Neue Lösung in Elektronik und Kommunikation: Digitale Sensor-2-Cloud Campus Plattform

Modern manufacturing is characterized by a high degree of automation, with autonomous systems also frequently being used. In such environments human intervention in the event of malfunctions or maintenance becomes a rare but also necessary task. When human workers are no longer an integral part of the production process, but only intervene when necessary, e.g., in the case of unexpected machine behavior, appropriate safety solutions will become even more important. This work describes a wireless communication system enabling a flexible and safe emergency stop function for multiple automation cells. A portable emergency stop switch allows seamless transition between different wireless cells, ensuring functional safety. The communication protocol combines IO-Link Wireless features with the safety requirements already implemented in IO-Link Safety. Security requirements are fulfilled through encryption and authentication. The IO-Link Wireless roaming functionality is used to extend the system across several manufacturing cells. An experimental setup confirms the suitability of the system for various applications. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the handover mechanism and evaluate the potential of the system to improve flexibility, availability and security in dynamic production environments. Future extensions could include the use of AI based evaluation of the radio signals for an intelligent cell handover.

Modern production concepts generate a demand for reliable, energy-efficient, fast, and secure wireless communication solutions. Therefore, the current consumption should not increase substantially due to additional cryptographic operations. This paper shows a principle current measurement method that is exemplary of a transceiver for the IO-Link Wireless protocol. Low-pass filtering and single-sided amplitude spectrum analysis are used to evaluate the main information of the current measurement. An uncertainty estimation is realized using statistical measurement data and considering the measurement setup in order to approximate the combined standard uncertainty. The results show that the current consumption only increases slightly when using additional cryptographic operations. This can be measured with acceptable uncertainty.

Wireless networks support highly flexible manufacturing processes and are recognized as a crucial pillar towards the digitization of industrial production (automation). While 5G is currently being marketed as universal solution for future wireless communication, high density of sensor and actuator nodes in industrial manufacturing environments with respect to latency times and reliability, still represents an enormous technical challenge. In the field of production automation standards, IO-Link Wireless (IOLW) is already in operation offering energy-efficient and cost-effective solutions, even with battery-powered smart sensor devices. In this paper, the deterministic ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) features of 5G are combined with the outstanding performance characteristics of IOLW with respect to robustness and latency to realize even highly demanding safety applications in industrial environments.