Wireless Automation as an Enabler for the Next Industrial Revolution

Muhammad Ali Imran, Sajjad Hussain, Qammer H. Abbasi, Muhammad A. Imran, Sajjad Hussain, Qammer H. Abbasi, Muhammad Ali Imran, Muhammad A. Imran, Sajjad Hussain, Qammer H. Abbasi

• Publisher: Wiley-IEEE Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781119552611
• eBook ISBN: 9781119552628
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Tecnología e ingeniería
• Subtopic: Comunicaciones móviles e inalámbricas

Presents the components, challenges, and solutions of wireless automation as enablers for industry 4.0

This timely book introduces the state of the art in industrial automation techniques, concentrating on wireless methods for a variety of applications, ranging from simple smart homes to heavy-duty complex industrial setting with robotics accessibility. It covers a wide range of topics including the industrial revolution enablers, applications, challenges, their possible solutions, and future directions.

Wireless Automation as an Enabler for the Next Industrial Revolution opens with an introduction to wireless sensor networks and their applications in various domains, emphasizing industrial wireless networks and their future uses. It then takes a look at life-span extension for sensor networks in the industry, followed by a chapter on multiple access and resource sharing for low latency critical industrial networks. Industrial automation is covered next, as is the subject of ultra reliable low latency communications. Other topics include: self healing in wireless networks; cost efficiency optimization for industrial automation; a non event-based approach for non-intrusive load monitoring; wireless networked control; and caching at the edge in low latency wireless networks. The book finishes with a chapter on the application of terahertz sensing at nano-scale for precision agriculture.

• Introduces the future evolving dimension in industrial automation and discusses the enablers of the industrial revolution
• Places particular emphasis on wireless communication techniques which make industrial automation reliable, efficient, and cost-effective
• Covers many of the associated topics and concepts like robotics, AI, internet-of-things, telesurgery, and remote manufacturing
• Of great interest to researchers from academia and industry who are looking at the industrial development from various perspectives

Wireless Automation as an Enabler for the Next Industrial Revolution is an excellent book for telecom engineers, IoT experts, and industry professionals. It would also greatly benefit researchers, professors, and doctorate and postgraduate students involved in automation and industry 4.0.

1
Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks Overview

Mohsin Raza and Huan X. Nguyen

Faculty of Science and Technology, Middlesex University, UK

1.1 Introduction

Over the past few years, industrial evolution has led to the development of more sophisticated and effective supporting technologies to improve performance in a wide range of industries. Industrial wireless sensor networks (IWSNs), as a suitable alternate to the wired links, have the potential to play an important role in optimizing data communications within industries. Various attributes of IWSNs, including low installation costs, self‐healing abilities, flexibility, self‐organization, localized processing, interoperability, scalability, and ease of deployment, have been very influential in wide‐scale adoption of the technology. Furthermore, IWSNs also offer the potential to operate in critical and emergency applications as well as non‐critical monitoring applications (Raza et al., 2018a).

This chapter provides an overview of the IWSNs. A detailed discussion is provided on industrial systems and the requirements of IWSNs. In addition, applications of IWSNs and research developments are also discussed.

Demand for high productivity to cope with the rising needs has resulted in massive expansion of industries. The advancements in manufacturing processes and the introduction of a high level of automation has resulted in improved productivity and process efficiency. The increasing number of products and customer demands have encouraged researchers to uncover the possibility of increasing the overall production efficiency. The recent developments in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), radio communications and control systems have been very influential in pushing the limits of technology (Raza et al., 2018b). These developments have brought a new era of manufacturing and automation within the industries.

The high‐speed developments within the industrial sector are highly influential in defining the standard operating procedures and practices. The history of industrial developments can be described in terms of industrial revolution (Raza et al., 2018a).

Industrial revolution begins with many technological innovations in manufacturing and processing. The first industrial revolution was mainly powered by coal and steam to run the machines. In the second revolution the focus shifted to mass production models with the higher degree of inclusion of machines operated by electric power. The third revolution incorporated computer driven systems and introduced certain degrees of automation to the industrial processes. The introduction of digital technologies has paved the path for future developments in industry. These gradual improvements set the path for a fully automated self‐reliant industry in which machine intelligence, communications and distributed control systems enabled the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) (Yahya, 2017). A brief overview of the four industrial revolutions and their salient features is presented in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1 Salient features of the industrial revolutions.

No.	Industrial revolution	Salient features
1.	First industrial revolution	Coal and steam powered technology, mechanical innovations
2.	Second industrial revolution	Electric powered mass production models
3.	Third industrial revolution	Use of digital technologies, utilization of greener energy sources, introduction of partially automated processes
4.	Fourth industrial revolution	Fully automated self‐reliant systems, interconnected intelligent systems

Industry 4.0 offers a conceptual platform for further developments for industry and other sectors that incorporate a smart interconnected pervasive environment. Industry 4.0 benefits from diverse technologies including a digital supply chain, mass production, ad hoc communication networks, sensors web, big data platforms, distributed control systems, artificial intelligence and machine learning, sensors and actor networks, next‐generation robotics and digital twins. All these technologies provide opportunities for future growth and innovation in industry 4.0. The developments in industry 4.0 focus on integration of processes through an extensive communication networks to support the development of smart processes and products. Along with the incorporation of self‐sustaining processes, industry 4.0 offers optimized effective and efficient processes to improve production time and efficiency (Garrido‐Hidalgo et al., 2018).

Effective communication among different processes within industries offer robust, energy efficient and timely operation. It also allows identification and elimination of any bottlenecks in different disjoint processes (Raza et al., 2017). In addition, effective communication also offers a means for smart self‐sustained systems with the incorporation of classical and deep machine learning techniques. Interlinking the sensing and decision systems allows large scale proactive integration among the processes, thus forming an intelligent industrial environment to facilitate smart decisions.

1.2 Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0 depicts the current trend and vision for future transformations. The main driving force for industry 4.0 is the innovation in automation, robotics, machine intelligence, data exchange and smart manufacturing. Industry 4.0 is not a stand‐alone system, rather it incorporates the Internet of Things (IoT), sensor networks, fog and edge computing, distributed control systems, digital twins and cyber physical systems.

Industry 4.0 empowered by cyber physical systems aims at establishing smart factories where all the processes and actions are not only actively monitored but also interlinked for improved system efficiency (Yahya, 2017). It incorporates a modular approach to enhance flexibility and scalability where cyber physical systems and digital twins provide computer based analysis and control of the critical processes. The cyber physical systems and digital twins have notable significance in industry 4.0, as they can assist in replication of virtual processes and virtualization of the functional systems to help improve the overall process and to make decentralized decisions. Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) enable the cyber physical systems to predict possible alterations in the industrial processes to achieve higher flexibility. Collectively, these systems establish a real‐time self‐cooperative environment to support critical decisions and manage operational functionality across organizational services (Qi and Tao, 2018).

Industry 4.0 is driven by interconnection, information transparency, assistive systems and decentralized decisions. Interconnection interlinks sensors, actuators, control centres, devices and people, allowing them to make smart decisions. Interconnectivity also help in making smart decisions in a modular framework.

Information transparency offers access to ex...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• List of Contributors
• Preface
• 1 Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks Overview
• 2 Life‐span Extension for Sensor Networks in the Industry
• 3 Multiple Access and Resource Sharing for Low Latency Critical Industrial Networks
• 4 Narrowband Internet of Things (NB‐IoT) for Industrial Automation
• 5 Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications as an Enabler For Industry Automation
• 6 Anomaly Detection and Self‐healing in Industrial Wireless Networks
• 7 Cost Efficiency Optimization for Industrial Automation
• 8 A Non‐Event Based Approach for Non‐Intrusive Load Monitoring
• 9 Wireless Networked Control
• 10 Caching at the Edge in Low Latency Wireless Networks
• 11 Application of Terahertz Sensing at Nano‐Scale for Precision Agriculture
• Index
• End User License Agreement