The integration of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and high-altitude platform (HAP) in hierarchical aerial computing offers mobile IoT devices enhanced computational services. However, three key challenges emerge. First, while UAVs provide faster responses than distant HAP due to mobility, their limited computing capacity and coverage require efficient task delegation. Second, UAVs’ energy constraints force periodic recharging, potentially causing service interruptions and demanding dynamic resource allocation. Third, IoT task dynamics require rapid task delegation (small-timescale), while UAV trajectory adjustments operate slowly (large-timescale), necessitating multi-timescale coordination. To address these, we propose a two-timescale optimization framework maximizing system energy efficiency. We formulate the problem as coupled multi-agent stochastic games, and then develop a deep reinforcement learning (DRL)-based algorithm, called UAV trajectory planning, replacement, task delegation and resource allocation (UTRTD). Simulations show that UTRTD is not only effective but also superior compared to counterparts.

This paper presents a combinatorial online learning framework for the reliable deployment of containerized Digital Twin (DT) systems in mobile edge computing, addressing challenges such as unpredictable edge server failures and variable writable-layer sharing permissions. By jointly optimizing read-only layer placement, writable layer creation, and cross-server layer loading while adhering to long-term latency and energy constraints, the framework enhances DT service reliability. We first decouple the original problem into a series of deterministic subproblems via Lyapunov optimization, and then propose a contextual bandit mechanism to explore the unknown layer sharing permission information. Theoretical analysis establishes regret bounds, while simulation experiments validate the effectiveness of the proposed framework.

The Internet of Things (IoT) can significantly enhance the quality of human life, specifically in healthcare, attracting extensive attentions to IoT healthcare services. Meanwhile, the human digital twin (HDT) is proposed as an innovative paradigm that can comprehensively characterize the replication of the individual human body in the digital world and reflect its physical status in real time. Naturally, HDT is envisioned to empower IoT healthcare beyond the application of healthcare monitoring by acting as a versatile and vivid human digital testbed, simulating the outcomes and guiding the practical treatments. However, successfully establishing HDT requires high-fidelity virtual modeling and strong information interactions but possibly with scarce, biased, and noisy data. Fortunately, a recent popular technology called generative artificial intelligence (GAI) may be a promising solution because it can leverage advanced AI algorithms to automatically create, manipulate, and modify valuable while diverse data. This survey particularly focuses on the implementation of GAI-driven HDT in IoT healthcare. We start by introducing the background of IoT healthcare and the potential of GAI-driven HDT. Then, we delve into the fundamental techniques and present the overall framework of GAI-driven HDT. After that, we explore the realization of GAI-driven HDT in detail, including GAI-enabled data acquisition, communication, data management, digital modeling, and data analysis. Besides, we discuss typical IoT healthcare applications that can be revolutionized by GAI-driven HDT, namely, personalized health monitoring and diagnosis, personalized prescription, and personalized rehabilitation. Finally, we conclude this survey by highlighting some future research directions.

Container–based microservice provisioning, with its elasticity in terms of the layered structure, enables the sharing of common layers among different edge computing tasks, both within and across edge servers (ES). However, due to the potential hardware breakdowns, each ES may prone to failures, affecting its lifetime (i.e., the time-length that an ES works continuously without interruptions), and in turn leading to the collapse of their hosted/provided microservices or the other ESs’ microservices requesting common layers from it. To address such an issue, in this paper, we study the microservice deployment optimization with layer sharing for maximizing the system-wide reliability while satisfying all tasks’ delay requirements. Considering dynamic task generations and the asynchronization of various decision variables with different triggers, we design an online optimization algorithm by leveraging an improved Lyapunov technique integrating randomized rounding, Lagrangian method and convex optimization, which iteratively solves the problem over different timescales. Theoretical analyses and simulations evaluate the performance of the proposed solution, showing that it can achieve an increase of 12.4% in reliability and a reduction of 28.57% in total delay, compared to the counterparts.

Human digital twin (HDT) is an emerging paradigm that bridges physical twins (PTs) with powerful virtual twins (VTs) for assisting complex task executions in human-centric services. In this paper, we study a two-timescale online optimization for building HDT under an end-edge-cloud collaborative framework. As a unique feature of HDT, we consider that PTs' corresponding VTs are deployed on edge servers, consisting of not only generic models placed by downloading experiential knowledge from the cloud but also customized models updated by collecting personalized data from end devices. To maximize task execution accuracy with stringent energy and delay constraints, and by taking into account HDT's inherent mobility and status variation uncertainties, we jointly and dynamically optimize VTs' construction and PTs' task offloading, along with communication and computation resource allocations. Observing that decision variables are asynchronous with different triggers, we propose a novel two-timescale accuracy-aware online optimization approach (TACO). Specifically, TACO utilizes an improved Lyapunov method to decompose the problem into multiple instant ones, and then leverages piecewise McCormick envelopes and block coordinate descent based algorithms, addressing two timescales alternately. Theoretical analyses and simulations show that the proposed approach can reach asymptotic optimum within a polynomial-time complexity, and demonstrate its superiority over counterparts.

In this paper, a novel two-timescale resource management framework for mobile edge computing (MEC) is constructed. Unlike existing studies, for providing seamless and cost-efficient MEC services, this work aims to strike the balance between service migration and task rerouting for mobile devices (MDs) whenever handovers occur (i.e., switching access from one edge server to another). Considering the network dynamics (e.g., randomness of MDs’ task generations and time-varying channel conditions) and the asynchronization of different management decisions with different triggers, we formulate an online optimization problem for jointly determining: 1) large-timescale decisions, including which edge server should be selected to access, and whether service migration or task rerouting should be chosen for each MD in each large time frame; and 2) small-time scale decisions, including how computing and communication resources should be allocated among MDs with task offloading requests in each small time slot. Then, we propose an online algorithm based on the improved Lyapunov method, together with an iterative algorithm integrating randomized rounding and Lagrange dual techniques, which solves the problem to asymptotic optimum in terms of the long-term average service delay. Theoretical analyses and simulations evaluate the performance of the proposed solution and show its superiority over counterparts.

In this paper, a novel two-timescale resource management framework for mobile edge computing (MEC) is constructed. For providing seamless and cost-efficient MEC services, this work aims to strike the balance between service migration and task rerouting for mobile devices (MDs) whenever handovers occur (i.e., switching access from one edge server to another). Considering the network dynamics (e.g., randomness of MDs' task generations and time-varying channel conditions) and the asynchronization of different management decisions with different triggers, we formulate an online optimization problem for jointly determining$i$) large-timescale decisions, including access selection and service migration or task rerouting selection for each MD, and ii) small-time scale decisions, including computing and communication resource allocations. Then, we propose a two-timescale low-complexity algorithm based on the improved Lyapunov method, which solves the problem to asymptotic optimum in terms of the long-term system-wide average service delay. Theoretical analyses and simulations evaluate the performance of the proposed solution, and show its superiority over counterparts.

For practical industrial wireless sensor networks (IWSNs), the system freshness of a specific task is usually related to multiple and multitype sensing data. However, most existing research on freshness metrics, such as Age of Information (AoI) or Age of Processing (AoP), only considers a single-package setting with a single type of data. To fill this gap, we propose the Age of Task-oriented Information (AoTI) for measuring the freshness of industrial tasks in IWSNs. It measures the time elapsed of the latest analyzed results before arriving at the receiver since the generation of any type of sampling data belonging to one certain task. Furthermore, we aim to minimize the long-term AoTI for IWSNs applications by jointly optimizing access modes and sampling frequencies for all sensors. By first formulating the problem as a Mixed Integer Nonlinear Program-ming problem, we then transform it to a constrained Markov Decision Process (CMDP) and relax it as an un-constrained MDP using Lagrangian method. Finally, we develop a Learning-based Access mode selection and Sampling frequency Control (LASC) algorithm and verify its superiority through simulations.

In this paper, an energy-efficient resource management framework for industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) with closed-loop control on end devices, edge servers (ESs) and cloud center (CC) is studied. In the considered model, each ES aggregates the data collected by industrial sensors (i.e., end devices) and forms computation tasks for corresponding data analysis. In order to minimize the system-wide energy consumption, while maintaining a guaranteed service delay and a satisfied data processing accuracy for each IIoT application, a joint optimization of i) sensors’ sampling rate adaption, ii) ESs’ preprocessing mode selection and iii) edge-cloud communication and computing resource allocation, is formulated. Further taking into account the time-varying channel conditions and randomness of data arrivals, we propose a low-complexity online algorithm, which solves the problem in a dynamic manner. Performance analyses and simulation results show that the proposed algorithm is superior compared to counterparts in terms of energy efficiency and delay performance under service satisfaction constraints.

Edge–cloud collaboration is critical in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) for serving computation-intensive tasks (e.g., bearing fault monitoring) that require low-response delay, low energy consumption, and high processing accuracy. In this article, an energy-efficient resource management framework for IIoT with closed-loop control on end devices, edge servers, and cloud center is studied. In the considered model, each edge server aggregates the data collected by industrial sensors (i.e., end devices) and forms computation tasks for corresponding data analysis. In order to minimize the system-wide energy consumption, while maintaining a guaranteed service delay and a satisfied data processing accuracy for each IIoT application, a joint optimization of: 1) sensors’ sampling rate adaption; 2) edge servers’ preprocessing mode selection; and 3) edge–cloud communication and computing resource allocation is formulated. Further taking into account the time-varying channel conditions and randomness of data arrivals, we propose a low-complexity online algorithm, which solves the problem in a dynamic manner. Particularly, the Lyapunov optimization method is first utilized to decompose the long-term problem into a series of instant ones [mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) problems], and then a Markov approximation algorithm is applied to solve such instant problems to near optimum with the consideration of future impacts. Performance analyses and simulation results show that the proposed algorithm is feasible under long-term service satisfaction constraints, and its energy consumption and service delay are approximately 20% and 28% lower than those of the benchmark schemes, respectively.

This paper explores the method of designing humanoid motion considering rhythm based on human motion capture. Captured human data must be adapted for the humanoid because its kinematics and dynamics differ from those of the human actor. On the other hand, it is expected that humanoid movements are highly similar to those of the human actor. In this paper, first the motion of the human actor is segmented into primitive motions. Then, the kinematics constraints and stability adjustment method are formulated. Next, the similarity evaluation considering rhythm is discussed, and the method to derive humanoid motion with high similarity, and satisfying kinematic constraints and dynamic stability, is presented. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is illustrated by the experiment of Chinese Kungfu "sword" motion using our developed humanoid robot BHR-2 with 32 DOF