Projects with strong participation of Hermes Partners

Submitted project proposals in ICT Call 7:

NACCESS
Current trends for applications in wireless communications require miniaturization of devices. Future wireless sensor and actuator networks with devices down to nanometre scale will be used for applications like e.g. smart personal environments, unobtrusive telemedicine systems, environmental monitoring and monitoring of material properties. Benefits arising from nanoscale wireless nodes are numerous, how to implement them is yet less obvious. A relevant topic for future smart systems with nanoscale components is the reliable powering of the miniaturized nodes requiring some form of energy harvesting for a proper operation of systems.

NAnosCale smart Communication componEnts and SystemS (NACCESS) provides a general system design for wireless sensor and actuator networks with nanoscale components. The approach followed in NACCESS is to provide acoustic and/or electromagnetic waves from a radiating device to a nanoscale component in a certain target area where the waves are converted into power. This harvesting resembles the form of schemes in microwave tagging where readers are used to read information from tags scattering back the waves impinging from a reader. The approach makes it possible to extend schemes known to work properly in the tagging context to nanoscale devices in an evolutionary way. The wireless power supply allows for a reduced size of the devices under well defined conditions on power availability. NACCESS combines the energy harvesting with an efficient design of the protocols for wireless communication among the nodes and/or an external wireless access where the objective is to provide a functionality of the overall system for sensing or actuating purposes in the target area. A validation platform will be set up to demonstrate the basics of the overall approach. The steps to be taken need both fundamental research in the field of efficient ways for harvesting the received energy and the ways of implementing the resulting schemes and systems.
Keywords: autonomous nanoscale wireless sensor and actuator networks, energy harvesting, power efficient networked smart systems.
Information: prof. dr. Dirk Dahlhaus, University of Kassel, email: dahlhaus@uni-kassel.de 

PERSEAS
PERSEAS will provide a holistic infrastructure model that enables the overall, progressive rehabilitation of patients with stroke and neurological conditions that need continuous monitoring and instruction. The ICT platform will be developed in such a way that the conditions of the patients will be retrieved remotely from the personal health scale to the broader ambience, and guidelines will be adapted to their behavioural patterns and to proactively predict new episodes. The context-aware closed-loop intelligent services will be offered by means of a Service Oriented Architecture, by introducing the concept of “service bricks” as the minimum functional service, resulting in context-awareness, personalization, high flexibility and auto-adaption to the patient needs. Sensors and devices will address all R&D aspects, from energy-efficient multi-sensing, advanced on-board processing, enabled local and remote communications, to embedded intelligence for shared patient-doctor decision. Under this framework, the PERSEAS partners will develop advanced algorithms and techniques resulting in innovative solutions and will advance the state-of-the-art in the areas of intelligent networked sensors and personal health systems for remote management, treatment and rehabilitation of diseases, dedicated to patients with stroke and neurological conditions. The unique quality of this proposal is that it combines full monitoring of patients with the promotion of active rehabilitation of the lost functions and practices for possibly  prevent  recurrent stroke(s), which all together will enable the stroke survivors to become active agents – instead of mere patients - in the recovery process. The project deploys a GCP monitored clinical validation and therefore a large-scale clinical demonstration by running trials in 3 countries: The Netherlands, Spain and Italy. These studies will be adequately powered to detect clinically significant changes induced by the application of PERSEAS.
Information: Dr. Sofoklis Kyriazakos, University of Aalborg, Denmark, email: sk@es.aau.dk

Ongoing and finalized projects

MAGNET Beyond is a worldwide R&D project within Mobile and Wireless Systems and Platforms Beyond 3G. MAGNET Beyond introduced new technologies, systems, and applications that are at the same time user-centric and secure. MAGNET Beyond will develop user-centric business model concepts for secure Personal Networks in multi-network, multi-device, and multi-user environments. MAGNET Beyond was carried out by 30 partners from 15 countries, among these Industrial Partners, Universities, and Research Centers.
MAGNET Beyond is a continuation of the MAGNET project. Magnet Beyond was funded by EC FP6. Most of the Hermes partners participated in Magnet Beyond. Magnet Beyond has been finalized succesful mid 2008. 

MOBESENS: Management of the environment for predictable and sustainable use of the natural resources is one of the great challenges of the 21st century. Although water covers most of the planet, it is becoming increasingly difficult to ensure adequate supplies of fresh, clean water for drinking, as well as, for sports and wellness activities. At the same time, water resources are increasingly exposed to pollutants and spills as parts of the world become ever more crowded and industrialized. Potential climate changes due to global warming may also impact water resources. Management of water quality requires regular measurements and monitoring. Today, measurements of water quality are performed manually. The process can be slow and painstaking. Multiple point measurements are needed to cover an area . The process needs to be automated and extended to provide rapid and effective monitoring. Autonomous, mobile and self healing solutions are needed to identify trends and to help localize and track potential problems. MOBESENS provides a modular and scalable ICT based solution for water quality monitoring. It enables data to be gathered quickly and reported across wide areas. The low power wireless sensor network gathers data samples, which are time and location stamped and automatically entered into the grid based information systems to facilitate analysis and issue alarms if needed. Mobility is an unique feature of MOBESENS, which are capable of navigation and both surface and subsurface measurements. This extends range, 3D area measurement and facilitates operation, even in bad weather. MOBESENS may form ad hoc networks enabling rapid and reliable reporting as well as relative location and tracking (e.g. of contaminants). Opportunistic communication between MOBESENS and both fixed and mobile buoys is envisioned. Renewable energy sources are studied for self-sustained MOBESENS operation. A number of Hermes partners contribute to the project, which is funded in the framework of FP7. MOBESENS started mid 2008 with a duration of three years. More information: http://www.mobesens.eu

The Network of Excellence (NoE) CRUISE (CReating Ubiquitous Intelligent Sensing Environments) intends to be a focal point in the planning and coordination of research on communication and application aspects of wireless sensor networking in Europe. It brings together a diverse group of partners who will integrate their expertise and knowledge gained in projects on related fields. CRUISE partners share the vision of ubiquitous intelligent sensing environments and are convinced that a NoE in this field is necessary, taking into account the benefits that sensor networks have to offer to European society and the current weakness and fragmentation in this field in Europe. Cruise has been finalized mid 2008.