Open Access
Towards a heat-resistant tethered micro-aerial vehicle for structure fire sensing
(MDPI, 2025-02-23) Aláez Gómez, Daniel; Prieto Míguez, Manuel; Villadangos Alonso, Jesús; Astrain Escola, José Javier; Estadística, Informática y Matemáticas; Estatistika, Informatika eta Matematika; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Gobierno de Navarra / Nafarroako Gobernua
The collapse of structures during firefighter intervention is one of the greatest risks that firefighters must face when entering buildings. To reduce these risks, situational awareness is key. Although many advances have already been developed in wildland and outdoor fires, there is still room for improvement in structure fires. The development of a heat-resistant micro-aerial vehicle for indoor fires poses a series of challenges such as component cooling, battery management, and protection from impacts. In this paper, a heat-resistant tethered micro-aerial vehicle is designed, modeled through thermal analysis, and successfully tested in real-world conditions. This platform has been equipped with a micro-sized thermal sensing camera and first-person-view (FPV) camera, optimized for thermal management, to allow for situational awareness in structure fires.
Open Access
Traffic estimation in high-speed communication networks using fuzzy systems
(EUSFLAT, 2001) Magaña Lizarrondo, Eduardo; Villadangos Alonso, Jesús; Astrain Escola, José Javier; Automática y Computación; Automatika eta Konputazioa
We present a practical application of fuzzy systems in communication networks. In this case a fuzzy relational model is developed to estimate the bytes transferred every time unit over a communication link. Such estimation is useful to provide an algorithm to dynamically reserve resources in order to guaranty the quality of service of the communications. In order to evaluate the fuzzy estimator we apply the information about the whole IP packets received at the router of the Public University of Navarra along two months. The estimator predicts the load of the communication link 1, 2, 4 and 6 hours before. The results show that the estimator can be used to dynamically assign bandwidth for communication services.
Open Access
Smart charging station with photovoltaic and energy storage for supplying electric buses
(IEEE, 2022) Berrueta Irigoyen, Alberto; Astrain Escola, José Javier; Puy Pérez de Laborda, Guillermo; El Hamzaoui, Ismail; Ursúa Rubio, Alfredo; Sanchis Gúrpide, Pablo; Villadangos Alonso, Jesús; Falcone Lanas, Francisco; López Martín, Antonio; Matías Maestro, Ignacio; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC
A Smart Charging Station (SCS) has been installed in the Public University of Navarre, Spain, in the framework of the H2020 Smart City Lighthouse STARDUST project. The SCS consists of a high-power electric bus charging point (300 kW), a 100 kW photovoltaic system, a 84 kWh support energy storage system based on a second-life lithiumion battery, and a monitoring and control system that allows the safe storage and convenient access to operation data. This SCS operates as a Smart Grid, being able to provide the power peaks required by the electric bus charger, reducing and smoothing the power demanded from the distribution grid and increasing the renewable energy self-consumption rate. This contribution presents a novel monitoring and control system, which is a key tool to integrate this SCS in the data infrastructure of a Smart City, as well as an energy management system able to operate the SCS to achieve the above-mentioned technical requirements. The crucial role of the monitoring and control system and the energy management system becomes evident in this work.
Open Access
Distributed opportunistic wireless mapping system towards smart city service provision
(IEEE, 2021) Villadangos Alonso, Jesús; Falcone Lanas, Francisco; López Martín, Antonio; Astrain Escola, José Javier; Sanchis Gúrpide, Pablo; Matías Maestro, Ignacio; Estatistika, Informatika eta Matematika; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa, Elektronikoaren eta Telekomunikazio Ingeniaritzaren; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Estadística, Informática y Matemáticas; Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Comunicación
The knowledge of wireless signal distribution within an urban scenario can provide useful information to users as well as to enhance connectivity and device operation or to perform municipal logistics based on crowd density and user mobility patterns. In this work, a distributed wireless mapping system, based on a combination of opportunistic nodes such as smartphones which map geolocated WiFi access point connection and received power levels, and a cloud-based information gathering architecture is described. The proposed system has been tested in the framework of the Smart City platform of the city of Pamplona, providing signal distribution heat maps, which can be used for multiple municipal services.
Open Access
An interdisciplinary design of an interactive cultural heritage visit for in-situ, mixed reality and affective experiences
(MDPI, 2022) Olaz Moratinos, Xabier; García Marreros, Ricardo M.; Ortiz Nicolás, Amalia; Marichalar Baraibar, Sebastian Roberto; Villadangos Alonso, Jesús; Ardaiz Villanueva, Óscar; Marzo Pérez, Asier; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Gobierno de Navarra / Nafarroako Gobernua
Interactive technologies, such as mixed-reality and natural interactions with avatars, can enhance cultural heritage and the experience of visiting a museum. In this paper, we present the design rationale of an interactive experience for a cultural heritage place in the church of Roncesvalles at the beginning of Camino de Santiago. We followed a participatory design with a multidisciplinary team which resulted in the design of a spatial augmented reality system that employs 3D projection mapping and a conversational agent acting as the storyteller. Multiple features were identified as desirable for an interactive experience: interdisciplinary design team; in-situ; mixed reality; interactive digital storytelling; avatar; tangible objects; gestures; emotions and groups. The findings from a workshop are presented for guiding other interactive cultural heritage experiences. © 2022 by the authors.
Open Access
Analysis of radio wave propagation for ISM 2.4 GHz wireless sensor networks in inhomogeneous vegetation environments
(MDPI, 2014) Azpilicueta Fernández de las Heras, Leyre; López Iturri, Peio; Aguirre Gallego, Erik; Mateo Zozaya, Ignacio; Astrain Escola, José Javier; Villadangos Alonso, Jesús; Falcone Lanas, Francisco; Ingeniería Eléctrica y Electrónica; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa eta Elektronikoa; Ingeniería Matemática e Informática; Matematika eta Informatika Ingeniaritza
The use of wireless networks has experienced exponential growth due to the improvements in terms of battery life and low consumption of the devices. However, it is compulsory to conduct previous radio propagation analysis when deploying a wireless sensor network. These studies are necessary to perform an estimation of the range coverage, in order to optimize the distance between devices in an actual network deployment. In this work, the radio channel characterization for ISM 2.4 GHz Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) in an inhomogeneous vegetation environment has been analyzed. This analysis allows designing environment monitoring tools based on ZigBee and WiFi where WSN and smartphones cooperate, providing rich and customized monitoring information to users in a friendly manner. The impact of topology as well as morphology of the environment is assessed by means of an in-house developed 3D Ray Launching code, to emulate the realistic operation in the framework of the scenario. Experimental results gathered from a measurement campaign conducted by deploying a ZigBee Wireless Sensor Network, are analyzed and compared with simulations in this paper. The scenario where this network is intended to operate is a combination of buildings and diverse vegetation species. To gain insight in the effects of radio propagation, a simplified vegetation model has been developed, considering the material parameters and simplified geometry embedded in the simulation scenario. An initial location-based application has been implemented in a real scenario, to test the functionality within a context aware scenario. The use of deterministic tools can aid to know the impact of the topological influence in the deployment of the optimal Wireless Sensor Network in terms of capacity, coverage and energy consumption, making the use of these systems attractive for multiple applications in inhomogeneous vegetation environments.
Open Access
Spatial characterization of radio propagation channel in urban vehicle-to-infrastructure environments to support WSNs deployment
(MDPI, 2017) Granda, Fausto; Azpilicueta Fernández de las Heras, Leyre; Vargas Rosales, César; López Iturri, Peio; Aguirre Gallego, Erik; Astrain Escola, José Javier; Villadangos Alonso, Jesús; Falcone Lanas, Francisco; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa eta Elektronikoa; Matematika eta Informatika Ingeniaritza; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Ingeniería Eléctrica y Electrónica; Ingeniería Matemática e Informática
Vehicular ad hoc Networks (VANETs) enable vehicles to communicate with each other as well as with roadside units (RSUs). Although there is a significant research effort in radio channel modeling focused on vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), not much work has been done for vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) using 3D ray-tracing tools. This work evaluates some important parameters of a V2I wireless channel link such as large-scale path loss and multipath metrics in a typical urban scenario using a deterministic simulation model based on an in-house 3D Ray-Launching (3D-RL) algorithm at 5.9 GHz. Results show the high impact that the spatial distance; link frequency; placement of RSUs; and factors such as roundabout, geometry and relative position of the obstacles have in V2I propagation channel. A detailed spatial path loss characterization of the V2I channel along the streets and avenues is presented. The 3D-RL results show high accuracy when compared with measurements, and represent more reliably the propagation phenomena when compared with analytical path loss models. Performance metrics for a real test scenario implemented with a VANET wireless sensor network implemented ad-hoc are also described. These results constitute a starting point in the design phase of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) radio-planning in the urban V2I deployment in terms of coverage.
Open Access
Enabling anything to anything connectivity within urban environments towards cognitive frameworks
(IEEE, 2024-08-23) Picallo Guembe, Imanol; Klaina, Hicham; López Iturri, Peio; Azpilicueta Fernández de las Heras, Leyre; Celaya Echarri, Mikel; Astrain Escola, José Javier; Villadangos Alonso, Jesús; Falcone Lanas, Francisco; Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Comunicación; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa, Elektronikoa eta Telekomunikazio Ingeniaritza; Estadística, Informática y Matemáticas; Estatistika, Informatika eta Matematika; Ciencias; Zientziak; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC
The evolution from Smart Cities towards Cognitive Cities is enabled, among others, by the use of flexible and adaptive communication systems, capable of providing high levels of interactivity among multiple systems and users. In this work, wireless connectivity in full volumetric scale is analyzed, in order to provide wireless links between any device/user within the scenario, spanning to different applications from vehicular connectivity at different levels or infrastructure related communications, among others.
Open Access
Ubiquitous connected train based on train-to-ground and intra-wagon communications capable of providing on trip customized digital services for passengers
(MDPI, 2014) Salaberria, Itziar; Perallos Ruiz, Asier; Azpilicueta Fernández de las Heras, Leyre; Falcone Lanas, Francisco; Carballedo, Roberto; Angulo Martínez, Ignacio; Elejoste Larrucea, Pilar; Bahillo, Alfonso; Astrain Escola, José Javier; Villadangos Alonso, Jesús; Ingeniería Eléctrica y Electrónica; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa eta Elektronikoa; Ingeniería Matemática e Informática; Matematika eta Informatika Ingeniaritza
During the last years, the application of different wireless technologies has been explored in order to enable Internet connectivity from vehicles. In addition, the widespread adoption of smartphones by citizens represents a great opportunity to integrate such nomadic devices inside vehicles in order to provide new and personalized on trip services for passengers. In this paper, a proposal of communication architecture to provide the ubiquitous connectivity needed to enhance the smart train concept is presented and preliminarily tested. It combines an intra-wagon communication system based on nomadic devices connected through a Bluetooth Piconet Network with a highly innovative train-to-ground communication system. In order to validate this communication solution, several tests and simulations have been performed and their results are described in this paper.
Open Access
Characterization of wireless channel impact on wireless sensor network performance in public transportation buses
(IEEE, 2015) Azpilicueta Fernández de las Heras, Leyre; López Iturri, Peio; Aguirre Gallego, Erik; Astrain Escola, José Javier; Villadangos Alonso, Jesús; Zubiri Segura, Cristóbal; Falcone Lanas, Francisco; Ingeniería Eléctrica y Electrónica; Ingeniería Matemática e Informática; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa eta Elektronikoa; Matematika eta Informatika Ingeniaritza
Wireless communications systems are growing rapidly during the last two decades and they are gaining a significant role for multiple communication tasks within public transportation buses. In this work, the impact of topology and morphology of different types of urban buses is analyzed with the aid of an in-house developed 3D Ray Launching code and compared with on-board measurements of a deployed Wireless Sensor Network. The presence of human beings has been taken into account, showing a significant influence in the signal attenuation in the case of considering persons. In addition, the statistical analysis of simulation results considering both large and small-scale fading has been performed, providing good agreement with statistics for typical indoor environments. In addition, a Wireless Sensor Network has been programmed and deployed within the buses in order to analyze topological impact with overall system performance, with the aim of minimizing the energy consumption as well as non-desired interference levels. The use of deterministic techniques destined to consider the inherent complexity of the buses can aid in wireless system planning in order to minimize power consumption and increase overall system capacity.