IEEE Industrial Electronics Society
IEEE Industrial Electronics Society
May 2007
Editorial - From Wireline to Wireless Networks and Technologies
Zurawski, R.
Page(s): pp. 93-94
Guest Editorial - Special Section on Wireless Technologies in Factory and Industrial Automation – Part I
Miorandi, D.; Uhlemann, E.; Vitturi, S. and Willig, A.
Page(s): pp. 95-98
1. Channel Characterization and Link Quality Assessment of IEEE 802.15.4 Compliant Radio for Factory Environments
Tang, L.; Wang, K-C.; Huang Y. and Gu, F.
Abstract: : Wireless sensors have started being utilized for process monitoring in factory environments, which are typically harsh for low power wireless communication due to their complicated layout and plentiful stationary/moving obstacles. Sensor radios available for the mean time have been engineered for consumer grade applications, featuring low cost, low power, but minimal radio complexity. In order to utilize such radios for factory applications, their radio characteristics and link quality must be investigated for optimal design and reliability assessment. In this paper, a series of measurements were made with IEEE 802.15.4-compliant sensor radios to study both their spatial and temporal characteristics with respect to the factory surroundings found in a university machine shop. Critical communication properties were investigated in terms of received signal strength, link quality indication, and packet error rate. It is found that received signal strength shows dependency on surrounding structures, radio link qualities with respect to received signal strength and link quality indication are stable before a grey zone is reached, and average LQI serves as a better packet success rate indication than average RSSI. Findings in this paper provide a useful guidance to the ongoing explorations for a methodology to predict radio performance at any location within a given factory floor plan and to online assess the time-variant link qualities.
2. Modular Wireless Real-Time Sensor/Actuator Network for Factory Automation Applications
Koerber, H-J.; Wattar, H. and Scholl, G.
Page(s): pp.111-119
Modern factory facilities are characterized by highly flexible manufacturing cells and highly dynamic processes, where clusters of fixed or moving sensors and actuators have to be controlled in a limited space under stringent real-time and reliability constraints. In such demanding industrial environments wireless systems can also be beneficial by improving flexibility, cutting cables and enabling solutions, which are cumbersome or even not possible to realize with wireline systems, especially in controlling moving or rotating parts. In this paper we present a conceptual study of a wireless real-time system dedicated for remote sensor/actuator control in production automation. System development is based on user requirements, which were extracted from customer interviews and a market research. Low level measurements of frequency- and space-selective wireless channels in a factory-like environment were carried out. System design aspects, i.e. network topology, multiple access schemes and radio technologies, will be thoroughly reviewed. The performance of a first prototype implementation will be discussed with emphasis on timing behavior and power consumption as sensors and actuators of the wireless system are intended to operate without power lines or batteries.
3. WiDom: A Dominance Protocol for Wireless Medium Access
Pereira, N.; Andersson, B. and Tovar, E.
Page(s): pp. 120-130
Abstract: Wireless networks play an increasingly important role in application areas such as factory-floor automation, process control and automotive electronics. In this paper, we address the problem of sharing a wireless channel among a set of sporadic message streams where a message stream issues transmission requests with real-time deadlines. For this problem, we propose a collision-free wireless medium access control (MAC) protocol, which implements static-priority scheduling and supports a large number of priority levels. The MAC protocol allows multiple masters and is fully distributed; it is an adaptation to a wireless channel of the dominance protocol used in the CAN bus, a proven communication technology for various industrial applications. But unlike that protocol, our protocol does not require a node having the ability to receive an incoming bit from the channel while transmitting to the channel. The evaluation of the protocol with real embedded computing platforms is presented to show that the proposed protocol is in fact collision-free and prioritized. We measure the response times of our implementation and find that the response-time analysis developed for the protocol indeed offers an upper bound on the response times.
4. Fault-tolerant time-triggered communication using CAN
Short, M.; Pont, M. J. and Fang, J.
Page(s): pp. 131-142
Abstract: Modern factory facilities are characterized by highly flexible manufacturing cells and highly dynamic processes, where clusters of fixed or moving sensors and actuators have to be controlled in a limited space under stringent real-time and reliability constraints. In such demanding industrial environments wireless systems can also be beneficial by improving flexibility, cutting cables and enabling solutions, which are cumbersome or even not possible to realize with wireline systems, especially in controlling moving or rotating parts. In this paper we present a concept ual study of a wireless real-time system dedicated for remote sensor/actuator control in production automation. System development is based on user requirements, which were extracted from customer interviews and a market research. Low level measurements of frequency- and space-selective wireless channels in a factory-like environment were carried out. System design aspects, i.e. network topology, multiple access schemes and radio technologies, will be thoroughly reviewed. The performance of a first prototype implementation will be discussed with emphasis on timing behavior and power consumption as sensors and actuators of the wireless system are intended to operate without power lines or batteries.
5. A New Time Independent Asynchronous Protocol & its Applications
Radcliffe P. and Yu X.
Page(s): pp. 143-153
Abstract: Communications to, or between low end microprocessors within a product always comes at a cost. This paper develops a new, economic solution that will be useful in a variety of cost sensitive applications. The paper starts by identifying the properties of an inter-microprocessor communications system that adds minimal cost to a product and enables the use of lower price microprocessors. This leads us to introduce a new category of communications called Time Independent Asynchronous (TIA) communications. An economic 2-wire TIA communications protocol is developed and described using timing diagrams. The protocol is modeled using Signal Transition Graphs (STG) which are found to have some limitations and so a modification is developed called STG For Threads (STG-FT). 2-wire TIA is simulated to confirm livelock and deadlock properties. An implementation is created which verifies the simulation results and the performance is reported. Finally a novel application of the 2-wire TIA is discussed.
6. Real-Time Gait Planning for Pushing Motion of Humanoid Robot
Motoi, N.; Ikebe, M. and Ohnishi, K.
Page(s): pp. 154-163
Abstract: This paper describes real-time gait planning for
pushing motion of humanoid robots. This method deals with an object whose mass
is not known.
In order that a humanoid robot pushes an unknown object in both single support
phase and double support phase, real-time gait planning for pushing the unknown
object is proposed. Real-time gait planning consists of ZMP Modification and
Cycle Time Modification. ZMP Modification is the method that modifies the influence
of reaction force to ZMP. By Cycle Time Modification, the period in double
support phase is modified to avoid a robot tipping over. These modifications
are calculated from reaction force on arms in every cycle. With these methods,
trajectory planning for pushing an unknown object in both single support phase
and double support phase is calculated.
Even if parameters of an object and friction coefficient on the floor vary,
the robot keeps on walking while pushing an object. The effectiveness of the
proposed method is confirmed by a simulation and an experiment.
7. Adaptive Fuzzy Controller of the Overhead Cranes with Nonlinear Disturbance
Chang, C-Y.
Page(s): pp. 164-172
Abstract: Overhead cranes are common industrial structures that are used in many factories and harbors. They are usually operated manually or by some conventional control methods, such as the optimal and PLC based methods. The theme of this paper is to provide an effective all-purpose adaptive fuzzy controller for the crane. This proposed method does not need the complex dynamic model of crane system, but uses trolley position and swing angle information instead to design the fuzzy controller. An adaptive algorithm is provided to tune the free parameters in the crane control system. The ways to speed the transportation and reduce the computational efforts are also given. Therefore; the designing procedure of the proposed controller will be very easy. External disturbance, such as the wind and the hit, which always deteriorates the control performance, is also discussed in this paper to verify the robustness of the proposed adaptive fuzzy algorithm. At last, several experimental results with different wire length and payload weight compare the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed scheme with conventional methods.
8. Ontology Development for Designing and Managing Dynamic Business Process Networks
Madhusudan, T.
Page(s): pp. 173-185
Abstract: Recent advances in flexible process design and
deployment technologies such as web services and for workflow systems, promise
the development of flexible intra- and inter-organizational business process
networks with potential economic benefits. However, exploiting this potential
requires the development of scalable process
management technologies that provide a consistent viewpoint and common language
(for describing properties of the process network) to all stakeholders involved
in its management. Current approaches to managing such networks requires one
to use a babel of languages (in the formal sense) at different levels of abstraction.
The development of
explicit process ontologies is one of the potentially viable approaches to
provide an unified view. In this paper, we discuss the need for process ontologies,
propose a task-based ontological framework synthesizing recent research in
the fields of AI planning and software engineering, and illustrate the need
to link declarative and procedural
process representations. We illustrate the use of this ontological framework
for managing processes in developing applications for integrating information
from disparate information sources in multiple domains. Further, based on this
experience, we discuss potential benefits and areas for future research.
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