Auvergne Laboratory for IoT Applied to the Environment – IoTAE-Lab

Initially, the labcom members focused on developing a modular electronic system. These developments include a set of daughter cards that make it easy to add functions to IoT nodes: GSM, satellite communications, RFID, etc.

The project made it possible, in a short period of time, to validate various important and structuring points for future developments as well as for the collaboration between UCA and Linxens.
From the perspective of related developments and research perspectives, the project enabled the rapid development of a modular motherboard. This motherboard integrates both the specificities arising from the needs of the scientific community in terms of usage and prospects for integrating advanced functions, as well as potential customer needs that Linxens may have. The integrated computing power, also modular thanks to the presence of two microcontrollers, makes it possible to quickly consider AI models.

Several deployments are planned of the system designed to acquire environmental data in sufficient quantity to develop AI models.

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The joint laboratory IoTAE-Lab is the result of collaboration between the Federation of Environmental Research (FRE), whose objectives are the development of interdisciplinary projects and the pooling of research resources in the field of the environment and in which eight laboratories from the CNRS, UCA and INRAE are involved, and the company YESITIS, an SME founded in 2016 that offers a turnkey solution from design to industrialization of custom IoT in
France: from design to creation, IOT manufacturing, object traceability, development of
SaaS platform for data management and specific mobile applications.

The key positioning of this new joint laboratory is to be able to make a research contribution to the improvement and development of IoT systems in the future. In particular on network efficiency, energy consumption optimisation, autonomy, embedded intelligence development and our ability to propose interoperable and modular electronic architectures.
The research programme is based on the following three areas
- Energy performance of systems and autonomy: Energy Harvesting, capacitive load
- Performance of embedded systems: Neural network, local artificial intelligence to minimise the amount of data transmitted while improving their relevance;
- Sensor networks in highly constrained environments (isolation, underground, aquatic environments, antenna problems)

These main lines of research are designed to meet the technological challenges of the IoT in terms of functionality, miniaturisation, cost reduction and environmental impact. The objective is to create intelligent and autonomous communicating objects that can accumulate energy (from hundreds of nanowatts). These points are a major challenge for future developments in large-scale instrumentation. This is why IoTAE-Lab will focus its work on embedded AI (IoT edge), fully in line with the national strategy to support national collaborations in this field. The integration of neural networks resulting from AI algorithms in the nodes will make it possible to process the information as close as possible to the sensor in order to limit the energy-intensive transmission of data.

The marketing of these new generation communicating devices will provide additional tools to respond to the ecological and societal challenges caused by climate change: transition of agriculture, preservation of natural resources, restoration of biodiversity, anticipation and management of risks. The instrumentation of environmental sites using miniaturised, autonomous sensors will make it possible to better model the multi-scale dynamics of ecosystems and agro-systems in order to better protect them or manage them in a more sustainable manner.
To carry out its projects, the proposed LabCom will rely on the Auvergne scientific ecosystem that has emerged in recent years in the field of IoT. At the academic level, the ConnecSenS project currently brings together around twenty technicians, engineers and researchers from neighbouring Clermont-Ferrand laboratories in the field of environmental instrumentation. Each brings a specific and complementary skill, from the definition of the need to the implementation of systems in the field, including the study and production of these devices.
At the level of the partner company, the activity of 5 engineers is currently devoted to R&D programmes in the fields of IoT. The future LabCom will therefore operate from the outset with all its resources, which will be strengthened as it grows.