This study proposes a modular water monitoring IoT system that enables quantitative and qualitative measuring of water in terms of an upgraded version of the water infrastructure to sustain operational reliability. The proposed method could be used in urban and rural areas for consumption and quality monitoring, or eventually scaled up to a contemporary water infrastructure enabling water providers and/or decision makers (i.e., governmental authorities, global water organization, etc.) to supervise and drive optimal decisions in challenging times. The inherent resilience and agility that the proposed system presents, along with the maturity of IoT communications and infrastructure, can lay the foundation for a robust smart water metering solution. Introducing a modular system can also allow for optimal consumer profiling while alleviating the upfront adoption cost by providers, environmental stewardship and an optimal response to emergencies. The provided system addresses the urbanization and technological gap in the smart water metering domain by presenting a modular IoT architecture with consumption and quality meters, along with machine learning capabilities to facilitate smart billing and user profiling.
Augmented Reality (AR) is an emerging technology in the Industry 4.0 and Logistics 4.0 contexts with an important role in man–machine symbiosis scenarios. Practitioners, although already acquainted with AR technology, are reluctant to adopt AR applications in industrial operations. This stems from the fact that a direct connection that is important for the management of sustainability goals is missing. Moreover, such a connection with economic, social, and environmental sustainability parameters sparsely appears in the AR literature. The proposed research, on one hand, presents an innovative architecture for a stable and scalable AR application that extents state-of-the-art solutions and, on the other hand, attempts to study AR technology within the framework of a sustainable business strategy. The developed system utilizes the Robot Operating System (ROS) alongside an AR mobile application to present an employee navigation scenario in warehouses and production lines. ROS is responsible for mapping the industrial facility, while the AR mobile application identifies the surrounding environment, along with a Real-Time Location System localizes employees in the facility. Finally, ROS identifies the shortest path between the employee and the destination point, while the AR mobile application presents the virtual path for reaching the destination.
The SARS‐CoV‐2 pandemic has heightened the need for advanced and automated disinfection methods to ensure workplace safety and hygiene. This study presents the de‐ sign and implementation of a robotic vehicle capable of autonomously disinfecting high‐risk areas in diverse work environments based on human activity levels. The sys‐ tem integrates a machine vision module using YOLOv5 for real‐time human detection, a Decision Support System to assess contamination risks, an autonomous navigation module for path planning, and a user‐friendly interface for operator control. By leveraging real‐time data, the robot precisely applies disinfectant to identified high‐risk zones, dynamically adjusting the spray volume based on the level of contamination. The system was validated in a real‐world workplace setting, demonstrating its ability to autonomously perform targeted disinfection, offering a scalable solution to support workplace hygiene.
Accessibility evaluation in built environments increasingly requires performance-based methods that capture dynamic user–environment interaction rather than static compliance with dimensional standards. Existing computational approaches, including BIM-based rule checking and path-finding analysis, are effective for geometric verification but cannot quantify the physical demands imposed on users during task execution. To date, no existing framework combines task-driven motion generation with quantitative biomechanical analysis specifically for accessibility evaluation in built environments. This paper presents a modular simulation framework that integrates procedural kinematic planning with inverse dynamics analysis to enable performance-based accessibility assessment. The system generates deterministic motion trajectories using a gait-based abstraction layer and inverse kinematics, then computes net joint forces and torques via a stabilized Newton–Euler recursive algorithm. External contact forces, including ground reactions during locomotion, are modeled through a dedicated force management subsystem. The framework is implemented in Unity and evaluated in three representative scenarios: level walking, stair ascent, and stair descent. Computed knee joint forces fall within magnitude and temporal ranges reported in the biomechanical literature (peak forces of 2.5–4.0 body weights for stairs and 1.5–2.0 body weights for level walking), indicating biomechanical plausibility rather than subject-specific experimental validation. The framework offers a reproducible, extensible foundation for evidence-based accessibility design, allowing designers to detect and quantify biomechanically demanding interactions in architectural environments prior to construction, and supporting a shift from prescriptive compliance toward dynamic, human-centered evaluation.
9 September 2025 in Journal of Automation, Mobile Robotics and Intelligent Systems
The SARS‐CoV‐2 pandemic has heightened the need for advanced and automated disinfection methods to ensure workplace safety and hygiene. This study presents the de‐ sign and implementation of a robotic vehicle capable of autonomously disinfecting high‐risk areas in diverse work environments based on human activity levels. The sys‐ tem integrates a machine vision module using YOLOv5 for real‐time human detection, a Decision Support System to assess contamination risks, an autonomous navigation module for path planning, and a user‐friendly interface for operator control. By leveraging real‐time data, the robot precisely applies disinfectant to identified high‐risk zones, dynamically adjusting the spray volume based on the level of contamination. The system was validated in a real‐world workplace setting, demonstrating its ability to autonomously perform targeted disinfection, offering a scalable solution to support workplace hygiene.