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Marine environments are delicate ecosystems which directly influence local climates, flora, fauna, and human activities. Their monitorization plays a key role in their preservation, which is most commonly done through the use of environmental sensing buoy networks. These devices transmit data by means of satellite communications or close-range base stations, which present several limitations and elevated infrastructure costs. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) are another alternative for remote environmental monitoring which provide new types of data and ease of use. These aircraft are mainly used in video capture related applications, in its various light spectrums, and do not provide the same data as sensing buoys, nor can they be used for such extended periods of time. The aim of this research is to provide a flexible, easy to deploy and cost-effective Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) for monitoring marine environments. This proposal uses a UAV as a mobile data collector, low-power long-range communications and sensing buoys as part of a single WSN. A complete description of the design, development, and implementation of the various parts of this system is presented, as well as its validation in a real-world scenario.

The kitchen environment is one of the scenarios in the home where users can benefit from Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) applications. Moreover, it is the place where old people suffer from most domestic injuries. This paper presents a novel design, implementation and assessment of a Smart Kitchen which provides Ambient Assisted Living services; a smart environment that increases elderly and disabled people’s autonomy in their kitchen-related activities through context and user awareness, appropriate user interaction and artificial intelligence. It is based on a modular architecture which integrates a wide variety of home technology (household appliances, sensors, user interfaces, etc.) and associated communication standards and media (power line, radio frequency, infrared and cabled). Its software architecture is based on the Open Services Gateway initiative (OSGi), which allows building a complex system composed of small modules, each one providing the specific functionalities required, and can be easily scaled to meet our needs. The system has been evaluated by a large number of real users (63) and carers (31) in two living labs in Spain and UK. Results show a large potential of system functionalities combined with good usability and physical, sensory and cognitive accessibility.

Animal telemetry is a subject of great potential and scientific interest, but it shows design-dependent problems related to price, flexibility and customization, autonomy, integration of elements, and structural design. The objective of this paper is to provide solutions, from the application of design, to cover the niches that we discovered by reviewing the scientific literature and studying the market. The design process followed to achieve the objective involved a development based on methodologies and basic design approaches focused on the human experience and also that of the animal. We present a modular collar that distributes electronic components in several compartments, connected, and powered by batteries that are wirelessly recharged. Its manufacture is based on 3D printing, something that facilitates immediacy in adaptation and economic affordability. The modularity presented by the proposal allows for adapting the size of the modules to the components they house as well as selecting which specific modules are needed in a project. The homogeneous weight distribution is transferred to the comfort of the animal and allows for a better integration of the elements of the collar. This device substantially improves the current offer of telemetry devices for farming animals, thanks to an animal-centered design process.

Household appliances, climate control machines, vehicles, elevators, cash counting machines, etc., are complex machines with key contributions to the smart city. Those devices have limited memory and processing power, but they are not just actuators; they embed tens of sensors and actuators managed by several microcontrollers and microprocessors communicated by control buses. On the other hand, predictive maintenance and the capability of identifying failures to avoid greater damage of machines is becoming a topic of great relevance in Industry 4.0, and the large amount of data to be processed is a concern. This article proposes a layered methodology to enable complex machines with automatic fault detection or predictive maintenance. It presents a layered structure to perform the collection, filtering and extraction of indicators, along with their processing. The aim is to reduce the amount of data to work with, and to optimize them by generating indicators that concentrate the information provided by data. To test its applicability, a prototype of a cash counting machine has been used. With this prototype, different failure cases have been simulated by introducing defective elements. After the extraction of the indicators, using the Kullback–Liebler divergence, it has been possible to visualize the differences between the data associated with normal and failure operation. Subsequently, using a neural network, good results have been obtained, being able to correctly classify the failure in 90% of the cases. The result of this application demonstrates the proper functioning of the proposed approach in complex machines.

Extensive unsupervised livestock farming is a habitual technique in many places around the globe. Animal release can be done for months, in large areas and with different species packing and behaving very differently. Nevertheless, the farmer’s needs are similar: where livestock is (and where has been) and how healthy they are. The geographical areas involved usually have difficult access with harsh orography and lack of communications infrastructure. This paper presents the design of a solution for extensive livestock monitoring in these areas. Our proposal is based in a wearable equipped with inertial sensors, global positioning system and wireless communications; and a Low-Power Wide Area Network infrastructure that can run with and without internet connection. Using adaptive analysis and data compression, we provide real-time monitoring and logging of cattle’s position and activities. Hardware and firmware design achieve very low energy consumption allowing months of battery life. We have thoroughly tested the devices in different laboratory setups and evaluated the system performance in real scenarios in the mountains and in the forest.

In a city there are numerous items, many of them unnoticed but essential; this is the case of the signals. Signals are considered objects with reduced technological interest, but in this paper we prove that making them smart and integrating in the IoT (Internet of Things) could be a relevant contribution to the Smart City. This paper presents the concept of Smart Signal, as a device conscious of its context, with communication skills, able to offer the best message to the user, and as a ubiquitous element that contributes with information to the city. We present the design considerations and a real implementation and validation of the system in one of the most challenging environments that may exist in a city: a tunnel. The main advantages of the Smart Signal are the improvement of the actual functionality of the signal providing new interaction capabilities with users and a new sensory mechanism of the Smart City.

This study presents a novel system for diagnosing and evaluating soccer performance using wearable inertial sensors integrated into players’ insoles. Designed to meet the needs of professional podiatrists and sports practitioners, the system focuses on three key soccer-related movements: passing, shooting, and changes of direction (CoDs). The system leverages low-power IMU sensors, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) communication, and a cloud-based architecture to enable real-time data analysis and performance feedback. Data were collected from nine professional players from the SD Huesca women’s team during controlled tests, and bespoke algorithms were developed to process kinematic data for precise event detection. Results indicate high accuracy rates for detecting ball-striking events and CoDs, with improvements in algorithm performance achieved through adaptive thresholds and ensemble neural network models. Compared to existing systems, this approach significantly reduces costs and enhances practicality by minimizing the number of sensors required while ensuring real-time evaluation capabilities. However, the study is limited by a small sample size, which restricts generalizability. Future research will aim to expand the dataset, include diverse sports, and integrate additional sensors for broader applications. This system offers a valuable tool for injury prevention, player rehabilitation, and performance optimization in professional soccer, bridging technical advancements with practical applications in sports science.

The Internet of Things (IoT) concept proposes that everyday objects are globally accessible from the Internet and integrate into new services having a remarkable impact on our society. Opposite to Internet world, things usually belong to resource-challenged environments where energy, data throughput, and computing resources are scarce. Building upon existing standards in the field such as IEEE1451 and ZigBee and rooted in context semantics, this paper proposes CTP (Communication Things Protocol) as a protocol specification to allow interoperability among things with different communication standards as well as simplicity and functionality to build IoT systems. Also, this paper proposes the use of the IoT gateway as a fundamental component in IoT architectures to provide seamless connectivity and interoperability among things and connect two different worlds to build the IoT: the Things world and the Internet world. Both CTP and IoT gateway constitute a middleware content-centric architecture presented as the mechanism to achieve a balance between the intrinsic limitations of things in the physical world and what is required from them in the virtual world. Said middleware content-centric architecture is implemented within the frame of two European projects targeting smart environments and proving said CTP's objectives in real scenarios.

Non-residential buildings contribute to around 20% of the total energy consumed in Europe. This consumption continues to increase globally. Smart building proposals (focused on Nearly Zero Energy Building (NZEB), air quality monitoring, energy saving with thermal comfort, etc.) were already necessary before 2020, and the pandemic has made this research and development area more essential. Furthermore, the need to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and obtain technological solutions based on the Internet of Things (IoT) requires holistic contributions through real installations that serve as spaces for measuring, testing, study and research. This article proposes a “measure–analyse–decide and act” methodology to quantify the Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI) for university buildings as a reference environment for energy efficiency and COVID-19 prevention models. Two conceptual spaces (physical and digital) within two dimensions (users and infrastructures) are designated over an IoT three-level model (information acquisition, interoperable communication, and data-driven decision). An IoT ecosystem (sensoriZAR) was implemented as a proof-of-concept of a smart campus at the University of Zaragoza, Spain. Focused on CO2 and energy consumption monitoring, the results showed effectiveness through real installations, demonstrating the IoT potential as SDG-enabling technologies. These contributions allow not only experimental lab tests (from the authors’ expertise in several specialties of Industrial, Mechanical, Design, Thermal, Electrical, Electronic, Computer and Telecommunication Engineering) but also a reference model for direct application in academic works, research projects and institutional initiatives, extendable to professional environments, buildings and cities.

Background Although hippotherapy treatment has been demonstrated to have therapeutic effects on children with cerebral palsy, the samples used in research studies have been very small. In the case of hippotherapy simulators, there are no studies that either recommend or advise against their use in the treatment of children with cerebral palsy. The aim of this randomised clinical study is to analyse the therapeutic effects or the contraindications of the use of a commercial hippotherapy simulator on several important factors relating to children with cerebral palsy such as their motor development, balance control in the sitting posture, hip abduction range of motion and electromyographic activity of adductor musculature. Methods/Design The study is a randomised controlled trial. It will be carried out with a sample of 37 children with cerebral palsy divided into two treatment groups. Eligible participants will be randomly allocated to receive either (a) Treatment Group with hippotherapy simulator, maintaining sitting posture, with legs in abduction and rhythmic movement of the simulator or (b) Treatment Group maintaining sitting posture, with legs in abduction and without rhythmic movement of the simulator. Data collection and analysis: all measurements will be carried out by a specially trained blind assessor. To ensure standardization quality of the assessors, an inter-examiner agreement will be worked out at the start of the study. The trial is funded by the Department of Research, Innovation and Development of the Regional Government of Aragon (Official Bulletin of Aragon 23 July 2007), project number PM059/2007. Discussion Interest in this project is due to the following factors: Clinical originality (there are no previous studies analysing the effect of simulators on the population group of children with CP, nor any studies using as many variables as this project); Clinical impact (infantile cerebral palsy is a chronic multisystemic condition that affects not only the patient but also the patient's family and their close circle of friends); Practical benefits (the development of an effective treatment is very important for introducing this element into the rehabilitation of these children). Trial registration Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN03663478.