The paper is devoted to the digital transformation of the core engineering maintenance processes involved in medium-voltage overhead distribution network infrastructure inspection. The study presents an analysis of digital twin utilization for inspection of the infrastructure of medium-voltage overhead distribution networks. At present, the infrastructure monitoring process is still manual, and its automatization is a challenging task due to the large distances between and small dimensions of the elements involved. The proposed digital twin is employed for 3D infrastructure modeling and complex analysis based on photogrammetry and aerial scanning data processing methods. The paper describes practical use cases for these data-driven methods for specific infrastructure management processes, e.g., scheduled inspection processes, including geometrical parameter measurements and visual infrastructure element defect identification, unplanned inspection processes (state of emergency, post-storm, etc.), and vegetation management processes. The proposed method allows operations to be performed remotely without physical presence in the field. At the same time, data-driven solutions provide objective results and potential automation via machine learning algorithms, which are more profitable economically. As the proposed method allows processes to be performed remotely, these data-driven solutions offer cost-effective results for automation. The digital twin concept is applied to the Latvian medium-voltage overhead distribution network with the support of the Latvian distribution system operator “Sadales tīkls” JSC.

The current work is devoted to chaos oscillator employment in digital communication systems for IoT applications. The paper presents a comparative performance analysis of two different chaos data transmission systems: frequency-modulated chaos shift keying (FM-CSK) and quadrature chaos phase-shift keying (QCPSK), and a comparison to their non-chaotic counterparts: frequency-shift keying (FSK) and quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM). For both chaotic communication systems, the Vilnius oscillator and substitution method of chaotic synchronization are chosen due to simple circuitry implementation and low power consumption properties. The performance of the systems in the fading channel with additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) is evaluated. Also, the systems’ performance in the case phase noise is investigated, and the benefits of chaotic waveforms employment for data transmission are demonstrated.

The current work presents a novel digital chaotic communication system with antipodal chaotic shift keying modulation, implemented in a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). Such systems provide high security on the physical communication level and can be used in wireless sensor network systems. A modified Chua circuit chaos generator and error linear feedback chaotic synchronization are implemented in FPGA and used to develop a chaotic communication system with digital transmitter and receiver an analog in-between signal transmission. Additionally, a validated mathematical model of the communication system prototype is created in the Simulink environment, which is used to compare the performance of the prototype and its nodes with the simulation and simplify its development. The performance is evaluated using simulation with the additive white Gaussian noise channel and analyzing the bit error ratio.

The current work is focused on studying the performance of the Pecora–Carroll synchronization technique to achieve synchronization between the analog and discrete chaos oscillators. The importance of this study is supported by the growing applications of chaotic systems for improving the security of data transmission in various communication layers, primarily on the physical layer. The hybrid analog-discrete approach of implementing chaos oscillators opens new possible communication schemes for wireless sensor network (WSN) applications. The analog implementation of chaos oscillators can benefit the simpler sensor node (SN) integration, while the discrete implementation can be used on the gateway. However, the core of such chaos-based communications is synchronizing analog and discrete chaos oscillators. This work studies two key parameters of analog-discrete chaotic synchronization: chaotic synchronization noise immunity and synchronization speed. The noise immunity study demonstrates the quality of synchronization at various noise levels, while the synchronization speed demonstrates how quickly the analog-discrete synchronization is achieved, along with how quickly the two systems diverge when synchronization is no longer present. The two studies use both simulation-based and hardware-based approaches. In the simulation case, the analog oscillator’s circuit is modeled in LTspice XVII, while in the hardware case, the circuit is implemented on the PCB. In both simulation and hardware studies, the discrete model of the oscillator is implemented in MATLAB R2023b. The studies are performed for two pairs of different chaos oscillators to widen the proposed approach application potential: the Vilnius and RC chaos oscillators. The oscillators have been selected due to their simplicity and similar dynamic behavior for model-based and electrical circuit implementation. The proposed approach also allows us to compare the synchronization of different oscillators in the analog-discrete implementation.

The current paper presents the experimental study of the frequency-modulated chaos shift keying (FM-CSK) communication system. The proposed system has the potential to enhance the security aspects of the physical layer to meet the needs for safe data transmission in wireless sensor networks (WSN). Compared to common digital FM-DCSK, the studied analog FM-CSK communication system provides a more straightforward design. As chaos oscillators are the core elements of the FM-CSK communication system, the paper investigates the selected oscillators’ properties, including the implementation aspects—the impact of reactive element value deviations on dynamics and synchronization stability. Chaotic dynamics are evaluated with the mean-square-displacement-based 0–1 test, while correlation analysis is used to evaluate synchronization. The impact of the different chaos oscillators’ employment on FM-CSK communication system performance is examined, and the bit error ratio is used for noise immunity evaluation.

This work focuses on evaluating the behavior of analog chaos oscillators in field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). This work is motivated by a new approach to designing chaos-based communication systems using chaos oscillator circuits implemented in hardware in the transmitter and the mathematical models of the oscillator implemented on an FPGA in the receiver. Such a hybrid approach opens new possibilities for chaos-based modulation schemes for wireless sensor network (WSN) applications. This work brings a hybrid chaos-based communication system closer to realization by implementing the chaos oscillators on an FPGA and achieving analog–discrete and discrete–analog chaotic synchronization. First, this paper derives a model that simulates the dynamics of Vilnius and RC chaos oscillators using Euler–Cromer numerical integration in fixed-point arithmetic. The derived MATLAB model precisely describes the digital design and is thus directly transferred to VHDL. The synthesized digital design is compiled onto an FPGA chip and is then used to achieve analog–discrete and discrete–analog Pecora–Carroll chaotic synchronization.