IoT-Based Platform for Wireless Microclimate Monitoring in Cultural Heritage

The H2IOSC project aims to establish a federated cluster of European distributed research infrastructures involved in the humanities and cultural heritage sectors, with operating nodes across Italy. Through four key RIs—DARIAH-IT, CLARIN, OPERAS, and E-RIHS—the project promotes collaboration among researchers with interdisciplinary expertise. Within this framework, DIGILAB functions as the digital access platform for the Italian node of E-RIHS. Conceived as a socio-technical infrastructure for the Heritage Science community, DIGILAB is designed to manage heterogeneous data and metadata through advanced knowledge graph representations. The platform adheres to the FAIR principles and supports the complete data lifecycle, enabling the development and maintenance of Heritage Digital Twins. DIGILAB integrates diverse categories of information related to cultural sites and objects, encompassing historical and artistic datasets, diagnostic analyses, 3D models, and real-time monitoring data. This monitoring capability is achieved through the deployment of cutting-edge Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and large-scale Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). As part of DIGILAB, we developed SENNSE (v1.0), a fully open hardware/software platform dedicated to environmental and structural monitoring. SENNSE allows the remote, real-time observation and control of cultural heritage sites (collecting microclimatic parameters such as temperature, humidity, noise levels) and of cultural objects (collecting object-specific data including vibrations, light intensity, and ultraviolet radiation). The visualization and analytical tools integrated within SENNSE transform these datasets into actionable insights, thereby supporting advanced research and conservation strategies within the Cultural Heritage domain. In the following sections, we provide a detailed description of the SENNSE platform, outlining its hardware components and software modules, and discussing its benefits. Furthermore, we illustrate its application through two representative use cases: one conducted in a controlled laboratory environment and another implemented in a real-world heritage context, exemplified by the “Biblioteca Bernardini” in Lecce, Italy.