Prognostic and Condition-based Maintenance of Lithium-Ion batteries is a fundamental topic which is rapidly expanding since a long battery lifetime is required to ensure economic viability and minimize the life cycle cost. Remaining Useful Life (RUL) estimation is an essential tool for Prognostic and Health Management of batteries. In this paper a hybrid approach based on both condition monitoring and physic model is presented to improve the accuracy and precision of RUL estimation for Lithium-Ion battery. An Artificial Intelligence estimation method based on Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) is integrated with a state space estimation technique which is typical of filtering-based approach. The state space estimation is used to generate a big dataset for the training of the RNN. Some additional deep layers are used to improve the prediction of nonlinear trends (typical of batteries) while the performance optimization of the RNN is ensured using a genetic algorithm. The performances of the proposed method have been tested using a battery degradation dataset from the data repository of Prognostics Center of Excellence at NASA. Two different degradation models are compared, the widely known empirical double exponential model and an innovative single exponential model which allows to ensure optimal performance with fewer parameters required to be estimated.

This paper focuses on the development of a new logistic approach based on reliability and maintenance assessment, with the final aim of establishing a more efficient interval for the maintenance activities for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). In the first part, we develop an architectural philosophy to obtain a more detailed reliability evaluation; then, we study the intrinsic reliability at the design stage in order to avoid severe critical issues in the UAV. In the second part, we compare different maintenance philosophies for UAVs and develop the concepts of preventive and corrective maintenance that consider the system subjected (until real “hard failure”) to partial performance degradation (“soft failure”). Finally, by evaluation of the uncertainty through the confidence interval, we determine the new soft failure limits, taking into account the general knowledge of the systems and subsystems in order to guarantee the proper preventive maintenance interval.

Precision farming technologies refer to a set of cutting-edge tools and strategies implemented to optimize the management of the plantation. Smart meter devices, IoT technologies, and Wireless Sensor Networks are only a few examples of the innovative systems increasingly employed from an Agriculture 4.0 point of view. Recent literature has paid close attention to the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Deep Learning (DL) algorithms in helping farmers and improving soil productivity. In this regard, this paper presents the design of a Wireless Sensor Network based on low-cost, low-power PV-supplied sensor nodes able to acquire data regarding environmental conditions and soil parameters. Among all the implemented sensors, the most critical is the soil moisture sensors because of many issues related to cost, installation, reliability, and calibration. Thus, this paper proposes a deep learning approach based on Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks to provide a virtual soil moisture sensor using only the data acquired by the other transducer installed on the node. Performances estimation of the virtual sensors and an in-depth comparison with other learning-based approaches have been presented in this paper to validate the effectiveness of the proposed soft sensing approach.