Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) represent one of the most promising technologies for precision farming. Over the next few years, a significant increase in the use of such systems on commercial farms is expected. WSNs present a number of problems, regarding scalability, interoperability, communications, connectivity with databases and data processing. Different Internet of Things middleware is appearing to overcome these challenges. This paper checks whether one of these middleware, FIWARE, is suitable for the development of agricultural applications. To the authors’ knowledge, there are no works that show how to use FIWARE in precision agriculture and study its appropriateness, its scalability and its efficiency for this kind of applications. To do this, a testbed has been designed and implemented to simulate different deployments and load conditions. The testbed is a typical FIWARE application, complete, yet simple and comprehensible enough to show the main features and components of FIWARE, as well as the complexity of using this technology. Although the testbed has been deployed in a laboratory environment, its design is based on the analysis of an Internet of Things use case scenario in the domain of precision agriculture.

This article relates our experiences over the last 15 years in the development of robotic applications within the field of service robotics, using the techniques proposed by software engineering. The process began with domain engineering and reference architectures, moved on to component-oriented development, and currently centered on model-driven design. One of the key problems in software development for robotic systems is that the possibilities of reusing software in new applications are frequently limited. This means that we are forced over and over to solve the same problems starting practically from zero every time. The possible causes of this include the following: 1) robotics specialists normally concentrate more on developing algorithms and the way to solve concrete problems than on organizing the software; 2) lack of good standards for the development of robotic software and implementations of these standards; 3) the case studies conducted to demonstrate the viability of software engineering techniques traditionally deal with information management systems; and 4) the robotics community see software engineering not as a solution but as another problem that adds complexity to already complex problems. This research has helped to demonstrate the viability of using software engineering techniques in real industrial applications, albeit using academic tools that cannot readily be accepted by industry.

The appearance of model-driven engineering (MDE) has invigorated research on domain-specific languages (DSLs) and automatic code generation. MDE uses models to build software, thereby displacing source code as the development process's main feature. DSLs provide easy, intuitive descriptions of the system using graphic models. In this new context, DSLs facilitate work in the first design stages. In addition, MDE helps reduce DSL development costs. It therefore represents a synergistic union that can significantly improve software development.

SUMMARY: Hull cleaning before repainting is a key operation in the maintenance of ships. For more than a decade, a means to improve this operation has been sought through robotization and the use of different techniques such as grit blasting and ultra high pressure water jetting. Despite this, it continues to be standard practice in shipyards that this process is carried out manually. This paper presents a family of robots that aims to offer important improvements to the process as well as satisfying, to a great extent, all the operative requirements of efficiency, security, and respect for the environment that shipyards nowadays demand. It is described the family of devices with emphasis on the mechanical design. This set consists of two vertical robotic towers and a robot climber. In addition, it is shown the control architecture of the global system. Finally, operative results are presented together with a comparison between the performance achieved in shipyards through the use of these robots and those obtained with a manual process.