Home // International Journal On Advances in Intelligent Systems, volume 9, numbers 1 and 2, 2016 // View article

Smart Sensing Components in Advanced Manufacturing Systems

Authors:
Rui Pinto
João Reis
Ricardo Silva
Michael Pesch
Gil Gonçalves

Keywords: Smart Components; Wireless Sensor Networks; Intelligent Manufacturing Systems; Industry 4.0; I-RAMP3.

Abstract:
The latest trends in Intelligent Manufacturing are related with shop-floor equipment virtualization, fostering the easy access to machine information, collaboration among shop-floor equipment and task execution on demand, paving the way for Flexible Manufacturing Systems. Therefore, it allows a high responsiveness to market changes and enables mixed model production. This concept was explored and further developed within an European project called Intelligent Reconfigurable Machines for Smart Plug&Produce Production (I-RAMP3). The goal of I-RAMP3 was to contribute to the improvement of European industry competitiveness, by shortening the ramp-up phase times and providing better tools to manage the scheduled and unscheduled maintenance phases. The main step forward on industrial systems was the development of the agent like concept named NETwork-enabled DEVice (NETDEV), which acts as a technological shell to all industrial equipment, both new and legacy. The present paper describes the NETDEV as a whole, applicable to a variety of contexts, but in particular to the virtualization of industrial Wireless Sensor Networks. This virtualization is named Sensor & Actuator NETDEV and extends the current sensor capabilities toward Smart Sensing, allowing for dynamic sensor location, collaboration, diagnostics and reconfiguration. As a technological background, the PlugThings Framework was used for rapid sensor integration of multiple manufacturers, along with UPnP as an enabler for standardized communication and device discovery in the network. The paper concludes by introducing future steps regarding the standardization of the I-RAMP3 technology.

Pages: 181 to 198

Copyright: Copyright (c) to authors, 2016. Used with permission.

Publication date: June 30, 2016

Published in: journal

ISSN: 1942-2679