Objective
The aim of the work is to broaden the field of application of wireless technologies by introducing in industrial environments with real-time requirements. The investigations and developments concern advanced, innovative wireless technologies that are necessary to facilitate a take-up of wireless terminals, networks, services and applications in industrial environments. Real-time exchange of data between the production and management levels, mobility of products and machinery as well as mobility of personnel are to be supported. Real-time and multi-media communication demand the integration of industrial communication in future generation broadband systems and networks. These networks have to deal with the special conditions of the industrial environment such as the need for support of time-critical communication, support for short, frequent messages, robustness against electromagnetic disturbances, safety and security issues.
Objectives:
Replacing cables by high-performance, industrial wireless networks (fieldbus), should solve existing problems of flexibility in plants, such as recabling or installing new sensors and control units. Full transparent access over wireless communication systems to any information needed on-site, e.g. control and status information of the machinery as well as access to specifications, construction or production drawings (CAD), or real-time low resolution digital video sequences etc., should be provided to the operatives. The real-time requirements as well as the multi-media communication demand the integration of industrial communication in future generation broadband systems and networks as mentioned in Action Line IV.5.4 of the work program.
Work description:
First the wide range of end-user requirements for mobile industrial automation systems, applications and application services will be investigated and categorised. The basis for the development of the R-FIELDBUS will be the systematic analysis of radio transmission behaviour in industrial environment. This includes determination and evaluation of the propagation's conditions and the influence of disturbances and obstructions.
Based on the end-user requirements and an evaluation of existing wireless system, the R-FIELDBUS system will be defined and implemented. The R-FIELDBUS will be a standard fieldbus extended by real-time wireless communication and multi-media facilities.
The main subsystems will be:
- a high-speed, high-performance and reliable radio physical layer capable to guarantee the special industrial requirements,
- a MAC-sublayer compatible with the fieldbus standards which supports real-time control data transfers,
- an interworking mechanism to support connection with existing fieldbus applictions,
- a Quality of Service mechanism in order to provide the required quality of the application-layer services,
- application-level support services covering issues as the exchange of on-line control data and industrial multi-media traffic and
- advanced network management services to support the robustness of the wireless fieldbus.
The R-FIELDBUS system will be tested and evaluated within different field trials based on pilot applications. These extensive trials together with end-users shall demonstrate both the technical feasibility in the real environment and the benefits for end-users.
Milestones:
1.Requirements for R-FIELDBUS: categorized profile of end-user requirements for mobile industrial automation systems.
2.Solution R-FIELDBUS: new advanced wireless solution, compatible with existing wired systems; industrial networking applications with special requirements, like robustness and mobility.
3.Pilot application: end-user application demonstrating the additional possibilities.
4.Dissemination and evaluation: Stimulation of standardization groups in the area of industrial wireless LANs.
Wireless technologies, especially radio transmission, are not the core competencies of automation equipment manufacturers. However, radio technologies will not only be an "added value" to existing wired technologies they will also be a key feature for new automation applications. The market is already available. Nevertheless, in the beginning of the R-FIELDBUS project there were only few experiences in the field of radio communication in industrial environments. This results in unclear provisos against the use of radio for industrial automation systems.
Now a deeper understanding and more experiences to the following subjects could be gathered:
-radio transmission technologies
-industrial environmental conditions according to radio technology
-radio fieldbus planning requirements
-estimating feasibility of radio communications in certain environments (very important in order to avoid selling impossible radio solutions to customers)
-security necessities
-achieving appropriate and possible real-time behaviour
-realisation of radio repeater prototypes
Besides these experiences a solution is available which can be used to demonstrate the characteristics and the advantages of a system, suitable even in industrial field level automation. Thereby native mechanisms of fieldbus systems can be used to realise inter-cell mobility. This is important, since the distance requirements may exceed the coverage area of a single cell network. In addition, the integration of multimedia traffic into field communication systems is implemented. This, together with the mobility and real-time characteristics, is the basis for a future-oriented communication infrastructure for industrial automation systems. Overall it forms an excellent platform to disseminate radio communication and introduce it in future standardisation processes.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringcontrol systems
- social sciencessociologyindustrial relationsautomation
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensors
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringinformation engineeringtelecommunicationsradio technology
You need to log in or register to use this function
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
39179 BARLEBEN
Germany