics and assessing supply chain of goods.</p> <p>This research explored current and proposed information asymmetry mitigating activities including the potential applications of technology-based methods of reducing information asymmetry within the medical supply chains including distributed ledger technology. Five data aggregation services were searched for relevant literature generating a final sample for analysis of 90 documents (ndocuments = 90). A qualitative meta-analysis methodology was conducted using Nvivo as exploratory research to analyze content in the corpus of documents and extract key themes relevant to each research question then synthesize frequencies of key themes such that information asymmetry in medical supply chains can be decomposed into agents, conditions, and contributing factors.</p>

[pt] Aplicações em Internet das Coisas (IoT) baseadas em agentes têm surgido como aplicações que podem envolver sensores, dispositivos sem fio, máquinas e softwares que podem compartilhar dados e que podem ser acessados remotamente. Essas aplicações vêm sendo propostas em vários domínios de aplicação, incluindo cuidados em saúde, cidades inteligentes e agricultura. Uma terminologia comumente utilizada para representar agentes embarcados inteligentes é embodied agents, a qual é proposta esse trabalho para projetar agentes para o domínio de IoT. Embodied agents significa agentes que possuem corpo, o qual pode ser definido pelos tipos de sensores e atuadores, e controlador, normalmente representada por uma rede neural artificial. Apesar da capacidade de reconfiguração ser essencial para embodied agents inteligentes, existem poucas tecnologias para suportar sistemas reconfigurfuaveis. Além disso, é necessário novas abordagens para lidar com as variabilidades dos agentes e do ambiente, e novos procedimentos para investigar a relação o entre o corpo e o controlador de um embodied agent, assim como as interações entre as mudanças do agente e do ambiente. Além da variabilidade do corpo e do controlador desses agentes, a exemplo do número e tipos de sensores, assim como o número de camadas e tipos de função de ativação para a rede neural, também é preciso lidar com a variabilidade do ambiente em que esses agentes estão situados. A fifim de entender melhor e esclarecer os conceitos de embodied agents, este trabalho apresenta um modelo de referência para embodied agents autoconfifiguráveis de IoT. A partir desse modelo de referência, três abordagens foram criadas para projetar e testar agentes embarcados reconfifiguráeis: i) um software framework para o desenvolvimento de embodied agents no domínio de internet das coisas; ii) uma arquitetura para configurar o corpo e controlador dos agentes de acordo com as variantes do ambiente; e iii) uma ferramenta para testar embodied agents. As abordagens foram avaliadas através de estudos de caso e experimentos em diferentes domínios de aplicação. / [en] Agent-based Internet of Things (IoT) applications have recently emerged as applications that can involve sensors, wireless devices, machines and software that can exchange data and be accessed remotely. Such applications have been proposed in several domains including health care, smart cities and agriculture. Embodied Agents is a term used to denote intelligent embedded agents, which we use to design agents to the IoT domain. Each agent is provided with a body that has sensors to collect data from the environment and actuators to interact with the environment, and a controller that is usually represented by an artificial neural network. Because reconfigurable behavior is key for autonomous embodied agents, there is a spectrum of approaches to support system reconfigurations. However, there is a need for approaches to handle agents and environment variability, and for a broad spectrum of procedures to investigate the relationship between the body and the controller of an embodied agent, as the interaction between the agent and the environment changes. In addition to the body and controller variability of these agents, such as those variations related to the number and types of sensors as well as the number of layers and types of activation function for the neural network, it is also necessary to deal with the variability of the environment in which these agents are situated. A discussion of the embodied agents should have some formal basis in order to clarify these concepts. Notwithstanding, this thesis presents a reference model for selfcon figurable IoT embodied agents. Based on this reference model, we have created three approaches to design and test self-configurable IoT embodied agents: i) a software framework for the development of embodied agents to the Internet of Things (IoT) applications; ii) an architecture to configure the body and controller of the agents based on environment variants; and iii) a tool for testing embodied agents. To evaluate these approaches, we have conducted diffierent case studies and experiments in difierent application domains.

[pt] Jogos pervasivos móveis são jogos que combinam os mundos real e virtual em um espaço híbrido, permitindo interações não apenas com o mundo do jogo virtualmente criado, mas também com o ambiente físico que envolve os jogadores. A Internet de Coisas Móveis (IoMT) especifica situações em que os dispositivos na Internet das Coisas (IoT) podem ser movidos ou se moverem de forma autônoma, mantendo conectividade remota e acessibilidade de qualquer lugar na Internet. Seguindo o enorme sucesso dos recentes jogos pervasivos móveis e a iminente expansão de IoT, nós fornecemos uma integração para toda a tecnologia envolvida no desenvolvimento de um jogo pervasivo móvel que incorpora dispositivos IoT. Também propomos um jogo móvel pervasivo que avalia os benefícios da união de ambos os campos. Este protótipo de jogo explora maneiras de aumentar a experiência dos jogadores através de mecânicas pervasivas, aproveitando a motivação dos jogadores para realizar tarefas de sensoriamento. O jogo também incorpora aplicações sérias na jogabilidade, tais como a localização de instalações e serviços. / [en] Mobile pervasive games are a game genre that combines the real and virtual worlds in a hybrid space, allowing interactions with not only the virtually created game world, but also with the physical environment that surrounds the players. The Internet of Mobile Things (IoMT) specifies situations in which devices on the Internet of Things (IoT) can be moved or move autonomously, while maintaining remote connectivity and accessibility from anywhere on the internet. Following the huge success of recent mobile pervasive games and the coming IoT boom, we provide an integration for all the technology involved in the development of a mobile pervasive game that incorporates IoT devices. We also propose a mobile pervasive game that evaluates the benefits of the union of both fields. This game prototype explores ways of increasing the experience of players through pervasive mechanics while taking advantage of the player s motivation to perform sensing tasks. It also incorporates serious applications into the gameplay, such as the localization of facilities and services.

<p>  </p> <p>Cold chain logistics comprise a large portion of transported pharmaceutical medications and raw materials which must be preserved at specified temperatures to maintain consumer safety and efficacy. An immutable record of temperatures of transported pharmaceutical goods allows for mitigation of temperature-related issues of such drugs and their raw components. The recording of this information on a blockchain creates such an immutable record of this information which can be readily accessed by any relevant party. This can allow for any components which have not been kept at the appropriate temperatures to be removed from production. These data can also be used as inputs for smart contracts or for data analytic purposes. </p> <p>A theoretical framework for such a system, referred to as “TempEnsure” is described, which provides digital capture of the internal temperature of temperature-controlled shipping containers. The data are recorded in a blockchain system. Real world testing of this system was not possible due to monetary constraints, but the functional elements of the system, as well as potential improvements for the system, are discussed.</p>

[pt] Poucos estudos têm investigado e propôs uma solução de middleware para a Internet das Coisas Móveis (IoMT), onde as coisas inteligentes (Objetos Inteligente) podem ser movidos, ou podem mover-se de forma autônoma, mas permanecem acessíveis a partir de qualquer outro computador através da Internet. Neste contexto, existe uma necessidade de gateways com eficiência energética para fornecer conectividade para uma grande variedade de objetos inteligentes. As soluções propostas têm mostrado que os dispositivos móveis (smartphones e tablets) são uma boa opção para se tornar os intermediários universais, proporcionando um ponto de conexão para os objetos inteligentes vizinhos com tecnologias de comunicação de curto alcance. No entanto, eles só se preocupam apenas sobre a transmissão de dados de sensores-primas (obtido a partir de objetos inteligentes conectados) para a nuvem onde o processamento (e.g. agregação) é executada. Comunicação via Internet é uma atividade de forte drenagem da bateria em dispositivos móveis; Além disso, a largura de banda pode não ser suficiente quando grandes quantidades de informação estão sendo recebidas dos objetos inteligentes. Por isso, consideramos que uma parte do processamento deve ser empurrada tão perto quanto possível das fontes. A respeito disso, processamento de eventos complexos (CEP) é muitas vezes usado para o processamento em tempo real de dados heterogêneos e pode ser uma tecnologia chave para ser incluído nas Gateways. Ele permite uma maneira de descrever o processamento como consultas expressivas que podem ser implantados ou removidos dinamicamente no vôo. Assim, sendo adequado para aplicações que têm de lidar com adaptação dinâmica de processamento local. Esta dissertação descreve uma extensão de um middleware móvel com a inclusão de processamento contínuo dos dados do sensor, a sua concepção e implementação de um protótipo para Android. Experimentos têm mostrado que a nossa implementação proporciona uma boa redução no consumo de energia e largura de banda. / [en] Few studies have investigated and proposed a middleware solution for the Internet of Mobile Things (IoMT), where the smart things (Smart Objects) can be moved, or else can move autonomously, but remain accessible from any other computer over the Internet. In this context, there is a need for energy-efficient gateways to provide connectivity to a great variety of Smart Objects. Proposed solutions have shown that mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) are a good option to become the universal intermediates by providing a connection point to nearby Smart Objects with short-range communication technologies. However, they only focus on the transmission of raw sensor data (obtained from connected Smart Objects) to the cloud where processing (e.g. aggregation) is performed. Internet Communication is a strong battery-draining activity for mobile devices; moreover, bandwidth may not be sufficient when large amounts of information is being received from the Smart Objects. Hence, we argue that some of the processing should be pushed as close as possible to the sources. In this regard, Complex Event Processing (CEP) is often used for real-time processing of heterogeneous data and could be a key technology to be included in the gateways. It allows a way to describe the processing as expressive queries that can be dynamically deployed or removed on-the- fly. Thus, being suitable for applications that have to deal with dynamic adaptation of local processing. This dissertation describes an extension of a mobile middleware with the inclusion of continuous processing of sensor data, its design and prototype implementation for Android. Experiments have shown that our implementation delivers good reduction in energy and bandwidth consumption.

This research evaluates the technological, organizational, and environmental determinants of emerging technologies adoption represented by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) driving SMEs’ competitive advantage within a resource-based view (RBV) theoretical approach supported by the technological-organizational-environmental (TOE)-framework setting. Current literature on SMEs competitive advantage as outcome of emerging technologies in the technological, organisational, and environmental contexts presents models focused on these contexts individual components. There are no models in the literature to represent the TOE framework as an integrated structure with gradual levels of complexity, allowing for incremental evaluation of the business context in support of decision making towards emerging technologies adoption supporting the firm competitive advantage. This research gap is addressed with the introduction of a new concept, the IT resource-based renewal, underpinned by the RBV, and supported by the TOE framework for providing a holistic understanding of the SMEs strategic renewal decision through information technology. This is achieved through a complex measurement model with four level constructs, leading into a parsimonious structural model that evaluates the relationships between IT resource-based renewal, and emerging technologies adoption driving SMEs competitive advantage. The model confirms the positive association between the IT resource-based renewal and emerging technologies adoption, and between the IT resource-based renewal and SME competitive advantage for the SMEs managers model, with the SME owners model outcomes are found not being supportive towards emerging technologies adoption driving SME competitive advantage. As methodology, PLS-SEM is used for its capabilities of assessing complex paths among model variables. Analysis is done on three models, one for the full sample, with two subsequent ones for owners and managers, respectively, as SME decision makers, with data collected using a web-based survey in Canada, the UK, and the US, that has provided 510 usable answers. This research has a theoretical contribution represented by the introduction of the IT resource-based renewal concept, that integrates the RBV perspective and the TOE framework for supporting organization’s decision on emerging technologies adoption driving SMEs competitive advantage. As practical implications, this thesis provides SMEs with a reference framework on adopting emerging technologies, offering SME managers and owners a comprehensive model of hierarchical factors contributing to SMEs competitive advantage acquired as outcome of AI and IoT adoption. This research makes an original contribution to the enterprise management, information systems adoption, and SME competitive advantage literature, with an empirical approach that verifies a model of emerging technologies adoption determinants driving SMEs competitive advantage.