WP5-09

Multi-Sensor Gateway - Communication scheme for unified system management

ID	WP5-09
Contributor	ABI
Levels	Ground-Station Level
Require	Definition of the data format and of the protocol for the components in the system.
Provide	A unified management system for heterogeneous components.
Input	The gateway processes inputs from heterogenous components in the system (e.g., sensors, cameras, drones, rovers, hardware accelerators).
Output	The gateway: visualized data on the web dashbaord, for the operator to check and manage the system; provides output to heterogenous components in the system (smart cameras, PLC, hardware accelerator and other actuators and sensors).
C4D building block	The Multi-sensor gateway applicability is transversal with respect to the application fields, and can communicate with different heterogeneous components. With respect to C4D, it has been adopted in the Precition Agriculture UC5 - Demo 1, as communication component and management system.
TRL	6

General Description

Following figure illustrates the schematic overview of the WP5-09-ABI component; with reference to the common reference C4D architecture, the Multi-Sensor Gateway is placed at the ground station level.

In particular, the WP5-09-ABI component communicates with vehicles (more in general with components and sensors) through different communication protocols (according to the ones needed by a given component) and a custom user-defined interface (data-format). If the vehicle has its own ground station, the Multi-Sensor Gateway can be connected directly with that ground station.

Beside the communication capabilities, the edge gateway also integrates the possibility of edge processing. The cloud gateway allows for the connection with external systems (e.g., databases, dashboards, etc…) opening the possibility of connection to different C4I (although currently it is not implemented). The web dashboard is the HMI that allows the operator, not necessarily expert of drones, to manage the system coordination and check its status.

WP5-09-ABI component schematic overview

Specification and contribution

The WP5-09-ABI component has been developed to be exploited in a context of heterogeneous networks, and being able to manage multiple sources of data.

In the C4D, it has been exploited in the Precision Agriculture (UC5 – Demo 1) use case, to collect and integrate information from different data related to on-board and on-ground computation. In particular, here are reported integrations related to three different computation points:

• The first one is on-ground processing of previously acquired images. It includes the creation of orthomosaic maps and related analysis. These images and the related data are then visualized in the dashboard, offering an overview of how they change in different acquisitions.

• The second one is related to still to on-ground computation, but this time it is the real-time elaboration of an acquired video where detection of the plants is done on the running video.

• The third one is related to on-board online computation. This includes a customized drone, which integrates a companion computer with custom algorithms running on-board. In this case, data are encrypted on-board before transmission, and need to be decrypted in the gateway. Depending on the received data, a rover can be sent to the critical location. This opens the possibility, for future development, to enable a feedback mechanism, in which the gateway can make decisions according to received data and send a command to reconfigure operation.

Design and Implementation

The Abinsula Multi-sensor gateway offers the necessary flexibility for special customized applications, where the devices are not only simple sensors. In includes three main parts, an edge gateway, computation capabilities at the edge and a cloud gateway.

WP5-09-ABI Multi-Sensor Gateway architecture

The Edge gateway is based on Ability [1], the Abinsula Embedded Linux distribution. It is designed to transparently manage the communication among the elements of the system and the cloud gateway. On the components side, it supports different communication protocols (REST, MQTT, UDP, TCP, GRAPHQL...) and accepts user-specific inputs described with custom-interfaces (data-interchange format). For each interface, a data converter module normalizes the data interface, producing a JSON interface that can be sent to the cloud gateway.

The Cloud gateway enables remote feedback and management of the system, through a dashboard that offers a unified and user-friendly interface for the operator, not expert of the specific devices connected in the system, to monitor and manage the system, allowing for visualizing data, errors and for triggering actions. It is also meant to set up the configuration of the communication system. When new sensors are added, the dashboard can be easily updated for managing the newly received values. From the dashboard it is possible to:

• check the system status;
• receive real time data;
• visualize video streams;
• visualize alarms and events;
• access to historical data;
• configure sensors and actuators and alarm events.

Furthermore, the dashboard integrates a series of scripts to simulate input from sensors, for verification and demonstration purposes. Any user can register to the Cloud gateway and receive the data with standard JSON format. Therefore, this open the possibility of integrating more components, as a Time Series Database, or to interface the Multi-Sensor Gateway with other systems.

Finally, the Multi-Sensor Gateway provides support for the integration of custom processing algorithms at the edge, for instance to allow for preliminary processing the data or implementing algorithm for secure communication (e.g., encryption and decryption).

Reference

[1] https://abinsula.com/ability/