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Contribution: A novel project-based learning (PBL) approach applicable to diverse design-oriented engineering courses. This article reports the application results during six academic years (2012/13 to 2017/18) for electronic instrumentation (EI) course for third-year Industrial Electronic and Automation Engineering majors. Background: Engineering education should prepare students to specify, design, and validate systems interacting with stakeholders in complex professional scenarios. Intended Outcomes: The general aim of the course was to train students in the specification, design, and validation of real-world instrumentation systems, promoting the development of expertise and deep understanding of fundamental concepts and techniques. Application Design: The students, working in teams, were tasked with the specification, design, and development of different instrumentation projects. They had to exchange information about their projects with other teams and discuss design decisions, thus creating a multiple-case experience. In addition, each team acted as a provider of a different team and as a client of another team, in a circular client--provider relationship. This student-centered learning process was supported and complemented with guided teaching of fundamental concepts, principles, and techniques and with continuous evaluation, complemented with rigorous individual exams. The project activities, lectures, and problem-solving classes were coordinated to optimize the process of developing the students' understanding and expertise. Findings: Based on the academic results and the feedback from the students obtained along the years through two different anonymous surveys, it is concluded that most of the students achieved the expected learning outcomes, i.e., learning to design EI systems and dealing with stakeholders. Analyzed results proved that students were very satisfied with the methodology.

Industry 4.0 introduced new concepts, technologies, and paradigms, such as Cyber Physical Systems (CPSs), Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and, more recently, Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT). These paradigms ease the creation of complex systems by integrating heterogeneous devices. As a result, the structure of the production systems is changing completely. In this scenario, the adoption of reference architectures based on standards may guide designers and developers to create complex AIoT applications. This article surveys the main reference architectures available for industrial AIoT applications, analyzing their key characteristics, objectives, and benefits; it also presents some use cases that may help designers create new applications. The main goal of this review is to help engineers identify the alternative that best suits every application. The authors conclude that existing reference architectures are a necessary tool for standardizing AIoT applications, since they may guide developers in the process of developing new applications. However, the use of reference architectures in real AIoT industrial applications is still incipient, so more development effort is needed in order for it to be widely adopted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Designing smart building IoT applications is a complex task. It requires efficiently integrating a broad number of heterogeneous, low-resource devices that adopt lightweight strategies. IoT frameworks, especially if they are standard-based, may help designers to scaffold the applications. OpenFog, established as IEEE 1934 standard, promotes the use of free open source (FOS) technologies and has been identified for use in smart buildings. However, smart building systems may present vulnerabilities, which can put their integrity at risk. Adopting state-of-the-art security mechanisms in this domain is critical but not trivial. It complicates the design and operation of the applications, increasing the cost of the deployed systems. In addition, difficulties may arise in finding qualified cybersecurity personnel. OpenFog identifies the security requirements of the applications, although it does not describe clearly how to implement them. This article presents a scalable architecture, based on the OpenFog reference architecture, to provide security by design in buildings of different sizes. It adopts FOS technologies over low-cost IoT devices. Moreover, it presents guidelines to help developers create secure applications, even if they are not security experts. It also proposes a selection of technologies in different layers to achieve the security dimensions defined in the X.805 ITU-T recommendation. A proof-of-concept Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ) system, based on low-cost smart nodes, was deployed in the Faculty of Engineering of Vitoria-Gasteiz to illustrate the implementation of the presented approach. The operation of the IEQ system was analyzed using software tools frequently used to find vulnerabilities in IoT applications. The use of state-of-the-art security mechanisms such as encryption, certificates, protocol selection and network partitioning/configuration in the OpenFog-based architecture improves smart building security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrogen, due to its high energy density, stands out as an energy storage method for the car industry in order to reduce the impact of the automotive sector on air pollution and global warming. The fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) emerges as a modification of the electric car by adding a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) to the battery pack and electric motor, that is capable of converting hydrogen into electric energy. In order to control the energy flow of so many elements, an optimal energy management system (EMS) is needed, where rule-based strategies represent the smallest computational burden and are the most widely used in the industry. In this work, a rule-based operation mode control strategy for the EMS of an FCEV validated by different driving cycles and several tests at the strategic points of the battery state of charge (SOC) is proposed. The results obtained in the new European driving cycle (NEDC) show the 12 kW battery variation of 2% and a hydrogen consumption of 1.2 kg/100 km compared to the variation of 1.42% and a consumption of 1.08 kg/100 km obtained in the worldwide harmonized light-duty test cycle (WLTC). Moreover, battery tests have demonstrated the optimal performance of the proposed EMS strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the design of an industrial informatics course, following the project-based learning methodology, and reports the experience of four academic years (from 2012-13 to 2015-16). Industrial Informatics is a compulsory course taught in the third year of the B.Sc. degree in industrial electronics and automation engineering at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Spain. The course had students develop an embedded controller for a 2DoF SCARA robot that drew a specific trajectory. The robot was built with the LEGO Mindstorms kit and the controller was implemented with NXC, a C-like programming language for the NXT brick. In this activity, students became aware of their learning needs and had to work proactively, both autonomously and in teams. The course design achieved several objectives: 1) students learned the course material; 2) soft skills demanded by employers were reinforced; and 3) the material was structured into project tasks for students to perform. The article analyses two indicators: 1) qualification marks and 2) student satisfaction.

Natural resources must be administered efficiently to reduce the human footprint and ensure the sustainability of the planet. Water is one of the most essential resources in agriculture. Modern information technologies are being introduced in agriculture to improve the performance of agricultural processes while optimizing water usage. In this scenario, artificial intelligence techniques may become a very powerful tool to improve efficiency. The introduction of the edge/fog/cloud paradigms, already adopted in other domains, may help to organize the services involved in complex agricultural applications. This article proposes the combination of several modern technologies to improve the management of hydrological resources and reduce water waste. The selected technologies are (1) fuzzy logic, used for control tasks since it adapts very well to the nonlinear nature of the agricultural processes, and (2) long range (LoRa) technology, suitable for establishing large distance links among the field devices (sensors and actuators) and the process controllers, executed in a centralized way. The presented approach has been validated in the laboratory by means of a control scheme aimed at achieving an adequate moisture level in the soil. The control algorithm, based on fuzzy logic, can use the weather forecast, obtained as a cloud service, to reduce water consumption. For testing purposes, the dynamics of the water balance model of the soil were implemented as hardware in the loop, executed in a dSPACE DS1104. Experiments proved the viability of the presented approach since the continuous space state output controller achieved a water loss reduction of 23.1% over a 4-day experiment length compared to a traditional on/off controller. The introduction of cloud services for weather forecasting improved the water reduction by achieving an additional reduction of 4.07% in water usage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]