Cited by 796IoT and Edge/Fog ComputingInternet of Things and AISmart Agriculture and AI

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 280 of the 280 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 5 of the 249 sources its claims cite were checked for support.

Empowering Things With Intelligence: A Survey of the Progress, Challenges, and Opportunities in Artificial Intelligence of Things

Open access
Zhang, Jing, Tao, Dacheng·2021·IEEE Internet of Things Journal

Abstract

In the Internet-of-Things (IoT) era, billions of sensors and devices collect and process data from the environment, transmit them to cloud centers, and receive feedback via the Internet for connectivity and perception. However, transmitting massive amounts of heterogeneous data, perceiving complex environments from these data, and then making smart decisions in a timely manner are difficult. Artificial intelligence (AI), especially deep learning, is now a proven success in various areas, including computer vision, speech recognition, and natural language processing. AI introduced into the IoT heralds the era of AI of things (AIoT). This article presents a comprehensive survey on AIoT to show how AI can empower the IoT to make it faster, smarter, greener, and safer. Specifically, we briefly present the AIoT architecture in the context of cloud computing, fog computing, and edge computing. Then, we present progress in AI research for IoT from four perspectives: 1) perceiving; 2) learning; 3) reasoning; and 4) behaving. Next, we summarize some promising applications of AIoT that are likely to profoundly reshape our world. Finally, we highlight the challenges facing AIoT and some potential research opportunities.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

This survey reviews artificial intelligence of things (AIoT), arguing that deep learning can empower IoT systems to be faster, smarter, greener, and safer across cloud, fog, and edge computing. It organizes progress around perceiving, learning, reasoning, and behaving, then summarizes applications, challenges, and opportunities.

Key findings

  • The paper presents a tri-tier AIoT computing architecture—cloud, fog, and edge—and argues that AI/deep learning can improve IoT perception, learning, reasoning, and behavior.
  • It cites scale figures: 50 billion IoT-connected devices by 2025 generating 79.4 zettabytes of data, 99.4% of physical objects still unconnected, and an IoT sector contribution of $2.7 to $6.2 trillion to the global economy by 2025.
  • It proposes a taxonomy of AI for IoT: perceiving (e.g., image classification, object detection/tracking, semantic segmentation, biometrics, speech, machine translation), learning (e.g., unsupervised/semi-supervised, transfer, domain adaptation, few-/zero-shot, reinforcement, federated learning), reasoning (knowledge graphs, causal reasoning), and behaving (control, interaction).
  • It surveys AIoT applications in smart security, transportation, healthcare, education, industry, grids, agriculture, and cities/homes/buildings, and lists challenges including multi-modal heterogeneous data, edge deep learning, computational scheduling, data monopoly, security/privacy, and data-center energy consumption.

Methods

  • Design: a comprehensive survey/literature review of AIoT, not an empirical study; the authors state they “carefully select” topics and “only outline the trend of the research progress” rather than diving into details.
  • Data/sample: no primary dataset or experiment; the paper reviews prior literature and summarizes representative benchmark datasets in tables across perception, 3D perceiving, auditory perception, NLP/multimedia, etc.
  • Main analysis: qualitative synthesis organized by a proposed AIoT architecture and a new taxonomy of perceiving, learning, reasoning, and behaving, followed by application domains and challenges/opportunities.

Limitations

  • The paper does not state a formal limitations section.
  • Evident from the text: as a survey, it provides no new experiments, datasets, or quantitative validation of its own; its claims depend on the cited literature.
  • Evident from the text: coverage is selective and explicitly excludes networking technologies (“beyond the scope of this survey”), and the authors note they only outline trends rather than provide detailed treatment.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1109/jiot.2020.3039359

Cites

280 of 280 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

143 Not checked yet · 87 No basis given · 82 Own interpretation · 12 Sources not found · 2 Supported so far · 2 Partly supported · accuracy not yet measured

Verify all 207 references — free account

Show all 44 claims

  • Probably not a substantial claim. 245
  • It may state two separate claims as one. 112
284 of 284
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Both academia and industry have invested heavily in AIoT, and various AIoT applications have now been developed, providing services and creating value.

    “Both academia and industry have invested heavily in AIoT, and various AIoT applications have now been developed, providing services and creating value.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Advanced communication technologies such as Wi-Fi 6 and 5G and AI technologies will enable mass connection.

    “Advanced communication technologies such as Wi-Fi 6 (IEEE 802.11ax standard) and 5G and AI technologies will enable mass connection.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Object trackers usually run much faster than object detectors.

    “Object trackers usually run much faster than object detectors, which can be deployed on edge devices of AIoT applications such as video surveillance and autonomous driving for object trajectory generation and motion prediction.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Text is very common in real-world scenes.

    “Since the text is very common in real-world scenes, e.g., traffic sign, nameplate, information board, text spotting can serve as a useful tool in many AIoT applications for 'reading' text information from scene images”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Cameras are prevalent.

    “Nevertheless, due to the prevalence of cameras and great progress in deep learning and computer vision, visual hand gesture recognition has the vast potential”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Low-light images usually contain noise that will be amplified after enhancement.

    “Since lowlight images usually contain noises that will be amplified after enhancement, some robust Retinex models have been proposed to account for noise and estimate reflectance, illumination, and noise simultaneously [147], [148].”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Haze attenuation and scattering cause low contrast in captured images.

    “Images captured in a haze environment are in low contrast due to the haze attenuation and scattering effects.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Deep learning models can be deployed on edge/fog/cloud with acceptable latency and power.

    “One possible solution is to leverage the hybrid computation architecture (see Section II-A) by deploying object tracker on edge devices while deploying object detectors on the fog nodes or cloud”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The real world is dynamic and complex.

    “Since the real world is dynamic and complex, using a fixed model in AIoT systems can not adapt to the variations, probably leading to a performance loss.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Speech is one of the most important non-contact interaction modes.

    “ASR is very useful in many AIoT applications since speech is one of the most important non-contact interaction modes.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Annotating large-scale data can be prohibitively expensive and time-consuming.

    “Since annotating large-scale data can be prohibitively expensive and time-consuming, USL and SSL can be useful for continually improving models in AIoT systems by harvesting the large-scale unlabeled data collected by massive numbers of sensors [196].”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    In real-world AIoT systems, there are always many related tasks involved.

    “In real-world AIoT systems, there are always many related tasks involved, e.g., object detection and tracking, and semantic segmentation in video surveillance.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    In real-world AIoT applications, there are always some rare cases that need to be recognized by AI models.

    “In real-world AIoT applications, there are always some rare cases that need to be recognized by AI models, e.g., a car collision, cyber attack, machine fault.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Collection and annotation of large-scale rare cases are usually very difficult.

    “However, the collection and annotation of large-scale such cases are usually very difficult.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The amount of unlabeled data is much larger than that of labeled data.

    “Usually, the amount of unlabeled data is much larger than that of labeled data.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    One classical way of reasoning causality via randomized controlled trial is costly and time-consuming.

    “One classical way of reasoning causality is via randomized controlled trial by evaluating the outcomes from the treatment group and control group, which is however costly and time-consuming.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    In our real-world, there is much knowledge carried by web information, medical records, financial transactions, etc., which can be used to reason.

    “In our real-world, there is much knowledge carried by web information, medical records, financial transactions, etc., which can be used to reason the answer to a question or infer patient cohorts.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    We humans have the ability of causal reasoning such as causal inference and causal discovery.

    “We humans have the ability of causal reasoning such as causal inference and causal discovery.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The behaving ability is important for AIoT systems.

    “The behaving ability is also very important for AIoT systems passively responding to environment variations and raised requests, or actively exploring the unknown.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Traditional camera sensors continually generate dense data once opened, which are further fed into deep CNNs for GPU processing.

    “Traditional camera sensors continually generate dense data once opened, which are further fed into deep CNNs for further GPU processing.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Generally, all pixels are used in the calculation, resulting in high computational costs.

    “Generally, all the pixels are used in the calculation, resulting in high computational costs.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    In embodied AI, it is difficult and/or costly to train models in the real world.

    “In embodied AI, it is difficult and/or costly to train models in the real world, e.g., autonomous driving, robot arm control, and robot navigation.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    3D virtual platforms are very useful for cost-effectively training deep learning models, especially for deep reinforcement learning.

    “which are very useful for cost-effectively training deep learning models, especially for deep reinforcement learning.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The critical issue of domain shift between the virtual and physical environments must be addressed before deploying the trained model into real-world scenarios.

    “Nevertheless, the critical issue of domain shift between the virtual and physical environments must be addressed before deploying the trained model into real-world scenarios.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Transfer learning and domain adaptation have attracted significant attention to address domain shift in unsupervised learning and reinforcement learning.

    “Recently, transfer learning and domain adaptation have attracted significant attention to address this issue in the setting of both unsupervised learning and reinforcement learning.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Deep learning model performance is largely determined by large-scale training data.

    “Deep learning model performance is largely determined by large-scale training data.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Humans learn new concepts based not only on data but on prior knowledge.

    “However, humans learn new concepts based not only on data but on prior knowledge.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Prior knowledge can be very useful for training deep learning models in a data-efficient way.

    “Likewise, prior knowledge can be very useful for training deep learning models in a data-efficient way.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Attribute-based class description enables zero-shot learning for new concepts via attribute transfer.

    “For example, attribute-based class description enables zeroshot learning for new concepts via attribute transfer.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Knowledge can be extracted from unstructured data to build knowledge graphs, learn knowledge embedding representations, and for reasoning.

    “Knowledge can be extracted from unstructured data to build knowledge graphs, learn knowledgeembedding representations, and for reasoning.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Integrated with deep learning (e.g., graph neural networks), knowledge graphs are a useful approach in many areas such as question and answer systems and fault/disease diagnosis, opening up promising research avenues towards human-level cognition intelligence.

    “Integrated with deep learning (e.g., graph neural networks), this is a useful approach in many areas such as question and answer systems and fault/disease diagnosis, opening up promising research avenues towards human-level cognition intelligence.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Deep learning requires large-scale data generated by different things from different users in the context of AIoT.

    “Deep learning requires large-scale data generated by different things from different users in the context of AIoT.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Individuals may worry about data security and privacy if data are transmitted to and stored in the cloud.

    “Individuals may worry about data security and privacy if data are transmitted to and stored in the cloud.”
33 of 33

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Citations

Cites

1 retracted

Show all 271 references

Research works printed but not linked: 5

  1. bradley, 2013, Embracing the Internet of Everything to Capture Your Share of $14 4 Trillion, 318
  2. binas, 2019, Reinforcement learning for sustainable agriculture, Proc Int Conf Mach Learn Workshop, 1
  3. lamarre, 2019, Ten Trends Shaping the Internet of Things Business Landscape
  4. 2019, The Growth in Connected IoT Devices is Expected to Generate 79 4zb of Data in 2025 According to a New IDC Forecast
  5. bonomi, 2011, Connected vehicles, the Internet of Things, and fog computing, Proc 8th ACM Int Workshop Veh Inter Netw, 13

Cited by

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Metadata

Authors
Zhang, J., & Tao, D.
Affiliations
The University of Sydney (AU)
Venue
IEEE Internet of Things Journal
Published
2021-05-15
Volume
8
Issue
10
Pages
7789-7817
ISSN
  • 2327-4662 (ISSN-L)
  • 2372-2541
OpenAlex
W3109340983
Cited by
774
References
271
Citations by year
2026: 86 · 2025: 170 · 2024: 165 · 2023: 141 · 2022: 139 · 2021: 69
FWCI
41.36
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • IEEE Internet of Things Journal (publishedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University)
Funders
Australian Research Council Projects (FL-170100117, DP-180103424, IH-180100002)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Networks and Communications › IoT and Edge/Fog Computing
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Internet of Things and AI
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant Science › Smart Agriculture and AI
Keywords
AIoT, Internet of Things, deep learning, fog computing, edge computing, cloud computing, heterogeneous data processing

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