Enabling Communication Technologies for Automated Unmanned Vehicles in Industry 4.0

Within the context of Industry 4.0, mobile robot systems such as automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are one of the major areas challenging current communication and localization technologies. Due to stringent requirements on latency and reliability, several of the existing solutions are not capable of meeting the performance required by industrial automation applications. Additionally, the disparity in types and applications of unmanned vehicle (UV) calls for more flexible communication technologies in order to address their specific requirements. In this paper, we propose several use cases for UVs within the context of Industry 4.0 and consider their respective requirements. We also identify wireless technologies that support the deployment of UVs as envisioned in Industry 4.0 scenarios.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, 1 tabl

Energy-aware medium access control protocols for wireless sensors network applications

The main purpose of this thesis was to investigate energy efficient Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols designed to extend the lifetime of a wireless sensor network application, such as tracking, environment monitoring, home security, patient monitoring, e.g., foetal monitoring in the last weeks of pregnancy. From the perspective of communication protocols, energy efficiency is one of the most important issues, and can be addressed at each layer of the protocol stack; however, our research only focuses on the medium access control (MAC) layer. An energy efficient MAC protocol was designed based on modifications and optimisations for a synchronized power saving Sensor MAC (SMAC) protocol, which has three important components: periodic listen and sleep, collision and overhearing avoidance and message passing. The Sensor Block Acknowledgement (SBACK) MAC protocol is proposed, which combines contention-based, scheduling-based and block acknowledgement-based schemes to achieve energy efficiency. In SBACK, the use of ACK control packets is reduced since it will not have an ACK packet for every DATA packet sent; instead, one special packet called Block ACK Response will be used at the end of the transmission of all data packets. This packet informs the sender of how many packets were received by the receiver, reducing the number of ACK control packets we intended to reduce the power consumption for the nodes. Hence more useful data packets can be transmitted. A comparison study between SBACK and SMAC protocol is also performed. Considering 0% of packet losses, SBACK decreases the energy consumption when directly compared with S-MAC, we will have always a decrease of energy consumption. Three different transceivers will be used and considering a packet loss of 10% we will have a decrease of energy consumption between 10% and 0.1% depending on the transceiver. When there are no retransmissions of packets, SBACK only achieve worst performance when the number of fragments is less than 12, after that the decrease of average delay increases with the increase of the fragments sent. When 10% of the packets need retransmission only for the TR1000 transceiver worst results occurs in terms of energy waste, all other transceivers (CC2420 and AT86RF230) achieve better results. In terms of delay if we need to retransmit more than 10 packets the SBACK protocol always achieves better performance when comparing with the other MAC protocols that uses ACK

A Pragmatic View of MANET Performance Evaluation and Design of a Prototype MAC Level Routing Algorithm

Our goal in this research is to investigate and determine how to best support a challenging mobile wireless network based in a military operational environment. Since routing protocols used in mobile ad hoc networks (MANET) must adapt to frequent or continual changes of topology, while simultaneously limiting the impact of tracking these changes on wireless resources, we focused our initial research on improving the efficiency of route discovery. We proposed and designed a new MAC layer routing protocol that pursues reduced routing overhead, greater interaction of network protocol layers and passive neighbor/path discovery. This algorithm, called Virtual MAC Tag Switching (VMTS), evolved as we implemented a prototype in the ns-2 network simulator and conducted simulation analysis of existing protocols: DSDV, DSR and AODV. Upon analyzing the performance of existing routing protocols using pragmatic metrics not applied in any MANET literature it was found that current MANET models produce unsatisfactory performance. Subsequent analysis of transport layer protocol behaviors pinpointed the causes that undermine the performance of the existing protocols and would have thwarted VMTS as well

Wireless Sensor Technology Selection for I4.0 Manufacturing Systems

The term smart manufacturing has surfaced as an industrial revolution in Germany known as Industry 4.0 (I4.0); this revolution aims to help the manufacturers adapt to turbulent market trends. Its main scope is implementing machine communication, both vertically and horizontally across the manufacturing hierarchy through Internet of things (IoT), technologies and servitization concepts. The main objective of this research is to help manufacturers manage the high levels of variety and the extreme turbulence of market trends through developing a selection tool that utilizes Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) techniques to recommend a suitable industrial wireless sensor network (IWSN) technology that fits their manufacturing requirements.In this thesis, IWSN technologies and their properties were identified, analyzed and compared to identify their potential suitability for different industrial manufacturing system application areas. The study included the identification and analysis of different industrial system types, their application areas, scenarios and respective communication requirements. The developed tool’s sensitivity is also tested to recommend different IWSN technology options with changing influential factors. Also, a prioritizing protocol is introduced in the case where more than one IWSN technology options are recommended by the AHP tool.A real industrial case study with the collaboration of SPM Automation Inc. is presented, where the industrial systems’ class, communication traffic types, and communication requirements were analyzed to recommend a suitable IWSN technology that fits their requirements and assists their shift towards I4.0 through utilizing AHP techniques. The results of this research will serve as a step forward, in the transformation process of manufacturing towards a more digitalized and better connected cyber-physical systems; thus, enhancing manufacturing attributes such as flexibility, reconfigurability, scalability and easing the shift towards implementing I4.0

Experimental Study on Real-Time Wireless Networks for Motion Control of Manipulator and Mobile Platform in Industrial Robotics

The integration of ICT with manufacturing technologies is a key step towards intelligent manufacturing. The goal is to investigate some industrial application scenarios and evaluate the performance of selected wireless technologies. A recently standardized industrial wireless technology, WIA-FA, has shown good performance in practical deployments. Two experimental applications are considered: path planning testing with different wireless technologies and CANbus bridging with WIA-FA.openEmbargo temporaneo per motivi di segretezza e/o di proprietà dei risultati e informazioni di enti esterni o aziende private che hanno partecipato alla realizzazione del lavoro di ricerca relativo alla tes

Contention techniques for opportunistic communication in wireless mesh networks

Auf dem Gebiet der drahtlosen Kommunikation und insbesondere auf den tieferen Netzwerkschichten sind gewaltige Fortschritte zu verzeichnen. Innovative Konzepte und Technologien auf der physikalischen Schicht (PHY) gehen dabei zeitnah in zelluläre Netze ein. Drahtlose Maschennetzwerke (WMNs) können mit diesem Innovationstempo nicht mithalten. Die Mehrnutzer-Kommunikation ist ein Grundpfeiler vieler angewandter PHY Technologien, die sich in WMNs nur ungenügend auf die etablierte Schichtenarchitektur abbilden lässt. Insbesondere ist das Problem des Scheduling in WMNs inhärent komplex. Erstaunlicherweise ist der Mehrfachzugriff mit Trägerprüfung (CSMA) in WMNs asymptotisch optimal obwohl das Verfahren eine geringe Durchführungskomplexität aufweist. Daher stellt sich die Frage, in welcher Weise das dem CSMA zugrunde liegende Konzept des konkurrierenden Wettbewerbs (engl. Contention) für die Integration innovativer PHY Technologien verwendet werden kann. Opportunistische Kommunikation ist eine Technik, die die inhärenten Besonderheiten des drahtlosen Kanals ausnutzt. In der vorliegenden Dissertation werden CSMA-basierte Protokolle für die opportunistische Kommunikation in WMNs entwickelt und evaluiert. Es werden dabei opportunistisches Routing (OR) im zustandslosen Kanal und opportunistisches Scheduling (OS) im zustandsbehafteten Kanal betrachtet. Ziel ist es, den Durchsatz von elastischen Paketflüssen gerecht zu maximieren. Es werden Modelle für Überlastkontrolle, Routing und konkurrenzbasierte opportunistische Kommunikation vorgestellt. Am Beispiel von IEEE 802.11 wird illustriert, wie der schichtübergreifende Entwurf in einem Netzwerksimulator prototypisch implementiert werden kann. Auf Grundlage der Evaluationsresultate kann der Schluss gezogen werden, dass die opportunistische Kommunikation konkurrenzbasiert realisierbar ist. Darüber hinaus steigern die vorgestellten Protokolle den Durchsatz im Vergleich zu etablierten Lösungen wie etwa DCF, DSR, ExOR, RBAR und ETT.In the field of wireless communication, a tremendous progress can be observed especially at the lower layers. Innovative physical layer (PHY) concepts and technologies can be rapidly assimilated in cellular networks. Wireless mesh networks (WMNs), on the other hand, cannot keep up with the speed of innovation at the PHY due to their flat and decentralized architecture. Many innovative PHY technologies rely on multi-user communication, so that the established abstraction of the network stack does not work well for WMNs. The scheduling problem in WMNs is inherent complex. Surprisingly, carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) in WMNs is asymptotically utility-optimal even though it has a low computational complexity and does not involve message exchange. Hence, the question arises whether CSMA and the underlying concept of contention allows for the assimilation of advanced PHY technologies into WMNs. In this thesis, we design and evaluate contention protocols based on CSMA for opportunistic communication in WMNs. Opportunistic communication is a technique that relies on multi-user diversity in order to exploit the inherent characteristics of the wireless channel. In particular, we consider opportunistic routing (OR) and opportunistic scheduling (OS) in memoryless and slow fading channels, respectively. We present models for congestion control, routing and contention-based opportunistic communication in WMNs in order to maximize both throughput and fairness of elastic unicast traffic flows. At the instance of IEEE 802.11, we illustrate how the cross-layer algorithms can be implemented within a network simulator prototype. Our evaluation results lead to the conclusion that contention-based opportunistic communication is feasible. Furthermore, the proposed protocols increase both throughput and fairness in comparison to state-of-the-art approaches like DCF, DSR, ExOR, RBAR and ETT

Avaliação de bluetooth para a transmissão sem fios de MIDI

Mestrado em Engenharia Electrónica e TelecomunicaçõesA indústria musical cresceu consideravelmente nos últimos anos originando uma forte procura de novas tecnologias que potenciem a flexibilidade dos espectáculos. Dado que o protocolo MIDI está fortemente implementado em instrumentos musicais, é necessário desenvolver soluções que permitam usufruir de flexibilidade na sua utilização. Esta dissertação procura endereçar esta problemática, recorrendo ao uso de tecnologias de transmissão sem fios. Em particular, é considerada a tecnologia Bluetooth para mapear as ligações MIDI tradicionais em ligações sem fios. Neste sentido, são propostas várias abordagens e destas são obtidos resultados indicando que a tecnologia Bluetooth pode ser uma boa opção no suporte de ligações MIDI sem recurso a fios.During the past few years, the musical industry has grown considerably and has become more demanding in what concerns the use of technologies supporting flexibility in musical performances. Provided that MIDI is strongly implemented in the musical industry, it is required to develop solutions allowing flexibility usefulness. In the scope of this dissertation, an assessment of wireless technologies is performed. Particularly, Bluetooth is considered in the mapping of traditional wired MIDI connection in wireless MIDI links. In this sense, several approaches are proposed and results obtained, indicating that the Bluetooth technology may be suitable to support the wireless connection of MIDI devices

Wearable Wireless Devices

No abstract available

Graph-theoretic channel modeling and topology control protocols for wireless sensor networks

This report addresses two different research problems: (i) It presents a wireless channel model that reduces the complexity associated with high order Markov chains; and (ii) presents energy efficient topology control protocols which provide reliability while maintaining the topology in an energy efficient manner. For the above problems, real wireless sensor network traces were collected and extensive simulations were performed for evaluating the proposed protocols. Accurate simulation and analysis of wireless networks are inherently dependent on accurate models which are able to provide real-time channel characterization. High-order Markov chains are typically used to model errors and losses over wireless channels. However, complexity (i.e., the number of states) of a high-order Markov model increases exponentially with the memory-length of the underlying channel. In this report, a novel graph-theoretic methodology that uses Hamiltonian circuits to reduce the complexity of a high-order Markov model to a desired state budget is presented. The implication of unused states in complexity reduction of higher order Markov model is also explained. The trace-driven performance evaluations for real wireless local area network (WLAN) and wireless sensor network (WSN) channels demonstrate that the proposed Hamiltonian Model, while providing orders of magnitude reduction in complexity, renders an accuracy that is comparable to the Markov model and better than the existing reduced state models. Furthermore, a methodology to preserve energy is presented to increase the network lifetime by reducing the node degree forming an active backbone while considering network connectivity. However, in energy stringent wireless sensor networks, it is of utmost importance to construct the reduced topology with the minimal control overhead. Moreover, most wireless links in practice are lossy links with connectivity probability which desires that a routing protocol provides routing flexibility and reliability at a minimum energy consumption cost. For this purpose, distributed and semi-distributed novel graph-theoretic topology construction protocols are presented that exploit cliques and polygons in a WSN to achieve energy efficiency and reliability. The proposed protocols also facilitate load rotation under topology maintenance, thereby extending the network lifetime. In addition to the above, the report also evaluates why the backbone construction using connected dominating set (CDS) in certain cases remains unable to provide connected sensing coverage in the area covered. For this purpose, a novel protocol that reduces the topology while considering sensing area coverage is presented