How Wireless Meshing Could Save Energy

An anonymous reader writes "EE Times reports that the future of industrial automation lies in wireless mesh sensor networks. From the article: 'It is the holy grail of the factory floor: hundreds of sensors wirelessly connected, monitoring motors for problems and drastically reducing energy consumption -- all with the precision and rhythm of a philharmonic orchestra.' (Other articles here(1), here(2), and here(3).)"

Comments

Re:I, for one...[OT]

[ChaosWing]

Not necessarily. If something were to go wrong with the internals of a machine, odds are better that an electronic sensor would detect the problem before the operator would...a problem detected before serious damage occurs is a lot easier to deal with (and would require less work) than one detected when it causes a component (or an entire machine) to fail.

Interference?

[Godeke]

Having installed wired and wireless networking on manufacturing floors I can tell you that before this dream of magic wireless connectivity comes true, these machines will need vastly better RF shielding. We had a bugger of a time getting wireless to work and even wired networks would act up if you were not careful where you placed the wires. (One company ran fiber optic to the floor machines because the interference issue couldn't be resolved satisfactorily: not a cheap way to go).

So how long will it take to get those machines updated? Well, one of my first jobs out of the U was making a tape punch work on a PC so they could edit programs and load them from paper tape. That was in 1990. I'm guessing that these will be a great concept for someone building a factory floor from scratch, but retrofitting is going to be a big flop.

Re:Interference?

[calidoscope]

I'd agree with you if the wireless mesh was being used for process control.

In this case, the wireless mesh is being used for monitoring the health of the motor not for active process feedback.

Car analogy: When driving a car, your primary feedback is what you see out the windows and that's what your attention is focused on 99% of the time. Every now and then, you take a look at the gauges to make sure the engine is running properly (which is what the info on the mesh provides). If the gauges show something amiss, you may have anywhere from a few seconds (pegged coolant temp or no oil pressure) to several hours (or longer) to deal with the problem.