IIoT Based Efficiency Optimization in Logistics Applications

The Industrial Internet of Thing (IIoT) approach to an Industry plant design, devises a comprehensive interconnection of the system components, from sections up to single devices, in order to get a general and punctual understanding of the process. Such an intelligent network, mostly based on Ethernet basic layers, when properly conceived, should be able to add relevant value to the plant operation. This paper shows how, within the IIoT frame topics, the plant efficiency can be addressed and bring relevant improvement. The reason is that variables directly related to the energy consumption, such as current, electric power, actuator and motor torque, speed, etc., can be timely and easily monitored in the entire plant, since they are already conveyed on the network, due to real time control and diagnostics purpose. A power consumption diagram can be derived, and give hints on how to optimize operations, based on some efficiency index. The paper, after a general discussion, proves it with practical examples based on a Gantry robot, driven in an EtherCAT based automation network, and on the stacker cranes of an automated warehouse

Investigation of temperature gradient between ambient air and soil to power up wireless sensor network device using a thermoelectric generator

This paper proposes a study of an energy harvesting system for powering wireless sensor network (WSN) devices. The thermal energy harvesting system used is based on the thermal energy source between ambient air at the soil surface with five depth levels. Measurement was taken for 46 days in a garden area located in Melaka, Malaysia. A feasibility study of soil temperature measurement to obtain a temperature gradient can be used for harvesting by using thermoelectric generators (TEG) modules. Then, the efficiency of TEG with several different configurations based on temperature gradient data has been tested in the laboratory. The results revealed that the depth of soil 6 cm between sensors 1 and 3 will gave the best representation of level average temperature different around 1 ℃. Based on the temperature gradient data, the combination of three TEG SP1848 in a series connection with DC-DC step-up circuit DC1664 will produce an optimum voltage output of about 3 V. This output voltage is enough to operate low power IoT device derived from thermal energy