Embedded Systems for the New Generation of IoT Sensors

Dear Colleagues,

The growing developments in microcontrollers, the proliferation of compact digital sensors, and the advances in wireless technology have triggered research towards a new generation of powerful, yet low-power, IoT embedded devices at the network edge.

With the introduction of the Arm Cortex-M family, nowadays’ microcontrollers are being packed with more peripherals and new functionalities that previously could only be found in powerful processors and system-on-chips.

Additionally, compact commercial sensors for sampling different physical quantities with digital output and programmable configurations and interrupts are readily available, enabling an ever-increasing range of engineering applications.

Furthermore, wireless IoT end devices are supported by advances in wireless communication technologies, such as LoRA and NB-IoT, which expand battery lifetime and provide a connection link to the cloud computing infrastructure.

Reliable open-source real-time operating systems (RTOSes) for low-end microcontrollers, such as Azure ThreadX and Amazon FreeRTOS, have been made available by manufacturers and open-source communities. Such contributions truly simplify the development and maintenance of this type of embedded systems, while enabling a seamless interoperability and connectivity to the Internet.

However, the inherent consequence of connecting smart devices to the Internet strives for secure and reliable systems, while keeping them accessible from anywhere. Despite not being a new endeavor, such aspects keep attracting research to the security aspects of an always-connected IoT device.

This Special Issue of Sensors is dedicated to original research and recent developments on embedded systems for the next generation of IoT smart devices (IoT sensors).

Topics related to this Special Issue of Sensors include but are not limited to:

Sensor networks and the IoT

Novel sensor approaches for the IoT

Hardware-accelerated solutions for IoT devices

Safety, security and reliability mechanisms for embedded microcontrollers

Embedded operating systems for the IoT

Embedded intelligence (tinyML)

Emerging IoT applications with next-generation embedded devices

Prof. Jorge Cabral
Guest Editor

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