The Internet of Things (IoT) vision enables multiple of resource-constrained embedded devices, objects, and humans to connect together through the Internet protocol for a ubiquitous data exchange. Logistics is considered to be a key player poised from this vision to achieve the full visibility and transparency through leveraging the pervasive interconnectivity to collect reliable and safe real-time data. In addition, the valuable information extracted and transformed from the IoT data can be exploited to create intelligent services and applications to improve the logistics activities as well as the overall performance of logistics operations. This paper aims at reviewing the state-of-the-art applications of IoT in the logistics sector. Although the adoption of IoT potentially gains huge benefits, there still exist barriers preventing the full adoption of IoT in the logistics. This paper also discusses such challenges that promise to expose a wide range of open research regarding the integration of IoT in the logistics domain.

Underground mining is expected to lead the mining industry in the near future. Due to the advance of electronic devices and communications technologies, new safety regulations must be accomplished in order to operate underground mines safely and optimally. In 2006, the US government updated safety policies and introduced the PUBLIC LAW109-236. As a result, underground tracking is nowadays mandatory for underground mine operations. This new regulation establishes that current, or immediately pre-accident location of all underground personnel must be delivered over ground. Despite the recent advances of tracking and positioning systems for indoor environments, underground mines are a unique scenario which poses different and highly demanding constraints for current technologies. Throughout this manuscript an extensive survey on underground mines’ positioning technologies is provided. The main characteristics of current localization systems in underground mines are analysed for their implementation from a user’s requirements point of view. Furthermore, the main constraints and opportunities of the existing indoor positioning systems to deliver underground tracking are presented. Finally, future research directions are highlighted.

A new visible light communication (VLC) system is proposed for localization in underground mining. Existent systems, such as global positioning system (GPS) and systems based on mobile communication, are generally not useful in underground mining. The proposed system is based on a three-dimensional trilateration VLC localization scheme. This articles offers an evaluation of the proposed system in different evaluation scenarios in terms of the average localization error. The proposed algorithm localizes the source with an average localization estimation error of less than (16.4 cm), based on the source location. The average error is (3.5 cm) for subjects that are very close to the light-emitting-diode (LEDs).The obtained results show the superiority of the proposed method in comparison with traditional short range radio frequency technologies such as RFID, Wi-Fi and Zigbee, making it a feasible system for localizing objects in underground mining.

The Physical Internet concept was developed to address the current unsustainability problem of logistic systems. The key elements are the encapsulation and the handling of world-standard smart green modular containers (π-containers) throughout an open global logistic infrastructure. Logistic processes such as partial loading/unloading or splitting/merging of π-containers play an important role for a successful Physical Internet. However, the large variety of transformation processes can introduce desynchronisation between the physical and informational flows, i.e. the real composition of a composite π-container (a set of stacked π-containers) can differ of the information stored in the supply chain management system. To overcome this problem, this paper proposes a system to generate and maintain automatically a virtual three-dimensional layout reflecting the spatial distribution of π-containers. The proposed approach uses smart π-containers equipped with wireless sensor nodes. The relative position of π-containers can be determined by the neighbourhood relationships between the sensor nodes. From this information, a constraint set is formulated in a Constraint Satisfaction Problem where each solution is a potential loading pattern. The methodology is developed and computational experiments are proposed, as a proof-of-concept. The results show that our proposed method yields quick and satisfactory results.

In this manuscript we propose a hybrid Visible Light Communication and Radio Frequency (VLC-RF) scheme for the implementation of a portable Phaser Measurement Unit (PMU) for deep underground tunnels. Through computer simulations and laboratory measurements we are capable of providing Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) to the PMUs, as well as high accuracy positioning in a Global Positioning System (GPS) denied environment. The estimated PMU position, time stamp, and electrical power system measurements are sent to a central monitoring station using a radio frequency uplink with a data rate of hundreds of Kbps. Simulations and experimental measurements show that the proposed scheme can be used to control a large number of VLC-RF PMU devices inside a tunnel. The tests demonstrate the viability of the hybrid prototype, which will improve performance compared to commercial PMUs that lack these features.

The idea defended in this paper consists in finding, at any time and everywhere, the arrangement of containers within a composite container. The digital image of the real arrangement obtained defines its digital twin. This image evolves at the same time as its real twin. It can be used throughout the logistics chain during loading/unloading phases in hubs, to check the completeness of a load, to find the particular position of a container, etc. This digital twin is obtained through the collection of neighborhood information from the sensor nodes embedded on each container. This embedded solution allows accessibility to this information everywhere. This proximity information and the instrumentation of the containers define new types of constraints and a new version of a packing problem. We propose here a model integrating them. This model is implemented and tested on different test cases, and numerical results are provided. These show that, under certain conditions that will be presented, it is possible to obtain the digital twin of the real arrangement.