Circuiti e Sistemi Hardware/Firmware per il Monitoraggio di Sistemi Industriali

The evolution of industry has fostered the development, refinement, and optimization of hardware-firmware systems. These systems are characterized by a wide range of implementation methods, owing to their inherently flexible architecture. This thesis investigates the application of Long Range (LoRa) technology within well-defined hardware-firmware frameworks. The proposed systems are deployed across three distinct industrial contexts. First, LoRa is employed in industrial and environmental monitoring, where extensive areas exposed to geohazards require continuous and reliable observation. Second, LoRa serves as a communication protocol among smart metering devices installed in regions with limited internet connectivity; its long-range capabilities enable data transmission to the nearest internet-accessible nodes. Third, LoRa is integrated into a Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) system to interconnect multiple nodes with a central master node—a solution particularly advantageous for monitoring large-scale structures. Beyond these applications, in this work several industrial use cases involving hardware-firmware systems are studied, developed and designed. Specifically, these include the development of 3D-printed sensors and circuits for cost-effective prototyping and manufacturing, the design of specialized sensor interfaces and microelectronic circuits, and the application of Design of Experiments (DoE) methodologies to model a high-power Ultrawide Band (UWB) circuit. Each case study is examined in detail with respect to its hardware architecture, control unit and framework, and firmware implementation. Hardware-firmware systems constitute the backbone of contemporary industrial and academic applications. Their comprehensive characterization and continuous enhancement, regardless of the industrial era, introduce significant innovations and streamline entire production processes.