Search NASASearch

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Internet of Things”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 19 records

The Lighter Side of Things: The Inevitable Convergence of the Internet of Things and Cybersecurity

By the year 2020 it is estimated that there will be more than 50 billion devices connected to the Internet. These devices not only include traditional electronics such as smartphones and other mobile compute devices, but also eEnabled technologies such as cars, airplanes and smartgrids. The IoT brings with it the promise of efficiency, greater remote management of industrial processes and further opens the doors to world of vehicle autonomy. However, IoT enabled technology will have to operate and contend in the contested domain of cyberspace. This discussion will touch on the impact that cybersecurity has on IoT and the people, processes and technology required to mitigate cyber risks.

Internet of Things

A 5.8 GHz 1.77mW AFSK-OFDM CMOS Backscatter Transmitter for Low Power Internet of Things Applications

This paper presents an AFSK-OFDM (amplitude frequency shift keying-orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) based backscatter transmitter for Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications. The transmitter uses an array of 4 low-power direct digital frequency synthesizers (DDFSs) and DACs to transmit data using both frequency and amplitude symbols on 4 different OFDM subcarriers. The backscatter modulator is demonstrated within a 5.8 GHz wireless link using an 8-symbol OFDM library at a range of 2.7m and shown to consume 1.77 mW when operated at a symbol rate of 4MS/s (corresponds to 12 Mb/s). The modulator chip occupies 0.45mm² of silicon area.

Chang, M-C. Frank

Internet of Things Data Characterization Process: Pattern of Life Behavioral Data Study

The HoneyBee™ TARDIS LDRD team completed a data scoping study that identified the initial processes and procedures to baseline the normal and expected behaviors during operability and interoperability of Internet of Things (IoT) device networks. This research is the initial step in developing a process (or methodology) to inform a much broader information framework incorporating machine learning to determine device pattern-of-life which enables the detection of abnormal IoT behaviors on an individual device, as well as in the context of a larger network.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING

The influence of ambient light spectrum (LED, INC, CFL, Xenon…) on the efficiency of perovskite indoor photovoltaic solar cells for Internet of Things (IoT) applications

This record provides a numerical investigation of a MAGeI₃-based perovskite solar cell with the structure FTO/TiO₂/MAGeI₃/Spiro-OMeTAD, evaluated for both outdoor and indoor light-harvesting applications using the SCAPS-1D simulator. Device performance is analyzed under AM 1.5G sunlight and several artificial light sources, including LED, incandescent, compact fluorescent lamp (CFL), flashlight, and xenon illumination. The study reports initial and optimized power conversion efficiencies and examines the influence of absorber layer thickness and bandgap on device performance under different lighting conditions. The results highlight the potential of MAGeI₃-based perovskite solar cells for indoor energy harvesting and low-power Internet of Things (IoT) applications.

14 SOLAR ENERGY

Using Mesh Networking for A Dynamic Lunar Internet of Things (Liot)

The purpose of this project is to evaluate the feasibility of an IEEE 802.11 mesh protocol for lunar surface computing. This standard for wireless networking boosts speed, dependability and range of wireless transmissions. The concept is to integrate sensors (such as deployed science instruments) or Astronaut tools (such as a handheld spectrometer) that communicate with a node on a common cell. The nodes can extend the range of the cell and can dynamically reconfigure the data routing in case of another node failure. All of the data in a cell pass through a modem that communicates with a distant base station across a 4G link. The application of mesh networking to a potential lunar surface network increases robustness and fault tolerance over a traditional single-point modem system. By demonstrating the basic capability of a mesh network, the student team has learned about issues with power, distance, thermal, dust, radiation, data processing, and communication problems applicable to the lunar surface. This knowledge can feed into future NASA requirements to improve the capability of a LunaNET implementation for the Artemis program. This project follows 10 years of successful collaboration between NASA ARES, Texas Space, Technology, Applications and Research (T STAR) and Texas A&M University in a Public, Private, Academic (PPA) Partnership. NASA funds T STAR to mentor undergraduate Capstone teams in the College of Engineering Department to design, built, and test prototypes meeting NASA requirements. TAMU faculty lead the student teams in their academic class, and NASA Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) provide T STAR and students insight on requirements evolution, prior design projects, and future development goals.

Lunar Mesh Networking

Semi-Autonomous Vehicle Project

The primary objective this summer is "evaluating standards for wireless architecture for the internet of things". The Internet of Things is the network of physical objects or "things" embedded with electronics, software, sensors and network connectivity which enables these objects to collect and exchange data and make decisions based on said data. This was accomplished by creating a semi-autonomous vehicle that takes advantage of multiple sensors, cameras, and onboard computers and combined them with a mesh network which enabled communication across large distances with little to no interruption. The mesh network took advantage of what is known as DTN - Disruption Tolerant Networking which according to NASA is the new communications protocol that is "the first step towards interplanetary internet." The use of DTN comes from the fact that it will store information if an interruption in communications is detected and even forward that information via other relays within range so that the data is not lost. This translates well into the project because as the car moves further away from whatever is sending it commands (in this case a joystick), the information can still be forwarded to the car with little to no loss of information thanks to the mesh nodes around the driving area.

Stewart, Christopher

How the Internet of "Space" Things will Disrupt and Transform Astronaut Work-life

Future long duration exploration missions will require astronauts to work and behave more autonomously. Over the last several years, we have been investigating how integrating sensors into an astronaut’s environment enables crew autonomy. This paper describes the prototypes we have deployed in Earth analogs investigating the concept of the Internet of “Space” Things.

procedure execution

Resilience of the Electric Grid Through Trustable IoT-Coordinated Assets

The electricity grid has evolved from a physical system to a cyberphysical system with digital devices that perform measurement, control, communication, computation, and actuation. The increased penetration of distributed energy resources (DERs) including renewable generation, flexible loads, and storage provides extraordinary opportunities for improvements in efficiency and sustainability. However, they can introduce new vulnerabilities in the form of cyberattacks, which can cause significant challenges in ensuring grid resilience. We propose a framework in this paper for achieving grid resilience through suitably coordinated assets including a network of Internet of Things devices. A local electricity market is proposed to identify trustable assets and carry out this coordination. Situational Awareness (SA) of locally available DERs with the ability to inject power or reduce consumption is enabled by the market, together with a monitoring procedure for their trustability and commitment. With this SA, we show that a variety of cyberattacks can be mitigated using local trustable resources without stressing the bulk grid. Multiple demonstrations are carried out using a high-fidelity cosimulation platform, real-time hardware-in-the-loop validation, and a utility-friendly simulator.

distributed energy resources

Novel Observing Strategies (NOS) and Earth System Digital Twins (ESDT) for Disaster Resilience

"Earth systems have now been observed continuously for more than 50 years, not only from space but also from airplanes, balloons and in-situ sensors. With the addition of commercial remote sensing providers, many more Internet-of-Things sensors and new NASA and international observatories being planned, these incredible amounts of data will soon be augmented by even larger amounts of diverse data and therefore will become more and more difficult to access, integrate, understand and utilize. At the same time, because of climate change and its impacts, in order to predict, manage, and mitigate the effects of extreme science events and disasters, the information produced by all of this data needs to be optimized, organized and analyzed in such a way that it can be utilized by traditional as well as many new non-traditional users. This calls for the development of observing systems that are agile, coordinated and responsive to events of interest, and for information systems to be dynamic, interactive and fast. With these objectives in mind, the Advanced Information Systems Technology (AIST) Program has been developing technologies that will allow for the development of Novel Observing Strategies (NOS) in a distributed, coordinated fashion (i.e., similar to an “Internet-of-Earth-Things”), as well as for the development of novel information systems or Earth System Digital Twins (ESDT) that will build a digital replica of the past and current states of the Earth systems, will derive forecasts of future states under nominal assumptions and will also offer the capability to investigate many hypothetical evolution scenarios under varying impact assumptions. Both NOS and ESDT will be facilitated by the unprecedented advances of Artificial Intelligence technologies, especially Machine Learning (ML), for extracting relevant information from these large amounts of data, for fusing and assimilating diverse data together and for running complex models faster. Together NOS and ESDT will help build the capabilities needed to anticipate, predict and mitigate the effects of future disasters."

Earth Science Remote Sensing; Information Systems

Model Residuals as Shields: A Two-Level Formulation to Defend Smart Grids From Poisoning Attacks

The advancement of smart grids presents both vast opportunities and heightened cybersecurity risks. Data-driven defense mechanisms, though designed as a shield against these threats, can fall prey to poisoning attacks. We delve into regression settings, underscoring the imperative to fortify defenses against a spectrum of poison ratios, notably those above 0.5—an issue scarcely addressed in prior studies. Recognizing the susceptibilities of smart grids and their manipulable sensors, we exploit the very intent of poisoning attacks, compromising model accuracy, as our defense mechanism. Our proposed two-level optimization framework discerns between poisoned and authentic data based on model residuals, outperforming or matching existing methods in 72% to 77% of precision and 75% to 80% of recalls across various poisoning attacks, poison ratios, and datasets. Once the authentic data are identified, the trained model is adaptable for a variety of applications. Comprehensive evaluations on different smart grid datasets, pitted against myriad poisoning schemes, validate our methodology’s edge over existing methods. Here, we also shed light on the implications of model misspecification originating from temporal auto-correlation, a common feature in Internet of Things and smart grid data.

Adversarial machine learning (ML)

Astronauts and IoT: Toward True Human-Autonomy Teaming

Advances in the area of Internet of Things (IoT) or Cyber-Physical Systems will have a significant impact on many areas of human activity and commercial/technological development. One application of importance to NASA is the need to make crews on deep space missions more independent from earth in both their routine activities and handling of unexpected events. IoT will allow increasingly intelligent systems to be aware of what humans are doing, what tools/resources they are using, and what help they might need in terms of procedure execution in tasks such as assembly, maintenance, repair, and perhaps even in more complex activities like medical interventions. This talk focuses on the convergence of research and technologies that will be needed to effect such intelligent systems based on IoT.

Internet of Things (IoT)

Braxton Marlatt Intern Poster

The Internet of Things (IoT) encompasses a vast network of interconnected devices embedded with software, sensors, and network connectivity, enabling data collection and exchange. While IoT technology revolutionizes various industries, it also introduces significant security challenges. This research focuses on enhancing IoT security through the implementation of Zero Trust Architecture concepts, specifically targeting the Network and Device pillars of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s Zero Trust Maturity Model. By generating Codified Attack Surfaces (CAS) using custom Structured Threat Information eXpression bundles, this project aims to provide enhanced visibility into network communications, detect vulnerabilities in device firmware, and improve the overall security posture for IoT devices and networks. The methodology involves defining custom STIX schema and objects, collecting data from intra-IoT traffic, external network traffic, and firmware analysis, and automating the conversion and correlation of this data into STIX bundles. The automated generation of attack surfaces offers comprehensive insights into activity, vulnerabilities, and anomalies within an IoT environment, enabling proactive threat identification and mitigation.

24 - POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION

Cyber Labeling for Energy Industrial IoT

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response (CESER), at the request of the Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber and Emerging Technologies, Anne Neuberger, initiated research in 2023 to develop a cybersecurity labeling proof-of-concept for energy products to expand on the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) proposed U.S. Cyber Trust Mark program. DOE mobilized researchers from six National Laboratories to develop and gather feedback on a proof-of concept label for solar inverters and smart meters, which serve as representative products for market-facing energy sector Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). This report details the research team’s process across two phases and the resulting findings, which include challenges facing cyber labeling programs and recommendations to implement an expanded IIoT cyber labeling program in the U.S.

32 - ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZA

Designing resilient IoT and Edge Computing with federated tinyML

The rapid growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Edge Computing (EC) has brought significant conveniences to modern society but has also greatly expanded the cyber attack surfaces, particularly as these technologies are being increasingly integrated into critical systems such as power grids, healthcare, and smart homes. Here, to improve IoT/EC’s cybersecurity posture, we leveraged Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) by employing tinyML to monitor voluminous IoT data for cyber threats while addressing devices’ resource constraints, and utilizing Federated Learning (FL) to share local detection knowledge across the system while preserving privacy. Building on our three-layer architecture combining tinyML and FL to enhance autonomous cyber attack detection, this paper demonstrated that the architecture improves detection accuracy, reduces resource consumption, and enables lightweight, secure IoT device monitoring. These results were validated using the public N-BaIoT dataset as well as real IoT network traffic data collected under multiple attack scenarios from our testbeds. Additionally, we introduced an enhanced FL methodology with a novel preprocessing stage, including federated feature selection and global preprocessor construction, to address IoT/EC data heterogeneity. We developed a physical IoT testbed for attack simulations and data collection, implemented a tinyML-powered detector for realistic model validation, and also built a virtual testbed for scalable evaluations of FL models across diverse network environments.

Cognitive cyber

Intelligent Observation Strategies for Geosynchronous Remote Sensing for Natural Hazards

Geosynchronous satellites offer a unique perspective for monitoring environmental factors important to understanding natural hazards and supporting the disasters management life cycle, namely forecast, detection, response, recovery and mitigation. In the NASA decadal survey for Earth science, the GEO-CAPE mission was proposed to address coastal and air pollution events in geosynchronous orbit, complementing similar initiatives in Asia by the South Koreans and by ESA in Europe, thereby covering the northern hemisphere. In addition to analyzing the challenges of identifying instrument capabilities to meet the science requirements, and the implications of hosting the instrument payloads on commercial geosynchronous satellites, the GEO-CAPE mission design team conducted a short study to explore strategies to optimize the science return for the coastal imaging instrument. The study focused on intelligent scheduling strategies that took into account cloud avoidance techniques as well as onboard processing methods to reduce the data storage and transmission loads. This paper expands the findings of that study to address the use of intelligent scheduling techniques and near-real time data product acquisition of both the coastal water and air pollution events. The topics include the use of onboard processing to refine and execute schedules, to detect cloud contamination in observations, and to reduce data handling operations. Analysis of state of the art flight computing capabilities will be presented, along with an assessment of cloud detection algorithms and their performance characteristics. Tools developed to illustrate operational concepts will be described, including their applicability to environmental monitoring domains with an eye to the future. In the geostationary configuration, the payload becomes a networked thing with enough connectivity to exchange data seamlessly with users. This allows the full field of view to be sensed at very high rate under the control of ground infrastructure, resulting in improved efficiencies, accuracy and science benefits. Hence a remote sensing payload and its data may become one of millions of connected objects in the emerging Internet of Things (IoT), and be as easily accessible by a users smart phone as any other smart appliance.

Dual-Phase Malicious User Detection Scheme for IM-OFDMA Systems Using IQ Imbalance

Physical-layer security techniques have contributed to the achievement of various security objectives in an efficient and lightweight manner. Thus, these techniques have been widely considered for limited-resource networks such as Internet of Things networks. Among the different security objectives, malicious user detection by exploiting physical-layer parameters has demonstrated efficient performance. In this work, malicious user detection in the recently proposed index modulation-based orthogonal frequency division multiple access (IM-OFDMA) is addressed. The proposed malicious user detection scheme exploits the hardware impairments, especially the in-phase and quadrature imbalance parameters, for both legitimate and malicious users to design a dual-phase efficient detection scheme. The proposed scheme accounts for the special characteristics of IM-OFDMA transmission that are different from other multiple-access techniques. The performance of the proposed scheme was evaluated considering detection probability and false alarm probability performance metrics. Moreover, closed-form expressions of these metrics were derived for both phases and were validated by Monte Carlo simulation results under different configurations of IM-OFDMA systems.

Alaca, Ozgur [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000153713758)

Leveraging artificial intelligence and advanced food processing techniques for enhanced food safety, quality, and security: a comprehensive review

Artificial intelligence is emerging as a transformative force in addressing the multifaceted challenges of food safety, food quality, and food security. This review synthesizes advancements in AI-driven technologies, such as machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing, and computer vision, and their applications across the food supply chain, based on a comprehensive analysis of literature published from 1990 to 2024. AI enhances food safety through real-time contamination detection, predictive risk modeling, and compliance monitoring, reducing public health risks. It improves food quality by automating defect detection, optimizing shelf-life predictions, and ensuring consistency in taste, texture, and appearance. Furthermore, AI addresses food security by enabling resource-efficient agriculture, yield forecasting, and supply chain optimization to ensure the availability and accessibility of nutritious food resources. This review also highlights the integration of AI with advanced food processing techniques such as high-pressure processing, ultraviolet treatment, pulsed electric fields, cold plasma, and irradiation, which ensure microbial safety, extend shelf life, and enhance product quality. Additionally, the integration of AI with emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things, blockchain, and AI-powered sensors enables proactive risk management, predictive analytics, and automated quality control. By examining these innovations' potential to enhance transparency, efficiency, and decision-making within food systems, this review identifies current research gaps and proposes strategies to address barriers such as data limitations, model generalizability, and ethical concerns. These insights underscore the critical role of AI in advancing safer, higher-quality, and more secure food systems, guiding future research and fostering sustainable food systems that benefit public health and consumer trust.

AI