Various recent studies have shown that in many companies workers can spend near half of their time looking for information. Effective internal search tools could make their job more efficient. However, a killer application for this type of solutions is still not available. This paper introduces an envisioned architecture, which should represent the foundations of a new generation of tools for searching information within enterprises.

This paper analyzes the potential of Semantic Web technologies to support innovation in industrial scenarios. The study focuses in particular on RDF stores, the software components dedicated to the storage, representation and retrieval of semantic information. Starting from a literature review, a qualitative analysis is carried out considering a set of these systems. RDF stores are evaluated to find the implementations that are best suited to play the role of backbone in a software architecture sharing information between the software tools adopted by the various stakeholders. This can be achieved if the architecture overcomes the problems deriving from the lack of integration between the involved software applications, providing in this way an integrated view on relevant engineering knowledge. © 2014 IEEE.

Telemetry enables the collection of data from remote points to support monitoring, analysis and visualization. It is largely adopted in Formula One car racing, where streams of live data collected from hundreds of sensors installed on car components are transmitted to the pitwall to be used as input of real-time car performance simulations. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the potential of a telemetry-driven approach in a manufacturing environment, where researchers are still looking for efficient methods to perform valuable simulations of the production processes on the basis of real data coming from the factory. The telemetry could contribute to the implementation of a virtual image of the real factory, which in turn could be used to simulate the factory performance, allowing to predict failures or investigate problems, and to reduce costly downtime. This study addresses in particular the efforts to combine and adapt methods and techniques borrowed from the field of Formula One car racing. Moreover, the investigation of the exploitation possibilities of the factory telemetry is paired with the design of a software application supporting this technology, starting from the elicitation and specification of the functional requirements.

Data integration is one of the most crucial challenges for current manufacturing companies. Indeed, while the extended use of software tools generate more and more data about products, processes, and production resources, still this huge amount of data is represented using different formats and non-aligned structures. This issue is worsened by the fact that data can be found scattered in not linked databases and hosted in mutually incompatible systems. The growing need to access these data and the knowledge that they encapsulate on a global view from different perspectives is addressed by various approaches in order to support the integration between involved systems. This paper deals with the applicability of Semantic Web technologies in industrial context to enhance semantic interoperability. In particular, it proposes a systematic approach to support the development of a semantic model, focusing on the combination of two main critical aspects: the reuse of existing reference models and the semantic migration of the existing legacy models. Even both the aspects have been separately studied in previous research works and even their overlap is recurring during the stage of ontology development, to the best of our knowledge the literature is missing studies covering the synergistic and automatic combination of these two aspects within a holistic approach. The application possibilities of the approach are also investigated within a real case study from a high-precision mould-making company; thus demonstrating its feasibility for use in complex manufacturing contexts.

Significant efforts of the current manufacturing companies are devoted to the implementation of the full synchronization between the real world at the shop-floor level and its digital counterpart (so-called Digital Twin). Indeed, a true reflection of the real factory can be exploited to monitor and simulate the factory performance, allowing to adjust and optimize processes, anticipate failures and also investigate problems. One of the major challenge to be tackled in order to realize the Digital Twin is the handling of the factory telemetry, which can track the evolution of the objects in the real world. This paper investigates the potential of an application for supporting and handling the factory telemetry, thus allowing to create a snapshot of the real system that can dynamically augment and enhance the data-driven simulation applications supporting the manufacturing execution phase. As a proof of concept of the architecture, a prototype has been developed in the field of robotics. In such context, the proposed architecture is on the basis of a Virtual Reality tool to simulate human presence for development of safety systems in robotic cells.

The aim of this paper is to introduce the main outcomes of the application of Augmented Reality (AR) features to manufacturing and industrial scenarios under a new perspective. While the request of industrial mixed reality technologies is continuously growing, the research community is still facing the crucial challenge to give a convenient answer to such needs. The problem of the development of adaptable and inexpensive AR solutions is herein addressed by proposing a new approach for the application of augmented reality technology to lean-based visual communication transfer and exchange. This work starts from the concept of virtual factory, a place where the real production of future factories becomes fully merged with virtual reality features and utilities. Augmented reality applications may then be reinterpreted as lightweight tools that continuously interact with the virtual factory to support manufacturing and management tasks, providing just-in-time and adaptive augmented information to users. As a case study, several AR tools de- signed following these principles to support a real production process are presented.

The integration of a set of heterogeneous data streams coming from different source into a coherent scheme is still one of the key challenges in designing the new generation of AAL system enabling the Smart Home. This paper introduces a service-oriented platform that aims to enhance data integration and synchronization between physical and virtual components of an AAL system. The idea behind this research work goes in the direction to find scalable technological solution in order to answer the continued growth of objects (Things) connected to the network within the domestic environment. Thus, the Smart Objects can operate synergistically on the basis of a shared semantic model, supporting various tailored services that assist elderly users or users with disabilities for a better and healthier life in their preferred living environment. Moreover, a prototype of the platform has been implemented and validated in order to prove the correctness of the approach and conduct a preliminary performance evaluation.

An ontology based approach that aims at enhancing interoperability between home devices and services is being developed by the Italian "Design For All" research project.

Contemporary design is characterized by the paradigm shift from a one-size-fits-all, oriented to the standard man, to an holistic and inclusive one-size-fits-one, that takes into account the full range of human diversity. Following the new paradigm, the "Design for All" Italian research project aims at realizing an effective demonstrator of a framework that promotes a design of an AAL oriented to the real individual, considering everybody in his peculiarities. On the one hand, the framework handles the knowledge about the home environment, also through innovative approaches aimed at modeling specific scenarios representing the relevant states of the individuals (situation and context awareness). On the other hand, it allows various software tools supporting the entire home's life cycle to exchange the knowledge in a smart manner. Mainly focused on interoperability aspects, the paper describes the motivations behind the "Design for All" project concepts, together with the goals and the first findings. Finally, it presents a demonstration scenario that aims at testing and validating the framework. © 2014 Springer International Publishing.

Many recent research works have investigated the potential of an Ontology-based approach to support the standardization of the information in industrial scenarios. A key success factor in this regard is the effective and efficient reuse of existing knowledge sources because the building of new ones from scratch is an expensive and time-consuming activity. Although there are many advantages for reuse in the knowledge engineering, the topic is not explored in depth and the current state of the art in this field demands further investigation. The study introduced in this paper addresses the applicability of an approach to knowledge reuse based on the combination of existing techniques and methods proposed in the literature. Specifically, the experimentation has been carried out in the context of the ongoing European research project Apps4aME, where an automated framework for knowledge reuse has been tested and validated, focusing in particular on the food knowledge domain. The paper summarizes the main results of the research work and includes the emerging issues as well as some proposals to overcome them.

A smart home is a residence equipped with various smart objects which aim at antici-pating and responding to the needs of its dwellers, in order to promote their comfort, well-being, security and entertainment [1]. An important example of its application is in the field of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL), where smart home provides tailored services that assist users for a better, healthier and safer life in their preferred living environment. However, the smart home design and development poses a number of technical challenges, which should be addressed by researchers and technicians in the next future. One of the hottest issue is the identification of a valid pattern to enhance the interoperability of the involved smart devices.This paper introduces a technological platform, which should enable these systems to interwork seamlessly, thus providing an integrated view of the home environment.

This paper introduces the Smart Home Simulator (SHS), a mixed reality application supporting the design and the configuration of the smart objects (SOs) within a domestic environment, with the aim of answering to specific users' needs. SHS finds its most suitable exploitation in the field of Ambient Assisted Living, providing tailored services to the home dwellers. In particular, it exploits the virtual and mixed reality features, which allow the simulation and testing of different SOs solutions. Smart objects are made interoperable taking advantage of semantic web technologies, which provide a comprehensive overview on the relevant aspects that must be considered to tailor the proposed solution to the end user's needs, also including his/her health condition. The SHS is useful both during the "static" design phase, during which the Smart Home designer places the various SOs within the domestic environment, and during the "dynamic" design phase, in which the end user can actually test the SOs interaction through a properly simulated virtual scenario. Finally, the paper reports two use cases in order to show the potential of the herein introduced application.