Publications
Journal Papers
2023
- Big Data and Precision Agriculture: A Novel Spatio-Temporal Semantic IoT Data Management Framework for Improved InteroperabilityMario San Emeterio De La Parte, José-Fernán Martínez-Ortega, Vicente Hernández-Díaz, and Néstor Lucas-MartínezJournal of Big Data, Apr 2023
Precision agriculture in the realm of the Internet of Things is characterized by the collection of data from multiple sensors deployed on the farm. These data present a spatial, temporal, and semantic characterization, which further complicates the performance in the management and implementation of models and repositories. In turn, the lack of standards is reflected in insufficient interoperability between management solutions and other non-native services in the framework. In this paper, an innovative system for spatio-temporal semantic data management is proposed. It includes a data query system that allows farmers and users to solve queries daily, as well as feed decision-making, monitoring, and task automation solutions. In the proposal, a solution is provided to ensure service interoperability and is validated against two European smart farming platforms, namely AFarCloud and DEMETER. For the evaluation and validation of the proposed framework, a neural network is implemented, fed through STSDaMaS for training and validation, to provide accurate forecasts for the harvest and baling of forage legume crops for livestock feeding. As a result of the evaluation for the training and execution of neural networks, high performance on complex spatio-temporal semantic queries is exposed. The paper concludes with a distributed framework for managing complex spatio-temporal semantic data by offering service interoperability through data integration to external agricultural data models. Graphical Abstract
@article{SanEmeterioDeLaParte2023a, title = {Big {{Data}} and Precision Agriculture: A Novel Spatio-Temporal Semantic {{IoT}} Data Management Framework for Improved Interoperability}, shorttitle = {Big {{Data}} and Precision Agriculture}, author = {San Emeterio De La Parte, Mario and {Mart{\'i}nez-Ortega}, Jos{\'e}-Fern{\'a}n and {Hern{\'a}ndez-D{\'i}az}, Vicente and {Lucas-Mart{\'i}nez}, N{\'e}stor}, year = {2023}, month = apr, date = {2023-04-28}, journal = {Journal of Big Data}, volume = {10}, number = {1}, pages = {52}, issn = {2196-1115}, doi = {10.1186/s40537-023-00729-0}, urldate = {2024-08-11}, copyright = {CC BY 4.0}, langid = {english}, dimensions = {true}, google_scholar_id = {Se3iqnhoufwC} } - Spatio-Temporal Semantic Data Management Systems for IoT in Agriculture 5.0: Challenges and Future DirectionsMario San Emeterio De La Parte, José-Fernán Martínez-Ortega, Pedro Castillejo, and Néstor Lucas-MartínezInternet of Things, Dec 2023
The Agri-Food sector is in a stressful situation due to the high demand for food from the growing population around the world. The agricultural sector is facing a challenging situation; it must increase production and reduce its impact on the environment by appropriately allocating resources, adapting to climate change, and avoiding food waste. Agriculture 5.0, as the fifth agricultural evolution, aims to offer a perfect symbiosis between agriculture, advanced technologies, and sustainability. The most advanced technologies in automation, monitoring, and decision support are driven by the collection and processing of large volumes of agricultural data, such as weather information, farm machinery, soil and crop conditions, and marketing demand for higher profits. Taking advantage of the technological paradigm of the Internet of Things, agricultural data provides information on spatial, temporal, and semantic dimensions. Spatio-temporal semantic data management systems have become the cornerstone for the achievement of Agriculture 5.0 through advanced Internet of Things technologies. This paper aims to review the current literature on spatio-temporal semantic data management systems for Agriculture 5.0. This paper uses a systematic literature review technique to study eleven representative spatio-temporal semantic data management systems. A comprehensive evaluation of the aspects of interoperability, accessibility, scalability, real-time operation capability, etc. is carried out. Based on the evaluation results, future challenges are detected and development trends and possible improvements are proposed for future research. Finally, a distributed architecture capable of satisfying the above needs and challenges is proposed. The paper aims to inspire further research and development efforts to improve the efficiency, accessibility, and performance of spatio-temporal semantic data management systems.
2020
- Proposal of an Automated Mission Manager for Cooperative Autonomous Underwater VehiclesApplied Sciences, Jan 2020
In recent years there has been an increasing interest in the use of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) for ocean interventions. Typical operations imply the pre-loading of a pre-generated mission plan into the AUV before being launched. Once deployed, the AUV waits for a start command to begin the execution of the plan. An onboard mission manager is responsible for handling the events that may prevent the AUV from following the plan. This approach considers the management of the mission only at the vehicle level. However, the use of a mission-level manager in coordination with the onboard mission manager could improve the handling of exogenous events that cannot be handled fully at the vehicle level. Moreover, the use of vehicle virtualization by the mission-level manager can ease the use of older AUVs. In this paper, we propose a new mission-level manager to be run at a control station. The proposed mission manager, named Missions and Task Register and Reporter (MTRR), follows a decentralized hierarchical control pattern for self-adaptive systems, and provides a basic virtualization in regard to the AUV’s planning capabilities. The MTRR has been validated as part of the SWARMs European project. During the final trials we assessed its effectiveness and measured its performance. As a result, we have identified a strong correlation between the length of mission plan and the time required to start a mission (ρs=0.79, n=45, p<0.001). We have also identified a possible bottleneck when accessing the repositories for storing the information from the mission. Specifically, the average time for storing the received state vectors in the relational database represented only 18.50% of the average time required for doing so in the semantic repository.
@article{LucasMartinez2020a, title = {Proposal of an {{Automated Mission Manager}} for {{Cooperative Autonomous Underwater Vehicles}}}, author = {{Lucas-Mart{\'i}nez}, N{\'e}stor and {Mart{\'i}nez-Ortega}, Jos{\'e}-Fern{\'a}n and {Rodr{\'i}guez-Molina}, Jes{\'u}s and Zhai, Zhaoyu}, year = {2020}, month = jan, date = {2020-01-25}, journal = {Applied Sciences}, volume = {10}, number = {3}, pages = {855}, issn = {2076-3417}, doi = {10.3390/app10030855}, copyright = {CC BY 4.0}, langid = {english}, dimensions = {true}, google_scholar_id = {WF5omc3nYNoC}, } - Survey of Mission Planning and Management Architectures for Underwater Cooperative Robotics OperationsNéstor Lucas-Martínez, José-Fernán Martínez-Ortega, Pedro Castillejo, and María-Victoria Beltrán-MartínezApplied Sciences, Feb 2020
Almost every research project that focuses on the cooperation of autonomous robots for underwater operations designs their own architectures. As a result, most of these architectures are tightly coupled with the available robots/vehicles for their respective developments, and therefore the mission plan and management is done using an ad-hoc solution. Typically, this solution is tightly coupled to just one underwater autonomous vehicle (AUV), or a restricted set of them selected for the specific project. However, as the use of AUVs for underwater operations increases, there is the need to identify some commonalities and weaknesses of these architectures, specifically in relation to mission planning and management. In this paper, we review a selected number of architectures and frameworks that in one way or another make use of different approaches to mission planning and management. Most of the selected works were developed for underwater operations. Still, we have included some other architectures and frameworks from other domains that can be of interest for the survey. The explored works have been assessed using selected features related to mission planning and management, considering that underwater operations are performed in an uncertain and unreliable environment, and where unexpected events are not strange. Furthermore, we have identified and highlighted some potential challenges for the design and implementation of mission managers. This provides a reference point for the development of a mission manager component to be integrated in architectures for cooperative robotics in underwater operations, and it can serve for the same purposes in other domains of application.
@article{LucasMartinez2020b, title = {Survey of {{Mission Planning}} and {{Management Architectures}} for {{Underwater Cooperative Robotics Operations}}}, author = {{Lucas-Mart{\'i}nez}, N{\'e}stor and {Mart{\'i}nez-Ortega}, Jos{\'e}-Fern{\'a}n and Castillejo, Pedro and {Beltr{\'a}n-Mart{\'i}nez}, Mar{\'i}a-Victoria}, year = {2020}, month = feb, date = {2020-02-06}, journal = {Applied Sciences}, volume = {10}, number = {3}, pages = {1086}, issn = {2076-3417}, doi = {10.3390/app10031086}, copyright = {CC BY 4.0}, langid = {english}, dimensions = {true}, google_scholar_id = {9yKSN-GCB0IC} } - Decision Support Systems for Agriculture 4.0: Survey and ChallengesZhaoyu Zhai, José-Fernán Martínez-Ortega, María-Victoria Beltrán-Martínez, and Néstor Lucas-MartínezComputers and Electronics in Agriculture, Feb 2020
Undoubtedly, high demands for food from the world-wide growing population are impacting the environment and putting many pressures on agricultural productivity. Agriculture 4.0, as the fourth evolution in the farming technology, puts forward four essential requirements: increasing productivity, allocating resources reasonably, adapting to climate change, and avoiding food waste. As advanced information systems and Internet technologies are adopted in Agriculture 4.0, enormous farming data, such as meteorological information, soil conditions, marketing demands, and land uses, can be collected, analyzed, and processed for assisting farmers in making appropriate decisions and obtaining higher profits. Therefore, agricultural decision support systems for Agriculture 4.0 has become a very attractive topic for the research community. The objective of this paper aims at exploring the upcoming challenges of employing agricultural decision support systems in Agriculture 4.0. Future researchers may improve the decision support systems by overcoming these detected challenges. In this paper, the systematic literature review technique is used to survey thirteen representative decision support systems, including their applications for agricultural mission planning, water resources management, climate change adaptation, and food waste control. Each decision support system is analyzed under a systematic manner. A comprehensive evaluation is conducted from the aspects of interoperability, scalability, accessibility, usability, etc. Based on the evaluation result, upcoming challenges are detected and summarized, suggesting the development trends and demonstrating potential improvements for future research.
@article{Zhai2020a, title = {Decision Support Systems for Agriculture 4.0: {{Survey}} and Challenges}, shorttitle = {Decision Support Systems for Agriculture 4.0}, author = {Zhai, Zhaoyu and {Mart{\'i}nez-Ortega}, Jos{\'e}-Fern{\'a}n and {Beltr{\'a}n-Mart{\'i}nez}, Mar{\'i}a-Victoria and {Lucas-Mart{\'i}nez}, N{\'e}stor}, year = {2020}, month = feb, date = {2020-02-06}, journal = {Computers and Electronics in Agriculture}, volume = {170}, pages = {105256}, issn = {01681699}, doi = {10.1016/j.compag.2020.105256}, urldate = {2024-08-11}, copyright = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0}, langid = {english}, dimensions = {true}, } - Applying Case-Based Reasoning and a Learning-Based Adaptation Strategy to Irrigation Scheduling in Grape FarmingComputers and Electronics in Agriculture, Aug 2020
As a key part of vineyard management, irrigation of grapevines puts forward the need of scheduling water resources in a more precise and efficient way. Typically, irrigation plans are generated through the use of mathematical models. However, the unwelcoming fact is that such models usually require a massive quantity of monitored data that is often unavailable or incomplete in most developing countries. As a consequence, this paper takes advantage of advanced artificial intelligence techniques, in particular, the case-based reasoning approach, to estimate the reference evapotranspiration, and therefore, to calculate the amount of irrigation water in grape farming. For improving the current case-based reasoning approach, especially the solution revision part, this paper proposes a learning-based adaptation strategy by fully making use of the hidden information in the case base. Inspired by the feature vector representation, a revision task could be also considered as a situation and action pair. The situation part attempts to capture the difference between the target case and past cases, while the action pair aims at adapting the solution to reflect the detected difference by learning adaptation knowledge from past experiences. Two retrieval tasks are involved in the revision process. On the one hand, the first one tries to retrieve an adaptation case and evaluate the difference between the new case. On the other hand, the second retrieval task should identify a collection of past cases that shares the similar difference as detected before. By learning from how the solutions of retrieved past cases were updated to solve the adaptation case, the solution of the adaptation case can be revised accordingly based on the obtained adaptation knowledge, and therefore to solve the new case. The experiment focuses on verifying the effectiveness of the case-based reasoning approach in irrigation scheduling, and evaluating the accuracy of the learning-based adaptation strategy. The experimental results demonstrate that the system is able to output a reasonable irrigation plan, while the deviation between the predicted and recorded values is around 5.42% and 7.94% for the relevance evapotranspiration and the amount of irrigation water respectively. In conclusion, the proposal in this paper has great potential for modeling irrigation scheduling system with promising advantages.
@article{Zhai2020b, title = {Applying Case-Based Reasoning and a Learning-Based Adaptation Strategy to Irrigation Scheduling in Grape Farming}, author = {Zhai, Zhaoyu and {Mart{\'i}nez-Ortega}, Jos{\'e}-Fern{\'a}n and {Lucas-Mart{\'i}nez}, N{\'e}stor and {Hern{\'a}ndez-D{\'i}az}, Vicente}, year = {2020}, month = aug, date = {2020-08-28}, journal = {Computers and Electronics in Agriculture}, volume = {178}, pages = {105741}, issn = {01681699}, doi = {10.1016/j.compag.2020.105741}, urldate = {2024-08-11}, copyright = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0}, langid = {english}, dimensions = {true}, google_scholar_id = {qjMakFHDy7sC} } - An Efficient Case Retrieval Algorithm for Agricultural Case-Based Reasoning Systems, with Consideration of Case Base MaintenanceZhaoyu Zhai, José-Fernán Martínez-Ortega, Néstor Lucas-Martínez, and Huanliang XuAgriculture, Sep 2020
Case-based reasoning has considerable potential to model decision support systems for smart agriculture, assisting farmers in managing farming operations. However, with the explosive amount of sensing data, these systems may achieve poor performance in knowledge management like case retrieval and case base maintenance. Typical approaches of case retrieval have to traverse all past cases for matching similar ones, leading to low efficiency. Thus, a new case retrieval algorithm for agricultural case-based reasoning systems is proposed in this paper. At the initial stage, an association table is constructed, containing the relationships between all past cases. Afterwards, attributes of a new case are compared with an entry case. According to the similarity measurement, associated similar or dissimilar cases are then compared preferentially, instead of traversing the whole case base. The association of the new case is generated through case retrieval and added in the association table at the step of case retention. The association table is also updated when a closer relationship is detected. The experiment result demonstrates that our proposal enables rapid case retrieval with promising accuracy by comparing a fewer number of past cases. Thus, the retrieval efficiency of our proposal outperforms typical approaches.
@article{Zhai2020c, title = {An {{Efficient Case Retrieval Algorithm}} for {{Agricultural Case-Based Reasoning Systems}}, with {{Consideration}} of {{Case Base Maintenance}}}, author = {Zhai, Zhaoyu and {Mart{\'i}nez-Ortega}, Jos{\'e}-Fern{\'a}n and {Lucas-Mart{\'i}nez}, N{\'e}stor and Xu, Huanliang}, year = {2020}, month = sep, date = {2020-09-03}, journal = {Agriculture}, volume = {10}, number = {9}, pages = {387}, issn = {2077-0472}, doi = {10.3390/agriculture10090387}, urldate = {2024-08-11}, copyright = {CC BY 4.0}, langid = {english}, dimensions = {true}, google_scholar_id = {_FxGoFyzp5QC} }
2019
- An Associated Representation Method for Defining Agricultural Cases in a Case-Based Reasoning System for Fast Case RetrievalZhaoyu Zhai, José-Fernán Martínez-Ortega, María-Victoria Beltrán-Martínez, and Néstor Lucas-MartínezSensors, Nov 2019
As an artificial intelligence technique, case-based reasoning has considerable potential to build intelligent systems for smart agriculture, providing farmers with advice about farming operation management. A proper case representation method plays a crucial role in case-based reasoning systems. Some methods like textual, attribute-value pair, and ontological representations have been well explored by researchers. However, these methods may lead to inefficient case retrieval when a large volume of data is stored in the case base. Thus, an associated representation method is proposed in this paper for fast case retrieval. Each case is interconnected with several similar and dissimilar ones. Once a new case is reported, its features are compared with historical data by similarity measurements for identifying a relative similar past case. The similarity of associated cases is measured preferentially, instead of comparing all the cases in the case base. Experiments on case retrieval were performed between the associated case representation and traditional methods, following two criteria: the number of visited cases and retrieval accuracy. The result demonstrates that our proposal enables fast case retrieval with promising accuracy by visiting fewer past cases. In conclusion, the associated case representation method outperforms traditional methods in the aspect of retrieval efficiency.
@article{Zhai2019a, title = {An {{Associated Representation Method}} for {{Defining Agricultural Cases}} in a {{Case-Based Reasoning System}} for {{Fast Case Retrieval}}}, author = {Zhai, Zhaoyu and {Mart{\'i}nez-Ortega}, Jos{\'e}-Fern{\'a}n and {Beltr{\'a}n-Mart{\'i}nez}, Mar{\'i}a-Victoria and {Lucas-Mart{\'i}nez}, N{\'e}stor}, year = {2019}, month = nov, date = {2019-11-22}, journal = {Sensors}, volume = {19}, number = {23}, pages = {5118}, issn = {1424-8220}, doi = {10.3390/s19235118}, urldate = {2024-08-11}, copyright = {CC BY 4.0}, langid = {english}, dimensions = {true}, google_scholar_id = {Tyk-4Ss8FVUC} }
2018
- A Mission Planning Approach for Precision Farming Systems Based on Multi-Objective OptimizationSensors (Switzerland), Jun 2018
As the demand for food grows continuously, intelligent agriculture has drawn much attention due to its capability of producing great quantities of food efficiently. The main purpose of intelligent agriculture is to plan agricultural missions properly and use limited resources reasonably with minor human intervention. This paper proposes a Precision Farming System (PFS) as a Multi-Agent System (MAS). Components of PFS are treated as agents with different functionalities. These agents could form several coalitions to complete the complex agricultural missions cooperatively. In PFS, mission planning should consider several criteria, like expected benefit, energy consumption or equipment loss. Hence, mission planning could be treated as a Multi-objective Optimization Problem (MOP). In order to solve MOP, an improved algorithm, MP-PSOGA, is proposed, taking advantages of the Genetic Algorithms and Particle Swarm Optimization. A simulation, called precise pesticide spraying mission, is performed to verify the feasibility of the proposed approach. Simulation results illustrate that the proposed approach works properly. This approach enables the PFS to plan missions and allocate scarce resources efficiently. The theoretical analysis and simulation is a good foundation for the future study. Once the proposed approach is applied to a real scenario, it is expected to bring significant economic improvement.
@article{Zhai2018a, title = {A Mission Planning Approach for Precision Farming Systems Based on Multi-Objective Optimization}, author = {Zhai, Zhaoyu and {Mart{\'i}nez-Ortega}, Jos{\'e}-Fern{\'a}n and {Lucas-Mart{\'i}nez}, N{\'e}stor and {Rodr{\'i}guez-Molina}, Jes{\'u}s}, year = {2018}, month = jun, date = {2018-06-02}, journal = {Sensors (Switzerland)}, volume = {18}, number = {6}, issn = {14248220}, doi = {10.3390/s18061795}, copyright = {CC BY 4.0}, langid = {english}, keywords = {Agent coalition,Mission planning approach,Multi-agent system,Multi-objective optimization,Precision farming system}, dimensions = {true}, google_scholar_id = {u5HHmVD_uO8C} } - A Rule-Based Reasoner for Underwater Robots Using OWL and SWRLSensors, Oct 2018
Web Ontology Language (OWL) is designed to represent varied knowledge about things and the relationships of things. It is widely used to express complex models and address information heterogeneity of specific domains, such as underwater environments and robots. With the help of OWL, heterogeneous underwater robots are able to cooperate with each other by exchanging information with the same meaning and robot operators can organize the coordination easier. However, OWL has expressivity limitations on representing general rules, especially the statement “If … Then … Else …”. Fortunately, the Semantic Web Rule Language (SWRL) has strong rule representation capabilities. In this paper, we propose a rule-based reasoner for inferring and providing query services based on OWL and SWRL. SWRL rules are directly inserted into the ontologies by several steps of model transformations instead of using a specific editor. In the verification experiments, the SWRL rules were successfully and efficiently inserted into the OWL-based ontologies, obtaining completely correct query results. This rule-based reasoner is a promising approach to increase the inference capability of ontology-based models and it achieves significant contributions when semantic queries are done.
@article{zhai2018b, title = {A {{Rule-Based Reasoner}} for {{Underwater Robots Using OWL}} and {{SWRL}}}, author = {Zhai, Zhaoyu and {Mart{\'i}nez-Ortega}, Jos{\'e}-Fern{\'a}n and {Lucas-Mart{\'i}nez}, N{\'e}stor and Castillejo, Pedro}, year = {2018}, month = oct, date = {2018-10-16}, journal = {Sensors}, volume = {18}, number = {10}, pages = {3481}, issn = {1424-8220}, doi = {10.3390/s18103481}, urldate = {2024-08-11}, copyright = {CC BY 4.0}, langid = {english}, dimensions = {true}, google_scholar_id = {UeHWp8X0CEIC}, }
2016
- A Survey on Intermediation Architectures for Underwater RoboticsSensors, Feb 2016
Currently, there is a plethora of solutions regarding interconnectivity and interoperability for networked robots so that they will fulfill their purposes in a coordinated manner. In addition to that, middleware architectures are becoming increasingly popular due to the advantages that they are capable of guaranteeing (hardware abstraction, information homogenization, easy access for the applications above, etc.). However, there are still scarce contributions regarding the global state of the art in intermediation architectures for underwater robotics. As far as the area of robotics is concerned, this is a major issue that must be tackled in order to get a holistic view of the existing proposals. This challenge is addressed in this paper by studying the most compelling pieces of work for this kind of software development in the current literature. The studied works have been assessed according to their most prominent features and capabilities. Furthermore, by studying the individual pieces of work and classifying them several common weaknesses have been revealed and are highlighted. This provides a starting ground for the development of a middleware architecture for underwater robotics capable of dealing with these issues.
@article{Li2016, title = {A {{Survey}} on {{Intermediation Architectures}} for {{Underwater Robotics}}}, author = {Li, Xin and {Mart{\'i}nez-Ortega}, Jos{\'e}-Fern{\'a}n and {Rodr{\'i}guez-Molina}, Jes{\'u}s and {Lucas-Mart{\'i}nez}, N{\'e}stor}, year = {2016}, month = feb, date = {2016-02-04}, journal = {Sensors}, volume = {16}, number = {2}, pages = {190}, issn = {1424-8220}, doi = {10.3390/s16020190}, urldate = {2022-11-03}, copyright = {CC BY 4.0}, langid = {english}, dimensions = {true}, google_scholar_id = {u-x6o8ySG0sC}, } - Communication Range Dynamics and Performance Analysis for a Self-Adaptive Transmission Power ControllerNéstor Lucas-Martínez, José-Fernán Martínez-Ortega, Vicente Hernández-Díaz, and Raúl del Toro MatamorosSensors, May 2016
The deployment of the nodes in a Wireless Sensor and Actuator Network (WSAN) is typically restricted by the sensing and acting coverage. This implies that the locations of the nodes may be, and usually are, not optimal from the point of view of the radio communication. Additionally, when the transmission power is tuned for those locations, there are other unpredictable factors that can cause connectivity failures, like interferences, signal fading due to passing objects and, of course, radio irregularities. A control-based self-adaptive system is a typical solution to improve the energy consumption while keeping good connectivity. In this paper, we explore how the communication range for each node evolves along the iterations of an energy saving self-adaptive transmission power controller when using different parameter sets in an outdoor scenario, providing a WSAN that automatically adapts to surrounding changes keeping good connectivity. The results obtained in this paper show how the parameters with the best performance keep a k-connected network, where k is in the range of the desired node degree plus or minus a specified tolerance value.
@article{LucasMartinez2016, title = {Communication {{Range Dynamics}} and {{Performance Analysis}} for a {{Self-Adaptive Transmission Power Controller}}}, author = {{Lucas-Mart{\'i}nez}, N{\'e}stor and {Mart{\'i}nez-Ortega}, Jos{\'e}-Fern{\'a}n and {Hern{\'a}ndez-D{\'i}az}, Vicente and {del Toro Matamoros}, Ra{\'u}l}, year = {2016}, month = may, date = {2016-05-12}, journal = {Sensors}, volume = {16}, number = {5}, pages = {684}, issn = {1424-8220}, doi = {10.3390/s16050684}, urldate = {2022-11-03}, copyright = {CC BY 4.0}, langid = {english}, dimensions = {true}, google_scholar_id = {Y0pCki6q_DkC} }
2015
- Self-Adaptive Strategy Based on Fuzzy Control Systems for Improving Performance in Wireless Sensors NetworksVicente Hernández-Díaz, José-Fernán Martínez-Ortega, Néstor Lucas-Martínez, and Raúl M. Del Toro MatamorosSensors, Sep 2015
The solutions to cope with new challenges that societies have to face nowadays involve providing smarter daily systems. To achieve this, technology has to evolve and leverage physical systems automatic interactions, with less human intervention. Technological paradigms like Internet of Things (IoT) and Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) are providing reference models, architectures, approaches and tools that are to support cross-domain solutions. Thus, CPS based solutions will be applied in different application domains like e-Health, Smart Grid, Smart Transportation and so on, to assure the expected response from a complex system that relies on the smooth interaction and cooperation of diverse networked physical systems. The Wireless Sensors Networks (WSN) are a well-known wireless technology that are part of large CPS. The WSN aims at monitoring a physical system, object, (e.g., the environmental condition of a cargo container), and relaying data to the targeted processing element. The WSN communication reliability, as well as a restrained energy consumption, are expected features in a WSN. This paper shows the results obtained in a real WSN deployment, based on SunSPOT nodes, which carries out a fuzzy based control strategy to improve energy consumption while keeping communication reliability and computational resources usage among boundaries.
@article{HernandezDiaz2015, title = {Self-{{Adaptive Strategy Based}} on {{Fuzzy Control Systems}} for {{Improving Performance}} in {{Wireless Sensors Networks}}}, author = {{Hern{\'a}ndez-D{\'i}az}, Vicente and {Mart{\'i}nez-Ortega}, Jos{\'e}-Fern{\'a}n and {Lucas-Mart{\'i}nez}, N{\'e}stor and Del Toro Matamoros, Ra{\'u}l M.}, year = {2015}, month = sep, date = {2015-09-18}, journal = {Sensors}, volume = {15}, number = {9}, pages = {24125--24142}, issn = {1424-8220}, doi = {10.3390/s150924125}, urldate = {2022-11-03}, copyright = {CC BY 4.0}, langid = {english}, dimensions = {true}, google_scholar_id = {zYLM7Y9cAGgC}, }
2014
- Virtualization of Event Sources in Wireless Sensor Networks for the Internet of ThingsNéstor Lucas-Martínez, José-Fernán Martínez-Ortega, and Vicente Hernández-DíazSensors, Dec 2014
Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are generally used to collect information from the environment. The gathered data are delivered mainly to sinks or gateways that become the endpoints where applications can retrieve and process such data. However, applications would also expect from a WSN an event-driven operational model, so that they can be notified whenever occur some specific environmental changes instead of continuously analyzing the data provided periodically. In either operational model, WSNs represent a collection of interconnected objects, as outlined by the Internet of Things. Additionally, in order to fulfill the Internet of Things principles, Wireless Sensor Networks must have a virtual representation that allows indirect access to their resources, a model that should also include the virtualization of event sources in a WSN. Thus, in this paper a model for a virtual representation of event sources in a WSN is proposed. They are modeled as internet resources that are accessible by any internet application, following an Internet of Things approach. The model has been tested in a real implementation where a WSN has been deployed in an open neighborhood environment. Different event sources have been identified in the proposed scenario, and they have been represented following the proposed model.
@article{LucasMartinez2014, title = {Virtualization of {{Event Sources}} in {{Wireless Sensor Networks}} for the {{Internet}} of {{Things}}}, author = {Lucas-Mart{\'i}nez, N{\'e}stor and Mart{\'i}nez-Ortega, Jos{\'e}-Fern{\'a}n and Hern{\'a}ndez-D{\'i}az, Vicente}, year = {2014}, month = dec, date = {2014-12-01}, journal = {Sensors}, volume = {14}, number = {12}, pages = {22737--22753}, issn = {1424-8220}, doi = {10.3390/s141222737}, urldate = {2022-11-03}, copyright = {CC BY 4.0}, langid = {english}, dimensions = {true}, google_scholar_id = {ufrVoPGSRksC}, }
Conference Papers
2023
- Breaking Down IoT Silos: Semantic Interoperability Support System for the Internet of ThingsMario San Emeterio De La Parte, José-Fernán Martínez-Ortega, Néstor Lucas-Martínez, and Vicente Hernández-DíazIn 2023 3rd International Conference on Electrical, Computer, Communications and Mechatronics Engineering (ICECCME), Jul 2023
The Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging technology nurtured by the production of large volumes of data generated by various distributed agents in production environments. Solutions developed in specific application domains use multiple native data models, making integration and interoperability between solutions a complex scenario to achieve. The purpose of this paper is to provide a Semantic Interoperability Support System (SIS) that offers a powerful tool for semantic analysis, mapping, and implementation of connectors or gateways to achieve semantic interoperability between IoT solutions. The paper presents a real evaluation scenario in which the proposal to ensure semantic interoperability between the intelligent platform solutions, AFarCloud and DEMETER, is validated.
@inproceedings{SanEmeterioDeLaParte2023b, title = {Breaking {{Down IoT Silos}}: {{Semantic Interoperability Support System}} for the {{Internet}} of {{Things}}}, shorttitle = {Breaking {{Down IoT Silos}}}, booktitle = {2023 3rd {{International Conference}} on {{Electrical}}, {{Computer}}, {{Communications}} and {{Mechatronics Engineering}} ({{ICECCME}})}, author = {De La Parte, Mario San Emeterio and {Mart{\'i}nez-Ortega}, Jos{\'e}-Fern{\'a}n and {Lucas-Mart{\'i}nez}, N{\'e}stor and {Hern{\'a}ndez-D{\'i}az}, Vicente}, year = {2023}, month = jul, date = {2023-07-21}, pages = {1--7}, publisher = {IEEE}, address = {Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain}, doi = {10.1109/ICECCME57830.2023.10253024}, urldate = {2024-08-11}, copyright = {https://doi.org/10.15223/policy-029}, isbn = {9798350322972}, dimensions = {true}, google_scholar_id = {hqOjcs7Dif8C} }
2015
- Communication Range Dynamics Using an Energy Saving Self-Adaptive Transmission Power Controller in a Wireless Sensor NetworkNéstor Lucas-Martínez, José-Fernán Martínez-Ortega, Vicente Hernández-Díaz, and Raúl del Toro MatamorosIn Proceedings of 2nd International Electronic Conference on Sensors and Applications, Nov 2015
The deployment of the nodes in a Wireless Sensors and Actuators Network (WSAN) is typically restricted by the sensing and acting coverage. This implies that the locations of the nodes may be, and usually are, not optimal from the point of view of the radio communication. And also when the transmission power is tuned for those locations, there are other unpredictable factors that can cause connectivity failures, like interferences, signal fading due to passing objects, and of course, radio irregularities. A control based self-adaptive system is a typical solution to improve the energy consumption while keeping a good connectivity. In this paper, we explore how the communication range for each node evolves along the iterations of an energy saving self-adaptive transmission power controller when using different parameter sets in an outdoor scenario, providing a WSAN that automatically adapts to surrounding changes keeping a good connectivity. The results obtained in this paper show how the parameters with the best performance keep a k-connected network, where k is in the range of the desired node degree plus or minus a specified tolerance value. In addition, the worst performance shows how a bad parameters choice can create isolated islands, groups of nodes disconnected from the rest of the network
@inproceedings{LucasMartinezECSA2015, title = {Communication {{Range Dynamics Using}} an {{Energy Saving Self-Adaptive Transmission Power Controller}} in a {{Wireless Sensor Network}}}, booktitle = {Proceedings of 2nd {{International Electronic Conference}} on {{Sensors}} and {{Applications}}}, author = {{Lucas-Mart{\'i}nez}, N{\'e}stor and {Mart{\'i}nez-Ortega}, Jos{\'e}-Fern{\'a}n and {Hern{\'a}ndez-D{\'i}az}, Vicente and {del Toro Matamoros}, Ra{\'u}l}, year = {2015}, month = nov, date = {2015-11-10}, pages = {6}, publisher = {MDPI}, address = {Sciforum.net}, doi = {10.3390/ecsa-2-D006}, urldate = {2022-11-03}, copyright = {CC BY 4.0}, langid = {english}, slides = https://sciforum.net/paper/download/3223/slides }
2014
- Virtualization of Event Sources in Wireless Sensor Networks for the Internet of ThingsNéstor Lucas-Martínez, José-Fernán Martínez-Ortega, and Vicente Hernández-DíazIn Proceedings of International Electronic Conference on Sensors and Applications, Jun 2014
Sensor networks, and more specifically wireless sensor networks (WSN), are generally used to collect information from the environment. The gathered data are mainly delivered to sinks or gateways that become the endpoints where applications can retrieve and use such data. But applications would also expect from a WSN an event-driven operational model, so that they can be notified whenever occur some specific environmental changes instead of analyzing continuously the data provided periodically.In either operational model, wireless sensor networks represent a collection of objects interconnected, in a similar way that is outlined by the Internet of Things vision. In following years sensors will become more capable and resourceful. But in the meantime, they lie into the definition of constrained devices. In addition, to fulfill the vision of the Internet of Things, they must have a virtual representation that allows indirect access to their resources, a model that should also include the virtualization of event sources in a WSN.Thus, in this paper we propose a model for a virtual representation of event sources in a WSN. The event sources are modeled as internet resources that are accessible by any internet application, following an Internet of Things approach. The model has been tested in a real implementation where a wireless sensor network has been deployed in an open neighborhood environment. Different event sources have been identified in the proposed scenario, and they have been represented following the proposed model.
@inproceedings{LucasMartinezECSA2014, title = {Virtualization of Event Sources in {{Wireless Sensor Networks}} for the {{Internet}} of {{Things}}}, booktitle = {Proceedings of {{International Electronic Conference}} on {{Sensors}} and {{Applications}}}, author = {{Lucas-Mart{\'i}nez}, N{\'e}stor and {Mart{\'i}nez-Ortega}, Jos{\'e}-Fern{\'a}n and {Hern{\'a}ndez-D{\'i}az}, Vicente}, year = {2014}, month = jun, date = {2014-06-02}, pages = {6}, publisher = {MDPI}, address = {Sciforum.net}, doi = {10.3390/ecsa-1-d009}, urldate = {2022-11-03}, copyright = {CC BY 3.0}, langid = {english}, dimensions = {true}, }
Posters
2022
- CDTIAFarCloudNéstor Lucas-Martínez, and José-Fernán Martínez-OrtegaApr 2022
Poster presented at the 11th Conference of the Research and Innovation Framework Program of the European Union in Spain, under the slogan “The new Horizon for Europe”.
@misc{LucasMartinezAFarCloud2022, title = {{{AFarCloud}}}, booktitle = {11th {{Conference}} of the {{Research}} and {{Innovation Framework Program}} of the {{European Union}} in {{Spain}},}, author = {{Lucas-Mart{\'i}nez}, N{\'e}stor and {Mart{\'i}nez-Ortega}, Jos{\'e}-Fern{\'a}n}, year = {2022}, month = apr, date = {2022-04-06}, publisher = {Zenodo}, address = {Valencia, Spain}, doi = {10.5281/ZENODO.7245128}, urldate = {2024-08-13}, copyright = {Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, Open Access}, langid = {english}, keywords = {Agriculture 4.0,Precision Agriculture,Precision Farming}, dimensions = {true} }
Academic works
2021
- Contributions to Adaptive Mission Planning for Cooperative Robotics in the Internet of ThingsNéstor Lucas-MartínezUniversidad Politécnica de Madrid, May 2021
Néstor Lucas Martínez was awarded with the Outstanding PhD Award from UPM
In recent years, robotics has experienced a growing interest thanks to the impetus received by the advances on the various technologies on which it relies. Of all the aspects in which robotics is making its way, one of the most relevant is related to autonomous robotics, where robots are capable of performing assigned tasks with minimal human intervention. A simple example is the now common Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), capable of flying between points without the need for a human to carry out the piloting tasks. This ability to carry out assigned tasks with minimal human intervention has its main advantages in those tasks that are carried out in harsh, dangerous, or even distant environments. The usual way of working with this type of robot starts with the definition of some goals resulting in what is known as a mission. A plan is defined to achieve the mission goals. In this context the definition of a plan is limited to a sequence of actions that the robot must carry out, without alternative branches of execution. This approach is acceptable when it is possible to control the conditions of the environment in which the plan is to be executed. However, the environments where there is greater interest for the use of autonomous robots, such the ones with peril or considerable distances, are usually open. This implies that in those environments may occur situations that prevent the correct execution of the plan, being necessary to adapt the mission to such situations. Traditionally, the adaptation of a mission when situations that prevent the execution of the plan has done in two ways: 1. Delegating the ability to adapt to robots. 2. Updating the mission plan, either repairing it or creating a new one for the situation detected (re-planning). Both options have their drawbacks. On the one hand delegation is not always possible, far from easy. And even in those cases in which a certain adaptive ability can be delegated to the robots, it is still possible that there are situations to which the robot cannot adapt. On the other hand, updating the mission plan is a time-consuming process, which would negatively affect the fulfillment of the mission. Furthermore, if several robots are participating cooperatively in a mission, it is possible that the situation detected by one of them requires the adaptation of the plan for others. And neither delegation, nor re-planning or plan repairing cover this possibility. Additionally, there are other types of situations that can be detected during the execution of a mission that do not imply the need to adapt the plan, but rather the presence of an opportunity to achieve other desirable goals. This thesis proposes a contribution to the adaptation of mission plans for cooperative robotics within the framework of the Internet of Things (IoT), with the following objectives: 1) define an improved structure of a plan, compatible with its classic definition, and which allows the use of existing knowledge to anticipate possible adaptations, as well as to identify opportunities outside the original plan; 2) define a reference middleware architecture for mission management that, using the previous structure, serves as a guide for the design of concrete architectures for specific systems. The new structure defined, called “strategy” in this dissertation, incorporates the classic structure of a plan complemented with the possible hierarchical decomposition of the actions that constitute it, the inclusion of decision nodes and the consideration of alternative plans for identifed opportunities. This structure is complemented by the proposal of a common reference architecture for mission management, called “CoMMMA” in this thesis. CoMMMA includes the necessary functionalities to facilitate adaptation to events and detection of opportunities, maintaining a close relationship with the Internet of Things (IoT) reference model. As proof of concept and validation of the proposal, this model has been used to define a mission manager component for the architecture of the SWARMs European Research Project. The SWARMs project was aimed to expand the use of underwater and surface autonomous robotics, using autonomous vehicles to carry out tasks in the underwater environment, in which the conditions of danger and distance are met. The manager component employs the necessary CoMMMA concepts that apply to the specifc requirements of the project, and it has been successfully tested in the final demonstrator for the project, obtaining promising results. The CoMMMA model presented in this thesis has also been used in the design of the mission management component for the architecture of the European Research Project AFarCloud, framed in the field of precision agriculture, and pending evaluation at the time of writing these lines. The foundations and outcomes presented in this dissertation are mainly contextualized in the following European Research Projects: WoO (ITEA2 code: 10028), DEMANES (Artemis code: 295372), ACCUS (Artemis code: 333020), SWARMs (ECSEL code: 662107) and AFarCloud (ECSEL code: 783221).
@phdthesis{lucasmartinezContributionsAdaptiveMission2021, title = {Contributions to {{Adaptive Mission Planning}} for {{Cooperative Robotics}} in the {{Internet}} of {{Things}}}, author = {Lucas-Mart{\'i}nez, N{\'e}stor}, year = {2021}, month = may, date = {2021-05-21}, address = {Madrid, Spain}, doi = {10.20868/UPM.thesis.67426}, urldate = {2024-08-11}, copyright = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0}, langid = {english}, school = {Universidad Polit{\'e}cnica de Madrid}, dimensions = {true}, google_scholar_id = {roLk4NBRz8UC}, }
2016
- Development of a Fuzzy Control Based Self-Adaptive System for Energy Saving in Constrained Networks for the Internet of ThingsNéstor Lucas-MartínezFeb 2016
Néstor Lucas Martínez received the highest qualification, “Matrícula de Honor”, for his Master Thesis.
Among the design goals for future networks, including next generation networks, we can find the energy consumption and the connectivity. These two goals are of special relevance when dealing with constrained networks. That is the case of Wireless Sensors Networks (WSN). These networks consist of devices with low or very low processing capabilities. They also depend on batteries for their operation. Thus energy optimization becomes a very important issue. Several proposals have been made for optimizing the energy consumption in this kind of networks. Perhaps the best known are those based on the coordinated planning of active and sleep intervals. They are indeed one of the most effective ways to extend the lifetime of the batteries. The proposal presented in this work uses a probabilistic approach to control the connectivity of a network. The underlying idea is that it is highly probable that the network will have a good connectivity if all the nodes have a minimum number of neighbors. By using some mechanism to reach that number, we hope that we can preserve the connectivity with a lower energy consumption compared to the required one if a fixed transmission power is used to achieve a similar connectivity. The mechanism must have the smallest footprint possible on the devices being used in order to be efficient. Therefore a fuzzy control based self-adaptive system is proposed. This work includes the design and implementation of the described system. It also has been validated in a real scenario deployment. We have obtained results supporting that there exist configurations where it is possible to get a good connectivity saving energy when compared to the use of a fixed transmission power for a similar connectivity.
@phdthesis{LucasMartinezMScThesis2016, type = {{{MSc Thesis}}}, title = {Development of a {{Fuzzy Control Based Self-Adaptive System}} for {{Energy Saving}} in {{Constrained Networks}} for the {{Internet}} of {{Things}}}, author = {{Lucas-Mart{\'i}nez}, N{\'e}stor}, year = {2016}, month = feb, date = {2016-02-22}, address = {Madrid, Spain}, copyright = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0}, langid = {english}, school = {Universidad Polit{\'e}cnica de Madrid}, keywords = {No DOI found}, google_scholar_id = {IjCSPb-OGe4C}, }
2013
- Virtualización de dispositivos para servicios en la Ciudad del FuturoNéstor Lucas-MartínezSep 2013
Néstor Lucas Martínez received the highest qualification, “Matrícula de Honor”, for his Bachelor Thesis.
The increasing of the capabilities of all kind of devices is causing a revolution in the field of the provision of services, both in quantity and in diversity. This situation has highlighted the need to address unprecedented technological development, where the forecast of interconnected and interoperable devices between them and human beings reaches the order of billions. And these numbers go further when the connectivity of constrained networks is taken into account. This idea of an interconnected world of things has led to a vision that has been called "The Internet of Things". It’s a vision of a world where things of any kind can interact with other things, even those in the domain of a constrained network. This also leads to the creation of new composed services that exceed the sum of the parts. Besides the technological interest, this new vision relates with the one from the Smart City. A concept that uses the convergence of the energy, the transport, and the information and communication technologies to define a way to achieve sustainable and competitive growth, improving the quality of life, and opening the governance of the cities to the participation. In the development pathway to reach these goals, this Final Degree Dissertation proposes a way for the virtualization of the services offered by the variety of devices that are reaching the ability to interoperate in a network. For this it is supported by a service oriented middleware called nSOM that has been developed at EUITT. Using this architecture the goals proposed for this project are the design and development of a service gateway that makes available the resources of a sensor network through a web interface; the design and development of a Device & Service Registry according to the reference architecture proposal for the Internet of Things; and the study and design of a composition framework for orchestrated services in constrained networks. To achieve these goals this dissertation begins with a State of the Art study where the background knowledge about the technologies in use for the interoperation of things will be settled. At first it starts talking about Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks, the architectures for Machine-to-Machine communication and Internet of Things, and also the concepts for the Web of Things vision. Next the related network and services technologies are explored, ending with a brief review of service composition technologies. Then will follow a detailed description of the nSOM architecture, and also of the proposed design for this project. Finally a scenario will be proposed where a series of validation tests will be conducted.
@phdthesis{LucasMartinezBScThesis2013, type = {{Bachelor Thesis}}, title = {{Virtualizaci{\'o}n de dispositivos para servicios en la Ciudad del Futuro}}, author = {{Lucas-Mart{\'i}nez}, N{\'e}stor}, year = {2013}, month = sep, date = {2013-09-26}, address = {Madrid, Spain}, copyright = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0}, langid = {spanish}, school = {Universidad Polit{\'e}cnica de Madrid}, google_scholar_id = {eQOLeE2rZwMC}, }
