This comprehensive review explores the applications and challenges of Digital Twin (DT) technology in smart grids. As power grid systems rapidly evolve to meet the increasing energy demands and the new requirements of renewable source integration, DTs offer promising solutions to enhance the monitoring, control, and optimization of these systems. In this paper, we examine the concept of DTs in the context of smart grids, and their requirements, challenges, and integration with the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). We also discuss different applications in asset management, system operation, and disaster response. This paper analyzes current challenges, including data management, interoperability, cost, and ethical considerations. Through case studies from various sectors in Canada, we illustrate the real-world implementation and impact of DTs. Finally, we discuss emerging trends and future directions, highlighting the potential of DTs to revolutionize smart grid networks and contribute to more efficient, reliable, and sustainable power systems.

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) threats in Smart Grid are very challenging and considered one of the most destructive cyber-attacks. They are harmfully affecting the power sector and causing substantial financial loss. Classical Reinforcement Learning (RL) models are proposed as a promising solution to the DDoS problem as they learn optimal mitigation policies under different attack scenarios. However, as the RL environment is generally dynamic, which leads to more computation capabilities, classical RL efficiency can be limited as a result of serial processing using classical computing. In this paper, a Quantum Entropy Q-Learning (QEQ) is proposed to fight DDoS in Smart Grid. The proposed framework is compared to a classical Q-Learning (QL) model with and without the Entropy method. The convergence speed and the total rewards performed with the same conditions for QL and are Entropy Q-Learning (EQ) analyzed to show the QEQ performance. Moreover, the accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 score are evaluated to prove the effectiveness of our QEQ in fighting DDoS attacks. Using the Canadian Institute for Cybersecurity Intrusion Detection System (CICIDS 2019) dataset, a thorough systematic simulation using MATLAB, Python, the open-source Qiskit software, and the Harrow-Hassidim-Lloyd (HHL) quantum algorithm is carried out. This proposed QEQ is better performing the DDoS detection as it is faster enough and more adaptable to dynamic environment changing and able to improve the agent’s decision-making in a changing state action space. Finally, conclusions with some open issues of the Quantum Q-Learning are presented.

The basic need common to all living beings is water. Less than 1% of the water on earth is fresh water and water use is increasing daily. Agricultural practices alone require huge amounts of water. The drip technique improved the efficiency of water use in irrigation and initiated the introduction and development of fertigation, the integrated distribution of water and fertilizer. The past few decades have seen extensive research being carried out in the area of development and evaluation of different technologies available to estimate/measure soil moisture to aid in various applications and to facilitate the use of drip irrigation for users and farmers. In this technology, plant moisture and temperature are accurately monitored and controlled in real time over roots in the form of droplets, by developing smart monitoring system to save water and avoid water waste using drip irrigation technology. Water is delivered to the roots drop by drop, which saves water as well as prevents plants from being flooded and decaying due to excess water released by irrigation methods such as flood irrigation, border irrigation, furrow irrigation, and control basin irrigation. Drip irrigation with an embedded intelligent monitoring system is one of the most valuable techniques used to save water and farmers’ time and energy. In this paper, we design an embedded monitoring system based in the integrated 65 nm CMOS technology in agricultural practices which would facilitate agriculture and enable farmers to monitor crops. Hence, to demonstrate the feasibility, a prototype was constructed and simulated with modelsim and validated with nclaunch the both tools from Cadence, as well as implementation on the FPGA board, was be performed.

Online video streaming is becoming more widespread in people’s everyday entertainment routines. Protecting copyright and piracy has become a key concern in real-time video streaming systems. This research provides a revolutionary multi-key and hybrid cryptography approach to offer security. This work describes the software implementation of video encryption and decryption employing continuous systems based on the Elliptic Curve Cryptography approach as pseudorandom encryption key generators. This approach creates several keys to encrypt and decode small chunks of video files that are produced dynamically based on the video data. The suggested approach was implemented on the Android platform, where applications for sender and recipients had been created to enable streaming. The security and performance of the proposed system have been examined by implementing it on devices and streaming videos. The outcomes demonstrate superiority in terms of performance and security.

This paper proposes a real-time thermal monitoring method using embedded integrated sensor interfaces dedicated to industrial integrated system applications. Industrial sensor interfaces are complex systems that involve analog and mixed signals, where several parameters can influence their performance. These include the presence of heat sources near sensitive integrated circuits, and various heat transfer phenomena need to be considered. This creates a need for real-time thermal monitoring and management. Indeed, the control of transient temperature gradients or temperature differential variations as well as the prediction of possible induced thermal shocks and stress at early design phases of advanced integrated circuits and systems are essential. This paper addresses the growing requirements of microelectronics applications in several areas that experience fast variations in high-power density and thermal gradient differences caused by the implementation of different systems on the same chip, such as the new-generation 5G circuits. To mitigate adverse thermal effects, a real-time prediction algorithm is proposed and validated using the MCUXpresso tool applied to a Freescale embedded sensor board to monitor and predict its temperature profile in real time by programming the embedded sensor into the FRDM-KL26Z board. Based on discrete temperature measurements, the embedded system is used to predict, in advance, overheating situations in the embedded integrated circuit (IC). These results confirm the peak detection capability of the proposed algorithm that satisfactorily predicts thermal peaks in the FRDM-KL26Z board as modeled with a finite element thermal analysis tool (the Numerical Integrated elements for System Analysis (NISA) tool), to gauge the level of local thermomechanical stresses that may be induced. In this paper, the FPGA implementation and comparison measurements are also presented. This work provides a solution to the thermal stresses and local system overheating that have been a major concern for integrated sensor interface designers when designing integrated circuits in various high-performance technologies or harsh environments.

This paper presents a method to monitor the thermal peaks that are major concerns when designing Integrated Circuits (ICs) in various advanced technologies. The method aims at detecting the thermal peak in Systems on Chip (SoC) using arrays of oscillators distributed over the area of the chip. Measured frequencies are mapped to local temperatures that are used to produce a chip thermal mapping. Then, an indication of the local temperature of a single heat source is obtained in real-time using the Gradient Direction Sensor (GDS) technique. The proposed technique does not require external sensors, and it provides a real-time monitoring of thermal peaks. This work is performed with Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), which acts as a System-on-Chip, and the detected heat source is validated with a thermal camera. A maximum error of 0.3 °C is reported between thermal camera and FPGA measurements.