Industrial robotics for ERP controlled smart factories

At product manufacturing the time-to-market factor, the profitability and the delivered value define the success of an enterprise. The increasing number of modules in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) programs is a facing problem, when there is a margin between the manufacturing cells and the ERP. Nowadays, the connection between the industrial machines and the ERP is an important requirement especially at automated warehouses and smart factories. Other concerns at manufacturing are the maintenance schedules of the machines, and flexible and easy reconfiguration of the production lines or the production cells. Information technology provides solutions and software environments to implement complex production supervisor ERPs at smart factories. At a production line or an automated warehouse several technical parameters and information can influence the planning of the resources at the enterprise, like maintenance, machine error, stockpile, product ID, defective product ratios, etc. When there is machine maintenance, the company needs to order the service parts, as well as schedule the service time and the stop of the production line. In case of a machine error, the system can estimate the length of the service time from error messages, and reorganize orders, transportation, or even maintenance schedules of other machines. Our plug and play type robot and industrial automation controller project gives a solution for these hardware demanding needs

Game-Based Cryptanalysis of a Lightweight CRC-Based Authentication Protocol for EPC Tags

The term Internet of Things (IoT) expresses a huge network of smart and connected objects which can interact with other devices without our interposition. Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a great technology and an interesting candidate to provide communications for IoT networks, but numerous security and privacy issues need to be considered. In this paper, we analyze the security and the privacy of a new RFID authentication protocol proposed by Shi et al. in 2014. We prove that although Shi et al. have tried to present a secure and untraceable authentication protocol, their protocol still suffers from several security and privacy weaknesses which make it vulnerable to various security and privacy attacks. We present our privacy analysis based on a well-known formal privacy model which is presented by Ouafi and Phan in 2008. Moreover, to stop such attacks on the protocol and increase the performance of Shi et al.’s scheme, we present some modifications and propound an improved version of the protocol. Finally, the security and the privacy of the proposed protocol were analyzed against various attacks

Reliability solutions for a smart digital factory using: (1) RFID based CEP; (2) Image processing based error detection; (3) RFID based HCI

New technologies have a great influence on the production process in modern factories. Introducing new techniques and methods is crucial to optimize and enhance the working of factories. However, ensuring a reliable and correct integration requires complete evaluation and assessment. In this thesis I utilize RFID systems and image processing to develop and implement real time solutions to enhance and optimize the production and assembly processes. Solutions include: RFID based CEP to detect production error, image processing based errors detection to detect post-assembly errors, and RFID based HCI to help workers in assembling products. Errors that are detected using RFID are: sequence errors, synchronization errors, pre-assembly order errors, part-product mismatch error, and missing parts errors. Errors that are detected using image processing are: incorrect part position errors and missing parts errors. RFID based HCI consists of a tool to help workers at assembly points to correctly assemble parts to their products using visual instruction. I have constructed prototypes for all the solutions. As well, I have deployed them in the Lernfabrik(learning factory) which is a real manufacturing environment for practising the production and assembly processes for trainees and students. Under the optimal settings of the RFID readers and tags, the system detects all types of errors reliably in real time. The image processing algorithm detects errors with 100% accuracy in real and normal lighting conditions of the Lernfabrik

Análise de Dados para Optimização de Consumo Energético em Ambiente Industrial

Com o avanço das tecnologias dos últimos anos, a indústria tornou-se mais competitiva. A produção com baixos custos engloba fatores como o baixo consumo energético, dinamismo e flexibilidade das linhas de produção. Existe um investimento por parte de empresas de manufatura na tentativa de tornar os componentes da linha de produção energeticamente mais eficientes através de análise de dados. As abordagens tradicionais não contemplam inconveniências como a imobilização da produção de uma fábrica para exercer estudos ou modificações profundas na arquitetura da linha de produção. Neste trabalho é proposto uma arquitetura que analisa o consumo energético de componentes de uma linha de produção e procura tornar a sua operação energeticamente mais eficiente. Existe a preocupação de criar soluções que não impliquem uma modificação estrutural na arquitetura da linha de produção já montada e operacional. São analisados os dados relativos ao modo de funcionamento e operação de um braço robótico, de modo a encontrar soluções para redução de consumo. Posteriormente é feito um estudo para encontrar um modo de funcionamento com menor consumo energético. A arquitetura foi testada em um braço robótico com um ciclo de trabalho definido. O ciclo de trabalho foi dividido em quatro partes distintas de modo a conseguir-se uma analise mais detalhada. Para o estudo do desempenho e consumo do robô, foi feito através da variação da velocidade de execução do seu ciclo de trabalho. A solução proposta passa pela execução das diferentes tarefas que constituem o ciclo de trabalho com diferentes velocidades, de modo a conseguir um tempo de ciclo idêntico, mas com a otimização energética para cada tarefa elementar