22,191 research outputs found
Realising the open virtual commissioning of modular automation systems
To address the challenges in the automotive industry posed by the need to rapidly manufacture more
product variants, and the resultant need for more adaptable production systems, radical changes are
now required in the way in which such systems are developed and implemented. In this context, two
enabling approaches for achieving more agile manufacturing, namely modular automation systems
and virtual commissioning, are briefly reviewed in this contribution. Ongoing research conducted at
Loughborough University which aims to provide a modular approach to automation systems design
coupled with a virtual engineering toolset for the (re)configuration of such manufacturing
automation systems is reported. The problems faced in the virtual commissioning of modular
automation systems are outlined. AutomationML - an emerging neutral data format which has
potential to address integration problems is discussed. The paper proposes and illustrates a
collaborative framework in which AutomationML is adopted for the data exchange and data
representation of related models to enable efficient open virtual prototype construction and virtual
commissioning of modular automation systems. A case study is provided to show how to create the
data model based on AutomationML for describing a modular automation system
Ranking problems in multivariate normal (statistical) populations (first year work). Nonparametric ranging and selection procedures (second year work)
Optimal selection of automation systems under multivariate normal model in terms of reliability, feasibility, and econom
A ROS2 based communication architecture for control in collaborative and intelligent automation systems
Collaborative robots are becoming part of intelligent automation systems in
modern industry. Development and control of such systems differs from
traditional automation methods and consequently leads to new challenges.
Thankfully, Robot Operating System (ROS) provides a communication platform and
a vast variety of tools and utilities that can aid that development. However,
it is hard to use ROS in large-scale automation systems due to communication
issues in a distributed setup, hence the development of ROS2. In this paper, a
ROS2 based communication architecture is presented together with an industrial
use-case of a collaborative and intelligent automation system.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables, to be published in the proceedings of
29th International Conference on Flexible Automation and Intelligent
Manufacturing (FAIM2019), June 201
An analysis of security issues in building automation systems
The purpose of Building Automation Systems (BAS) is to centralise the management of a wide range of building services, through the use of integrated protocol and communication media. Through the use of IP-based communication and encapsulated protocols, BAS are increasingly being connected to corporate networks and also being remotely accessed for management purposes, both for convenience and emergency purposes. These protocols, however, were not designed with security as a primary requirement, thus the majority of systems operate with sub-standard or non-existent security implementations, relying on security through obscurity. Research has been undertaken into addressing the shortfalls of security implementations in BAS, however defining the threats against BAS, and detection of these threats is an area that is particularly lacking. This paper presents an overview of the current security measures in BAS, outlining key issues, and methods that can be improved to protect cyber physical systems against the increasing threat of cyber terrorism and hacktivism. Future research aims to further evaluate and improve the detection systems used in BAS through first defining the threats and then applying and evaluating machine learning algorithms for traffic classification and IDS profiling capable of operating on resource constrained BAS
SEABASS: Symmetric-keychain Encryption and Authentication for Building Automation Systems
There is an increasing security risk in Building Automation Systems (BAS) in that its communication is unprotected, resulting in the adversary having the capability to inject spurious commands to the actuators to alter the behaviour of BAS. The communication between the Human-Machine-Interface (HMI) and the controller (PLC) is vulnerable as there is no secret key being used to protect the authenticity, confidentiality and integrity of the sensor data and commands.
We propose SEABASS, a lightweight key management scheme to distribute and manage session keys between HMI and PLCs, providing a secure communication channel between any two communicating devices in BAS through a symmetric-key based hash-chain encryption and authentication of message exchange. Our scheme facilitates automatic renewal of session keys periodically based on the use of a reversed hash-chain. A prototype was implemented using the BACnet/IP communication protocol and the preliminary results show that the symmetric keychain approach is lightweight and incurs low latency
Analysis and comparison of Scalextric, SCX, and Carrera Digital slot car systems: A mechatronic engineering design case study
Digital slot cars operate by transmitting both power and data over a single pair of wires much like DCC-controlled model railways and some home automation systems. In this manuscript we analyse and compare the cars, track, controllers, and electronic data transmission protocols of the three popular digital slot car systems
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