Cyberphysical systems

A competitive company should possess the ability to rapidly adopt to changes and the new era of the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) puts forward an incredible reshaping of the entire manufacturing sector. The primary goal of Industry 4.0 should be to transform the massive production lines from a system-based scheme to a product-based one, while individuals and cyber-physical systems (CPSs) should interact with each other and with objects. This advantage can be achieved in a smart factory, so as to allow product tracking all the way through manufacturing by interacting with any other factory component via cloud computing. Towards this end, in this paper we propose a vision-oriented method, which utilizes detection and tracking along with a cloud-based platform to facilitate product tracking and interaction. The proposed method make use of a panoramic camera composing a CPS, which a part of a cyber-physical production system (CPPS). We study and evaluate the proposed CPS in a computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) scenario.

An Emergency Response (ER) Cyber-Physical System (CPS) to avoid landslides and survey areas located on or near slopes is introduced that handles two problems: electronic waste disposal, and environmental disasters. Uncomplicated detection circuits using salvaged components can pinpoint floods in impoverished regions. CPSs simplify hazard prediction and mitigation in disaster supervision. Nonetheless, few green practices and efforts have been accomplished in this regard. Recent technical advances help landslides studies and the evaluation of suitable risk alleviation measures. This work addresses in situ meters, and cameras to observe ground movements more accurately. The ER-CPS identifies and can help mitigate landslides using techniques based on motion detection that can productively predict and monitor the zone conditions to classify it, and the landslide-related data can be transmitted to inspecting stations to lessen the erosion/sedimentation likelihood while increasing security.

Free: Computer Science Unplugged (csunplugged.org) for K-12 Education (csunplugged.org). 

Many children and teachers have helped us to refine our ideas. The children and teachers at South Park School (Victoria, BC), Shirley Primary School, Ilam Primary School and Westburn Primary School (Christchurch, New Zealand) were guinea pigs for many activities. We are particularly grateful to Linda Picciotto, Karen Able, Bryon Porteous, Paul Cathro, Tracy Harrold, Simone Tanoa, Lorraine Woodfield, and Lynn Atkinson for welcoming us into their classrooms and making helpful suggestions for refinements to the activities. Gwenda Bensemann has trialed several of the activities for us and suggested modifications. Richard Lynders and Sumant Murugesh have helped with classroom trials. Parts of the cryptography activities were developed by Ken Noblitz. Some of the activities were run under the umbrella of the Victoria “Mathmania” group, with help from Kathy Beveridge. Earlier versions of the illustrations were done by Malcolm Robinson and Gail Williams, and we have also benefited from advice from Hans Knutson. Matt Powell has also provided valuable assistance during the development of the “Unplugged” project. We are grateful to the Brian Mason Scientific and Technical Trust for generous sponsorship in the early stages of the development of this book.
Special thanks go to Paul and Ruth Ellen Howard, who tested many of the activities and provided a number of helpful suggestions. Peter Henderson, Bruce McKenzie, Joan Mitchell, Nancy Walker-Mitchell, Gwen Stark, Tony Smith, Tim A. H. Bell1, Mike Hallett, and Harold Thimbleby also provided numerous helpful comments.
We owe a huge debt to our families: Bruce, Fran, Grant, Judith, and Pam for their support, and Andrew, Anna, Hannah, Max, Michael, and Nikki who inspired much of this work,2 and were often the first children to test an activity.
We are particularly grateful to Google Inc. for sponsoring the Unplugged project, and enabling us to make this edition available for free download.
We welcome comments and suggestions about the activities. The authors can be contacted via csunplugged.org.

Contents
Introduction i
Acknowledgements ii
Data: the raw material—Representing information 1 Count the Dots—Binary Numbers 3 Colour by Numbers—Image Representation 14 You Can Say That Again! —Text Compression 23 Card Flip Magic—Error Detection & Correction 31 Twenty Guesses—Information Theory 37
Putting Computers to Work—Algorithms 43 Battleships—Searching Algorithms 45 Lightest and Heaviest—Sorting Algorithms 64 Beat the Clock—Sorting Networks 71 The Muddy City—Minimal Spanning Trees 76 The Orange Game—Routing and Deadlock in Networks 81
Telling Computers What To Do—Representing Procedures 84 Treasure Hunt—Finite-State Automata 86 Marching Orders—Programming Languages 101

The dependence of modern societies on electric energy is ever increasing by the emergence of smart cities and electric vehicles. This is while unprecedented number of cyber-physical hazards are threatening the integrity and availability of the power grid on a daily basis. On one hand, physical integrity of power systems is under threat by more frequent natural disasters and intentional attacks. On the other hand, the cyber vulnerability of power grids is on the rise by the emergence of smart grid technologies. This underlines an imminent need for the modeling and examination of power grid vulnerabilities to cyber-physical attacks. This paper examines the vulnerability of the communication-assisted protection schemes like permissive overreaching transfer trip (POTT) to cyberattacks using a co-simulation platform. The simulation results show that the transient angle stability of power systems can be jeopardized by cyberattacks on the communication-assisted protection schemes. To address this vulnerability two physical solutions including the deployment of communication channel redundancy, and a more advanced communicated-assisted protection scheme, i.e. DCUB, are considered and tested. The proposed solutions address the vulnerability of the communication-assisted protection schemes to distributed denial of service attack to some extent. Yet, the simulation results show the vulnerability of the proposed solutions to sophisticated cyberattacks like false data injection attacks. This highlights the need for the development of cyber-based solutions for communication channel monitoring.

Аннотация
Исследование посвящено проблеме идентификации и идентичности в цифровом киберфизическом мире, где персональные и групповые идентификаторы (ID) субъектов и материальных вещей (объектов) играют все более значительную роль во включении их в эмерджентные социотехнические системы и сети. Разрабатывается этическое человекоцентричное видение антропологии и социальной философии в ситуации диктатуры идентификаторов. Проведен исторический анализ проблемы идентификации в мегасистемах; исследована эвристичность понятия «множество» Паоло Вирно в постфордисткую эпоху в свете развития цифрового производства, Промышленности 4.0. Критикуются современные аксиологические доминанты концепции SmartX («умный дом», «умная фабрика», «умный город»). Представлена пропедевтика концепций киберноосферы (как планетарного единства киберфизических, кибербиологических и киберсоциальных процессов) и киберфизической соборности с попыткой реактуализировать классический для русской философии концепт космической соборности в контексте развития современных киберфизических систем, конвергенции технологий и глобальных проектов исследования космического пространства.
Ключевые слова: философия науки и техники, киберфизические системы, ID, идентичность, интернет вещей, киберантропология.

Emerging technologies are being developed at an ever-increasing rate. These developments are changing the way we live, work and do business dramatically. There are a few key areas that always top the list when one asks which technologies are shaping the future of the world – Artificial Intelligence and its derivatives, Big Data, Cloud Computing and significant advances in computing and networking capabilities.

We also see convergence of these technologies happening at an ever-increasing rate. This convergence is so much so that we observe that the boundaries among related technologies are becoming more and more blurred. Cyber-Physical Systems - the integration of computing with the physical worlds using network capabilities - are a significant example of such a convergence.

In this report, the author explores the technologies that enable Cyber-Physical Systems, the dominant application areas for Cyber-Physical Systems and the known challenges on the road to large scale deployment of these systems. In discussing these subject areas, the definitions, impact and influence of Cyber-Physical Systems are explored to a moderate level of details with appropriate illustrations and references.

As smartphones become more pervasive, they are increasingly targeted by malware. At the same time, each new generation of smartphone features increasingly powerful onboard sensor suites. A new strain of ‘sensor malware’ has been developing that leverages these sensors to steal information from the physical environment — e.g., researchers have recently demonstrated how malware can ‘listen’ for spoken credit card numbers through the microphone, or ‘feel’ keystroke vibrations using the accelerometer. Yet the possibilities of what malware can ‘see’ through a camera have been understudied. This paper introduces a novel ‘visual malware’ called PlaceRaider, which allows remote attackers to engage in remote reconnaissance and what we call “virtual theft.” Through completely opportunistic use of the phone’s camera and other sensors, PlaceRaider constructs rich, three dimensional models of indoor environments. Remote burglars can thus ‘download’ the physical space, study the environment caref...

Development and prototyping of robotic systems requires the involvement of many people and many hours of design, development, and cooperation; significant time and effort overhead is required for evaluating conceptual ideas in design, control and technology, and for bringing them fast into reality for testing. Based on the important advances of the last decade in hardware and software, a simple and low-cost framework and its underlying ideas are presented, with steps that aim at accelerating robotics research work in academia and industry. The framework’s functionality is validated and illustrated by two application examples concerning the control systems of a single-legged hopping robot and an instrumented treadmill. The software required to conduct the same experiments is provided, with the intention to help the reader reuse it in similar applications.

he latest advancements in hybrid brain- computer interface (hBCI) research are reported in this paper. Specifically we look at the latest pure hBCI systems, which use two or more different brain-computer interface (BCI) signals to allow the user to interact with a computer system. A special emphasis is placed on investigating how problems encountered by standard BCI systems are now being tackled by hBCI methods.

In this paper, we present the design and implementation of a wireless sensor based piggybacking and
tailgating detection system to detect unauthorized attempt to gain access to a secured area. A set of Sun
SPOT wireless sensor platform is adopted for acceleration sensor, transmitter, and receiver units for the
system. A wireless sensor embedded in a security door collects the signal of door movement constantly and
transmits the signal wirelessly to another wireless sensor (base unit), which collects the transmitted signals
and stores them in the memory of the computer system for analysis. The acceleration signal is analyzed in
both time and frequency domain to detect and classify single and tailgate entries. The paper focuses on the
description of the wireless sensor network and the sensor-based tailgate detection algorithm.

The vision of the Internet of Things (IoT) based on Smart Objects (SOs) promotes an high-level architectural organization of the future IoT designed around the basic concept of SO. An SO is an autonomous , cyberphysical object augmented with sensing/actuation, processing , storing, and networking capabilities. An important issue in supporting future SO-based IoT systems is how to classify SOs. Classification of SOs is an important activity directly influencing the definition of effective SO discovery services and management systems. In particular , the discovery service is a fundamental middleware component of the IoT as it allows SOs and their users to dynamically discover distributed SOs and, specifically, the services, operations, and data that they provide. This paper aims at proposing a reference taxonomy for SOs that is highly functional for an SO discovery service, and, more generally, for an SO management system. The taxonomy is based on a metadata model that is able to describe all the cyberphysical characteristics (geophysical, functional, and non-functional) of an SO.

SRAM-based FPGAs are increasingly popular in the aerospace industry for their field programmability and low cost. However, they suffer from cosmic radiation induced Single Event Upsets (SEUs), commonly known as soft errors. In safety-critical applications, the dependability of the design is a prime concern since failures may have catastrophic consequences. An early analysis of dependability of such safety-critical applications will enable designers to develop a design that meets the high availability and reliability requirements of the DO-254 standard. This paper introduces a novel methodology based on probabilistic model checking, to analyze the dependability properties of safety-critical systems and to suggest required mitigation techniques, such as Triple Modular Redundancy (TMR) or TMR with less frequent scrubs for early design decisions. Starting from a high-level description of a system, a Markov model is constructed from the Control Data Flow Graph (CDFG) expressing the functionality and from failure/mitigation parameters for the targeted FPGAs. Such an exhaustive model captures all the failures and repairs possible in the system within the radiation environment. We present a case study on a benchmark circuit to illustrate the applicability of the proposed approach to demonstrate that a wide range of useful dependability properties can be analyzed using our proposed methodology.

As smartphones become more pervasive, they are increasingly targeted by malware. At the
same time, each new generation of smartphone features increasingly powerful onboard sensor
suites. A new strain of ‘sensor malware’ has been developing that leverages these sensors to steal
information from the physical environment — e.g., researchers have recently demonstrated how
malware can ‘listen’ for spoken credit card numbers through the microphone, or ‘feel’ keystroke
vibrations using the accelerometer. Yet the possibilities of what malware can ‘see’ through a
camera have been understudied.
This paper introduces a novel ‘visual malware’ called PlaceRaider, which allows remote at-
tackers to engage in remote reconnaissance and what we call “virtual theft.” Through completely
opportunistic use of the phone’s camera and other sensors, PlaceRaider constructs rich, three
dimensional models of indoor environments. Remote burglars can thus ‘download’ the physical
space, study the environment carefully, and steal virtual objects from the environment (such
as financial documents, information on computer monitors, and personally identifiable informa-
tion). Through two human subject studies we demonstrate the effectiveness of using mobile
devices as powerful urveillance and virtual theft platforms, and we suggest several possible
defenses against visual malware.

The vision of the Internet of Things (IoT) based on Smart Objects (SOs) promotes an high-level architectural organization of the future IoT designed around the basic concept of SO. An SO is an autonomous, cyberphysical object augmented with sensing/actuation, processing, storing, and networking capabilities. An important issue in supporting future SO-based IoT systems is how to classify SOs. Classification of SOs is an important activity directly influencing the definition of effective SO discovery services and management systems. In particular, the discovery service is a fundamental middleware component of the IoT as it allows SOs and their users to dynamically discover distributed SOs and, specifically, the services, operations, and data that they provide. This paper aims at proposing a reference taxonomy for SOs that is highly functional for an SO discovery service, and, more generally, for an SO management system. The taxonomy is based on a metadata model that is able to describ...

Compared to other components of the Cyberspace, Cybersecurity is emerging the most prominent domain of concern. The reason may not be unconnected with the geometric growth in in the evolution of new computer-based technologies by the day and the deployment of such technologies for both positive and negative purposes. There are four major areas where Cybersecurity programmes are massively ongoing: Technology Products, Research, Education, and Business enterprises. These four areas are unarguably very vital and affect the socioeconomic development of any society. E-commerce and other sensitive socioeconomic ventures are growing but are markedly deterred by security concerns in the Cyberspace. Having regard to the foregoing, this paper examines the ongoing Cybersecurity developments in Nigeria especially as it affects the sectors under review. The argument is that there have not been a significant synergy between the two sectors in promoting Cybersecurity development in Nigeria hence the terrifying spate of cybercrimes amidst the Cybercrime prevention and prohibition laws. We submit that a mutual front propelled by Public Private Partnership (PPP) would go a long way to reducing the spate of these crimes in the cyberspace thus promoting socioeconomic development in Nigeria and the sub region. It is also submitted that with the involvement of public and private sectors, the legal frameworks for combating cybercrimes would be enhanced further through the use of joint socio-technical approaches.

The classical cybernetics in the Norbert Wiener’s tradition is nowadays a part of the mathematical theory of complex systems and nonlinear dynamics. Only in these frameworks, building of structures and patterns in nature and technics can be explained and in computer models simulated. Self-organization and emergence became well-defined concepts and can be transferred to technical systems. In the first part of the article, the foundations of complex systems and of nonlinear dynamics are under review. As an application, the building of structures and patterns in complex cell systems, which are subject of system biology, is considered. In the second part, the application of complex system dynamics to evolution of brain and cognition is explored. The research gives us a prerequisite for development of cognitive and social robots, what the topic of the third part is. Neural network structures are not at all limited to individual organisms and robots. In the fourth part, the cyberphysical systems, by means of which complex self-controlling sociotechnical systems are modeled, are studied. The mathematical theory of complex systems and nonlinear dynamics provides us with foundation for understanding of self-organization and emergence in this field. Finally, the question of ethical and social general conditions for technical constructing of complex self-organizing systems are stated and discussed.

Классическая кибернетика в традиции Норберта Винера является сегодня составной частью математической теории сложных систем и нелинейной динамики. Только в этих рамках может быть объяснено возникновение структур и образцов в природе и технике и построены компьютерные модели. Понятия «самоорганизация» и «эмерджентность» относятся к хорошо определенным понятиям и могут быть перенесены на понимание технических систем. В первой части статьи рассматриваются основания теории сложных систем и нелинейной динамики. В качестве применения изучается образование структур и паттернов сложных клеточных систем, являющихся предметом системной биологии. Во второй части статьи речь идет о применении динамики сложных систем к эволюции мозга и познания. Эти исследования составляют предпосылку для развития социальных роботов, что является предметом рассмотрения в третьей части. Нейронные сетевые структуры ни в коей мере не ограничиваются отдельными организмами или роботами. В четвертой части речь идет о киберфизических системах, посредством которых моделируются сложные социотехнические системы, которые в значительной мере управляют сами себя. Также и здесь математическая теория сложных систем и нелинейная динамика предоставляют нам основания для понимания самоорганизации и эмерджентности. В конце статьи обсуждается вопрос об этических и общественных общих условиях для технического конструирования сложных самоорганизирующихся систем.

The research reported in this paper explores the impact of digital transformation as a disruptive innovation on manufacturing SMEs. The research is based on a qualitative Delphi study encompassing 49 experts from eleven EU countries. The paper aims to demonstrate how disruptive innovations affect organizational changes and determine critical factors in organizations that impact the initiating and promoting R&D of disruptive innovation. We discovered that disruptive innovations impact product/process development methods, new production concepts, new materials for products, and new organization plans. Additionally, we identified organizational changes related to the development and use of disruptive innovations in the future. We also indicate how disruptive innovations influence social and technological changes in the organizational environment. The analysis also disclosed three main groups of disruptive innovations and their impact on future smart factory development, namely the foll...

One of the ambitious goals of the ‘‘Smart city’’paradigm is to design zero-energy buildings. Buildings can beconsidered as connected cyber-physical systems that require theconstruction of sound methodologies inherited from the EDAresearch. In particular, aiming at autonomous buildings, theeffective design of renewable energy sources is a key aspect forwhich such methodologies have to be developed.In this work, we propose a modeling strategy for the earlyestimation of the performance of PV arrays. Although a plethoraof PV panel models there exists, most of these models suffer fromaccuracy/complexity tradeoffs. On one hand, building fast modelsforces to ignore either the correlation between temperature andirradiance, or the topology of panels, thus yielding inaccurateestimations. On the other hand, more accurate models are timeconsuming and require costly measurements or circuit analysis,that cannot be extracted from the sole datasheet.This paper proposes a compact semi-empirical model, suitable forreal time simulation and built solely from information derivedfrom the PV panel datasheet. The model is built by empiricallyfitting an expression of the panel operating point as a function of both irradiance and temperature, and of the adopted PV systemtopology. The accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed modelhave been validated w.r.t. the production traces of the PV systemsof a real world industrial building

Computer-Aided Design (CAD) applications often promote
memorable experiences for the wrong reasons. Coupled with complex functionality and poor user experience the learning curve is often steep and overwhelming. Invoking design creativity remains limited to conveying established geometry. Gameplay conversely excels in memorable and formative
experiences and could spur intuition and natural creativity. If games are profoundly imbued for purposeful play, thriving on tacit and explicit user knowledge, a CAD system carefully stylized with ludic mechanisms could potentially be highly productive. An emergent serious game (SG) and CAD
system may then hold promise. Preliminary feedbacks suggest a game-CAD environment incorporating interoperable mechanisms of CAD and SG systems to exchange creation improves user interactions resulting in better evolution of
the workflow. The emerging scenarios presented reports a transformative approach to understanding of relationships in CAD use, learning and play mechanisms that enhance creativity and innovation.

Cyber is an emerging domain of warfare, terrorism, and crime, while simultaneously being the platform and engine for economic, civil, and democratic development in the 21st century. The protection and sustainable growth of cyberspace is necessary for advancement of civilization and the pursuit of the noble goals of humanity. However, it has become common in the last decade to learn of cyber exploitations that threaten the safety and security of daily life as we know it.

By: John Vanston, Henry Elliott, Jim Brazell, Eliza Evans, James Irwin, & Michael Bettersworth.

Executive Summary
Mechatronics is a system of technologies which integrates mechanical and electrical systems through control systems and information technology. Mechatronics is another way of saying “intelligent mechanical systems.”

The National Council on Competitiveness estimates that 100 million new jobs will be created in the 21st century at the intersection of disciplines rather than in individual disciplines. Mechatronics technicians exhibit this multi-disciplinary or multi-cra requirement today and are in high demand across all of Governor Perry’s targeted high growth industries
There is no mechatronics industry sector; rather, it is an enabling approach to technology that is increasingly applied in a number of economic sectors including:
Biotechnology, Life Science & Medical; Electronics & Applied Computer Equipment; Telecommunications & Information Services; Distribution, Transportation & Logistics; Heavy &
Special Trade Construction; Energy, Mining & Related Support Services; Petroleum Rening &
Chemical; Transportation Equipment; Production Support & Industrial Machinery; Agriculture, Forestry & Food; Aerospace, Homeland Security and Defense.

Mechatronics is at the heart of systems such as cochlear ear implants for the hearing impaired and anti-lock breaks in automobiles. Mechatronics is an enabling manufacturing technology for traditional industries and also a foundational manufacturing technology for micro-to-nano scale manufacturing

Mechatronics is another way of saying “intelligent mechanical systems” and it is the foundation of many 21st century enabling technologies. Mechatronics involves the integration of mechanical and electrical systems with control systems and information technology.

Mechatronic products and processes are increasingly pervasive across a broad range of industries. These same industries are expressing a clear demand for highly skilled employees capable of excelling in these technologically advanced environments and competent in the multidisciplinary application of technologies associated with mechatronics. Colleges should to respond to these employer demands by updating curriculum and creating new courses and programs to serve this emerging technology workforce need.

The analysis and information resources provided in this report will aid colleges in developing Mechatronic programs and certificates. This publication includes an overview of mechatronic technology and analysis of related occupations and salaries, inventory of existing mechatronic curriculum and considerations for colleges considering developing related programs and lists of industry experts and mechatronics companies.

Computer-Aided Design (CAD) applications often promote memorable experiences for the wrong reasons. Coupled with complex functionality and poor user experience the learning curve is often steep and overwhelming. Invoking design creativity remains limited to conveying established geometry. Gameplay conversely excels in memorable and formative experiences and could spur intuition and natural creativity. If games are profoundly imbued for purposeful play, thriving on tacit and explicit user knowledge, a CAD system carefully stylized with ludic mechanisms could potentially be highly productive. An emergent serious game (SG) and CAD system may then hold promise. Preliminary feedbacks suggest a game-CAD environment incorporating interoperable mechanisms of CAD and SG systems to exchange creation improves user interactions resulting in better evolution of the workflow. The emerging scenarios presented reports a transformative approach to understanding of relationships in CAD use, learning ...

The ability to achieve valid requirements and subsequently delay in software projects is caused by ambiguity among other factors. This paper proposes an ambiguity minimisation technique during requirements, this technique is premised on the view that wrong system objectives and business requirements results in problems characterizing the entire software. Since these objectives are defined during the elicitation phase, we used data from 3 companies in industry to relate the system objective to the business need so as to provide a desired product. We use set theory from a calculus perspective, to design a mapping technique to achieve clear requirement.

Decision-making in organization is a wide area that usually relies on formal methodology such as decision theory and game theory and on empirical investigations of actual decision-making in organizations. The aim of this paper is to propose a rather different question and to introduce a methodology to approach it: How can we conceptualize the quality of collective decisions made within the context of a complex sociotechnical system? Sociotechnical systems (STS) are complex organizational scenarios in which human agents interact in a normative constrained environment with themselves and with artificial agents (Emery and Trist 1960). For example, an understanding the organizational structure of an airport requires understanding the interaction between agents operating with metal detectors, sensors, and security cameras, as well as interacting with customers in a normatively specified way. Defining STS is a complex task. Here we have decided to highlight the features of STS that are significant for understanding decision-making in this case. We view the complexity of STS as due to the entanglement of several layers of information— e.g., normative, perceptual, factual, conceptual—as well as of information sources, e.g., human, artificial, normative. The quality of collective decisions in STS is evaluated by using the following three fundamental concepts: transparency, fairness, and efficiency. The key role of transparency in sociotechnical design was first stressed in (Guarino et al. 2012) and it has been argued that transparency is very important to enhance the adaptivity and resiliency of systems. We conceptualize the transparency of a collective decision in terms of the entitlement of the agents involved in the systems to a justification of the decision made by that system. That is, the agents involved in the system (e.g., employee,

Digital libraries are distributed software infrastructures that aim at collecting, managing, preserving, and using digital objects (or resources) for the long term, and providing specialized services on such resources to its users. Service provision should be of measurable quality and performed according to codified policies. Currently, modern digital libraries include a wide range of conventional digital objects: text document, image, audio, video, software, etc. In the emerging domain of the Internet of Things (IoT), cyberphysical smart objects (or simply smart objects) will play a central role in providing new (smart) services to both humans and machines. It is therefore challenging to include smart objects, the newest type of digital objects, into digital libraries as novel first-class objects to be collected, managed, and preserved. However, their inclusion poses critical issues to address and many research challenges to deal with. This paper aims at paving the way towards such a novel inclusion that will enable effective discovery, management and querying of smart objects, so establishing cyberphysical digital libraries. In particular, our approach is based on a metadata model purposely defined to describe all the cyberphysical characteristics (geophysical, functional, and non-functional) of smart objects. The meta-data model is then used for a seamless integration of smart objects into digital libraries compliant with the digital library reference model proposed by the DL.org community. The proposed approach is also exemplified through a simple yet effective case study.