Int. J. Simulation and Process Modelling, Vol. 15, No. 4, 2020 343 Arancino.cc TM : an open hardware platform for urban regeneration Maurizio Giacobbe*, Francesco Alessi and Angelo Zaia SmartMe.io S.r.l., C.da Di Dio 1, S. Agata 98166 Messina, Italy Email: maurizio@smartme.io Email: francesco.alessi@smartme.io Email: angelo@smartme.io *Corresponding author Antonio Puliafito Smart Cities and Communities Lab, Consorzio Interuniversitario Nazionale per l’Informatica (CINI), Department of Engineering, University of Messina, C.da Di Dio 1, S. Agata 98166 Messina, Italy Email: apuliafito@unime.it Abstract: The term ‘metabolism’ identifies the set of chemical processes that occur within a living organism in order to maintain its life. By analogy, we use the ‘urban metabolism’ concept showing the life of a city. A city is a set of very complex processes involving both public and private stakeholders, areas and infrastructures. Urban metabolism can be analysed and therefore its status evaluated based on measuring specific parameters in order to offer sustainable services for people. The internet of things (IoT) paradigm helps the collection of large amounts of data that become available for decision makers and city managers to improve the urban metabolism. Based on these consideration, in this paper we present and discuss the Arancino.cc TM architecture, in order to achieve ‘green’ benefits: a better quality of life, a more efficient city management also optimising energy consumptions and costs. Keywords: urban metabolism; internet of things; IoT; smart city; sustainability; cyber physical systems; hardware architecture; Industry 4.0; utilities; information technology. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Giacobbe, M., Alessi, F., Zaia, A. and Puliafito, A. (2020) ‘Arancino.cc TM : an open hardware platform for urban regeneration’, Int. J. Simulation and Process Modelling, Vol. 15, No. 4, pp.343–357. Biographical notes: Maurizio Giacobbe is an Electronic Engineer, specialised in Information Technology and Services. He received his Degree in Electronic Engineering, PhD in Advanced Technologies for Information Engineering and Master’s in Open Source and Computer Security at the University of Messina, Italy. He is an innovation manager at the SmartMe.io srl, Messina, Italy. Francesco Alessi is an Electronic Engineer, specialised in Hardware Architectures. He has an important experience in managing production lines in various application areas. He is responsible for hardware design and production at the SmartMe.io srl. Angelo Zaia received his Degree in Electronic Engineering and PhD in Advanced Technologies for Information Engineering at the University of Messina, Italy. He has considerable experience as a project manager, working both with public administrations and private companies (e.g., in industry, oil and gas, banking, etc.). He was responsible for university and private research laboratories. He is the Chief Executive Officer at the SmartMe.io srl. Antonio Puliafito is a Full Professor of Computer Engineering at the University of Messina, Italy. His scientific activity is mainly devoted to distributed systems. His specific solutions have been developed with regard the management of networked systems and to ensure adequate levels of QoS. User mobility and security in wireless and ad hoc networks are other fields of his interest. And his grid and cloud infrastructures have been devoted great attention and specifically on how to develop advanced services to the final users, such as SME and public administration. IoT and cyber physical systems in general are another area of his interest, where specific product/services have been developed. His research activity covers the following thematic areas: modelling techniques, fog and edge computing, smart cities, sensors and IoT, and cloud computing supporting the Stack4Things framework. Copyright © 2020 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.