Seamless roaming and guaranteed communication using a synchronized single-hop multi-gateway 802.15.4e TSCH network

Industrial wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are being used to improve the efficiency, productivity and safety of industrial processes. An open standard that is commonly used in such cases is IEEE 802.15.4e. Its TSCH mode employs a time synchronized based MAC scheme together with channel hopping to alleviate the impact of channel fading. Until now, most of the industrial WSNs have been designed to only support static nodes and are not able to deal with mobility. In this paper, we show how a single-hop, multi-gateway IEEE 802.15.4e TSCH network architecture can tackle the mobility problem. We introduce the Virtual Grand Master (VGM) concept that moves the synchronization point from separated Backbone Border Routers (BBRs) towards the backbone network. With time synchronization of all BBRs, mobile nodes can roam from one BBR to another without time desynchronization. In addition to time synchronization, we introduce a mechanism to synchronize the schedules between BBRs to support fast handover of mobile nodes.Comment: Short paper version of a paper submitted to Ad-Hoc Networks Journal by Elsevie

Seamless roaming and guaranteed communication using a synchronized single-hop multi-gateway 802.15.4e TSCH network

Industrial wireless sensor and actuator networks (WSANs) are being used to improve the efficiency, productivity and safety of industrial processes. One open standard that is commonly used in such cases is IEEE 802.15.4e. Its Time-Slotted Channel Hopping (TSCH) mode employs a time synchronized based medium access control (MAC) scheme together with channel hopping to alleviate the impact of channel fading and interference. Until now, most of the industrial WSANs have been designed to only support static nodes and are not able to deal with mobility. In this paper, we show how a single-hop, multi gateway IEEE 802.15.4e TSCH network architecture can tackle the mobility problem. We introduce the Virtual Grand Master (VGM) concept that moves the synchronization point from separated Backbone Border Routers (BBRs) towards the backbone network. With time synchronization of all BBRs, mobile nodes can roam from one BBR to another without time desynchronization. In addition to time synchronization, we introduce a mechanism to synchronize the schedules between BBRs to support fast handover of mobile nodes. We show that with the proposed network architecture handovers happen instantly without any packet losses, while the handover time can be up to tens of seconds without any time synchronization between BBRs. The solution is evaluated in a testbed setting as well as in a real industrial environment. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Past, state-of-the-art and future of intralogistics in relation to megatrends

Nakon kratkog pregleda istorije intralogistike, ovaj rad izučava pogled na navedene tehnologije. One su u vezi sa t.z.v. 'megatrendovima' kao što su globalizacija, urbanizacija, demografske i klimatske promene, za koje se očekuje da donesu globalne promene u nekoliko sledećih decenija i koje će najverovatnije odrediti buduću ulogu intralogistike i fokus istraživanja u ovoj oblasti.After briefly reviewing the history of intralogistics, this paper examines the outlook for the technologies concerned. This is related to the so-called 'megatrends', such as globalisation, urbanisation, demographic shifts and climate change, which are expected to bring about major global transformations over the next few decades, and which are also likely to determine the future functions of intralogistics and the focus of research in the field

Past, state-of-the-art and future of intralogistics in relation to megatrends

Nakon kratkog pregleda istorije intralogistike, ovaj rad izučava pogled na navedene tehnologije. One su u vezi sa t.z.v. 'megatrendovima' kao što su globalizacija, urbanizacija, demografske i klimatske promene, za koje se očekuje da donesu globalne promene u nekoliko sledećih decenija i koje će najverovatnije odrediti buduću ulogu intralogistike i fokus istraživanja u ovoj oblasti.After briefly reviewing the history of intralogistics, this paper examines the outlook for the technologies concerned. This is related to the so-called 'megatrends', such as globalisation, urbanisation, demographic shifts and climate change, which are expected to bring about major global transformations over the next few decades, and which are also likely to determine the future functions of intralogistics and the focus of research in the field

Future Greener Seaports:A Review of New Infrastructure, Challenges, and Energy Efficiency Measures

Recently, the application of renewable energy sources (RESs) for power distribution systems is growing immensely. This advancement brings several advantages, such as energy sustainability and reliability, easier maintenance, cost-effective energy sources, and ecofriendly. The application of RESs in maritime systems such as port microgrids massively improves energy efficiency and reduces the utilization of fossil fuels, which is a serious threat to the environment. Accordingly, ports are receiving several initiatives to improve their energy efficiency by deploying different types of RESs based on the power electronic converters. This paper conducts a systematic review to provide cutting-edge state-of-the-art on the modern electrification and infrastructure of seaports taking into account some challenges such as the environmental aspects, energy efficiency enhancement, renewable energy integration, and legislative and regulatory requirements. Moreover, the technological methods, including electrifications, digitalization, onshore power supply applications, and energy storage systems of ports, are addressed. Furthermore, details of some operational strategies such as energy-aware operations and peak-shaving are delivered. Besides, the infrastructure scheme to enhance the energy efficiency of modern ports, including port microgrids and seaport smart microgrids are delivered. Finally, the applications of nascent technologies in seaports are presented

Prediction and estimation model of energy demand of the AMR with cobot for the designed path in automated logistics systems

Abstract The ecosystem of the Industry 4.0 involves many new technologies, such as autonomous mobile robots (AMR) and cobots (collaborative robots), these are characterized with higher flexibility and cost effectiveness which makes them more suitable for automated internal logistics systems. The evaluation of energy consumption of AMRs for a designed path in a real case scenario using analytical tools are challenging. This paper proposes a method of evaluation of the sustainability of new technologies of Industry 4.0 in internal logistics. The proposed framework demonstrates data management technique of the industrial robots. Since, the AMR with manipulator perform different tasks as a single system in logistics there is big demand to develop model of cyber physical system. During task execution measured robots' physical parameters used as input data to perform analytics. Moreover, acquired data from different condition use cases have been used to monitor the battery behaviour of the AMR and preliminary results of the linear regression model is presented

INDUSTRIAL DEVICE INTEGRATION AND VIRTUALIZATION FOR SMART FACTORIES

Given the constant industry growth and modernization, several technologies have been introduced in the shop floor, in particular regarding industrial devices. Each device brand and model usually requires different interfaces and communication protocols, a technological diversity which renders the automatic interconnection with production management software extremely challenging. However, combining key technologies such as machine monitoring, digital twin and virtual commissioning, along with a complete communication protocol like OPC UA, it is possible to contribute towards industrial device integration on a Smart Factory environment. To achieve this goal, several methodologies and a set of tools were defined. This set of tools, as well as facilitating the integration tasks, should also be part of a virtual engineering environment, sharing the same virtual model, the digital twin, through the complete lifecycle of the industrial device, namely the project, simulation, implementation and execution/monitoring/supervision and, eventually, decommissioning phases. A key result of this work is the development of a set of virtual engineering tools and methodologies based on OPC UA communication, with the digital twin implemented using RobotStudio, in order to accomplish the complete lifecycle support of an industrial device, from the project and simulation phases, to monitoring and supervision, suitable for integration in Industry 4.0 factories. To evaluate the operation of the developed set of tools, experiments were performed for a test scenario with different devices. Other relevant result is related with the integration of a specific industrial device – CNC machining equipment. Given the variety of monitoring systems and communication protocols, an approach where various solutions available on the market are combined on a single system is followed. These kinds of all-in-one solutions would give production managers access to the information necessary for a continuous monitoring and improvement of the entire production process

Improvement of shuttle and lift positioning in an automated warehouse system

The focus of this master’s thesis is to develop methods to improve shuttle and lift fine-positioning in a multi-level automated warehouse system. These methods are to be used in existing sites to improve system performance, as also in future site projects. The multi-level automated warehouse system examined in this thesis study is provided for customer by the system supplier in order to increase efficiency of the warehousing operation. During the system launch, there have been some issues with shuttle and lift positioning, which has led to standstills. In order to ensure best possible perform of the system for the customer, the precision of the shuttle and lift positioning should be improved. This allows minimizing the downtime of the system, and gives customer best possible access to stored items. System performance and error logs were monitored during this master’s thesis work. This allowed identification of individual shuttles and lifts with fine-positioning errors. Operation of these storage retrieval machines were improved by sensor alignment, sensor replacement or with other procedures. As a result of this thesis work, several methods to ease sensor alignment or to improve the positioning process were presented