مقایسه روش های WSN و IoT برای یک سیستم نظارت زمان حقیقی چرخ دستی های توزیع غذا Comparison of WSN and IoT approaches for a real-time monitoring system of meal distribution trolleys: A case study

1. Introduction Hospitals play a prominent role in national healthcare systems, and the medical care provided to patients in these facilities are expected to reach the highest quality standard. A nutritious diet is essential for patient treatment and recovery, and therefore food must be safe and served at times that are convenient and appropriate in this kind of facilities [1]. In particular, food-borne pathogens can multiply if food is not maintained at an appropriate temperature or if there are delays between food preparation and distribution in healthcare settings like hospitals or elderly homes [2, 3, 4]. Moreover, the patient’s perception of the hospital quality is closely related to the quality of the meals distribution system [5, 6]. International regulations, like Hazard Analysis of Critical Control Points (HACCP) [7, 8], determine that food is at risk in all areas where it is stored, prepared, transported and served, and therefore good food hygiene conditions 15 are necessary. Among them, an important point is to ensure that hot food served is kept above 63 degrees Celsius and cold food below 5 degrees Celsius [9]. These regulations have led to a re-definition of technical specifications in the public tenders of western countries hospitals [10] and health institutions [9], as well as a redesign of hospital meal carts [11] and the development of new products [12, 13]. However the real-time surveillance of the meal distribution trolleys along all the institutions facilities, guaranteeing conformity to HACCP rules from the instant when all the meals are put in the distribution trolley until they are delivered to the patients, it is still a challenge. In this paper, we present a comparison of two approaches, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) and Internet of Things (IoT), for implementing a Real-Time Monitoring System of Meal Distribution Trolleys. The WSN approach consists of FM-Foodmote, a low-cost surveillance system based on a WSN for converting non-HACCP compliant distribution trolleys into compliant ones, in such a way that the meal carts inside each trolley are not only real-time monitored, but it also yields the trolley location within the hospital facilities. The problem specification requires that the FM-Foodmote system does not use the hospital Wifi network, it is a self-powered system, and it does not require to screw and/or drill mounting holes in the walls for any network device.