Project details
Title:
EMBRACE
Acronym:
Energy-efficient Methods and enaBling technologies for communications, netwoRking, infrastructures and smArt services in Challenging Environments
Type:
National (Project amount: €1575310.13 – UNIVPM contribution: €150775.00) – Winner of the Cascade Call for Public and/or Private Entities under the PE RESTART – RESearch and innovation on future Telecommunications systems and networks, to make Italy more smART program (code PE00000001 – CUP B83D22001190006) – part of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), Mission 4, Component 2, Investment 1.3, funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU, within Spoke 6 of RESTART.
Start Date:
April 18, 2024
End Date:
October 31 2025
Principal Investigator:
Paolo Casari (University of Trento) – Paola Pierleoni (UNIVPM Unit Responsible)
Other Units Involved:
University of Trento (lead partner) – UNIVPM – University of Brescia – University of Calabria – University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli – University of Palermo – University of Naples Parthenope – University of Pavia – University of Trieste – Applicon Srl
Keywords:
Extreme environments – energy efficiency – communications – networking – protocol design – security – antenna and hardware design– novel sensors – batteryless devices – body networks – underwater networks – infrastructureless networks
Description:
The EMBRACE project aims to develop advanced telecommunication and sensing technologies designed to operate in extreme environments where conventional systems fail or require high energy consumption. It focuses on creating innovative communication architectures, sensing devices, and computing schemes capable of ensuring reliable and energy-efficient operation under harsh physical, environmental, or physiological conditions. Within the framework of RESTART, EMBRACE integrates multidisciplinary expertise in communications, sensing, signal processing, and artificial intelligence to enable next-generation resilient and infrastructureless networks.
Objectives:
The main objective of EMBRACE is to design and validate telecommunication and sensing systems capable of functioning in challenging and infrastructureless environments. The project addresses multiple domains, from underwater and underground communication to physiological and biomedical monitoring in extreme conditions. Research activities include the design of new sensors, the modeling of harsh communication channels, the development of energy-efficient communication schemes for batteryless devices, and the integration of edge computing and AI-driven data processing in telecommunication systems. A key focus is on creating resilient networks that ensure connectivity in the absence of traditional infrastructure.
The research team at DII will contribute to Work Package 2 (WP2), particularly in Tasks T2.1 and T2.3, dedicated to physiological monitoring in challenging environments. The team’s expertise in sensor and network design, data fusion, signal processing, edge computing, and artificial intelligence will support the design and testing of low-power physiological monitoring systems capable of operating in extreme physical, environmental, and stress conditions. DII will also focus on BLE mesh networks to support infrastructureless communication in such scenarios, including high-traffic and low-latency applications.
Application Contexts:
EMBRACE addresses the growing need for reliable communication and monitoring systems in extreme and high-risk environments, where current technologies are limited by energy demands, signal degradation, or physical inaccessibility. These include underwater, underground, and remote terrestrial areas, as well as high-performance physiological monitoring in conditions of elevated stress, temperature, or effort. The project’s outcomes will be relevant for disaster management, environmental monitoring, health and safety applications, and smart city systems requiring resilient and autonomous communication frameworks. By integrating advanced sensing technologies, AI-based signal processing, and energy-aware network protocols, EMBRACE aims to enable robust connectivity and situational awareness in both natural and anthropogenic extreme contexts.
Expected Results:
The project will deliver a new generation of communication and sensing technologies optimized for operation in extreme environments. Expected outcomes include the development of low-power and batteryless sensors, adaptive communication schemes, and bio-inspired coordination algorithms for resilient and infrastructureless networks. EMBRACE will also produce advanced data fusion and processing algorithms for physiological monitoring, as well as BLE mesh-based architectures enabling secure, low-latency communication without fixed infrastructure. For DII, the project will result in validated proof of concepts (PoCs) and algorithms for contactless human monitoring in critical conditions, scheduling and optimization methods for infrastructureless BLE Mesh validated through simulation environments and PoCs.
Achieved Results:
The project is still ongoing
