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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).)"
My dad told me stories of Back In The Day(tm) when AM radio stations would broadcast at 300,000 watts, or more, and streetlights would be lit by the radiant energy. Can't imagine that did people much good living near the antennas...
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
...welcome our new job-stealing wireless mechanical overlords.
Seriously, though, this would make my job a whole lot easier...monitoring the operation of a pair of 8MW generators (or a host of other equipment) from a single location vice constantly hopping around from point-to-point looking at every little gage and meter gets real old, real fast.
Given all the slashdot stories about Wardriving and the like, how secure would these networks be? What prevents a competor with a wireless broadcast anteanna from parking in range of your factory, and sending false signals telling your machines to idle?
END COMMUNICATION
This idea strikes me as an implementation or extension of "Munchkins" described in an ancient (1996) paper by Rohit Khare and Adam Rifkin.
The idea basically describes very small, low-power devices that can route messages between each other until they find the target device (or a valid route to the target device). I have to wonder whether new devices like the iPAQ with GSM, WiFi, and Bluetooth are trending towards this behaviour. It wouldn't take a heck of a lot to turn the iPAQ 6340 into a device that can intelligently route incoming packets over any of its connections.
I'd love to be able to pick up my cellphone, and connect to my PC via a network of industrial sensors built into traffic signals, bus stops or the nearest ATM.
gadgetophile.com
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.
The station transmitted to all of Europe via the powerful transmitter site in Marnach on 1439 kHz (later 1440 kHz), 208 metres in the medium wave band. The transmitter pumped out 1300 kW and was Europe's most powerful (only hit by a Russian site which had more power). Radio Luxembourg ceased transmissions from the 208 transmitter December 30. 1991 to be available on satellite and short wave only. Unfortunately CLT decided to close the station at the end of 1992 because it made no money out of the programmes. Luxy returned on the great 208 for one night only - the date when the station's final programme was aired - December 30. 1992.
http://slashdot.org/~GuyFawkes/journal
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.
Sig under construction since 1998.
Safty and reliability are absolutes in industrial control.
A machine like a bottler goes down at pepsi, and they are losing $250k/min when that machine isn't running. Or a pharmacutical company drops a batch worth $3 million. And now that I've climbed in or on huge presses, mixing tanks, 6ft. fans, high preasure steam, and poison vapors... I wouldn't trust thier function to a wireless web.
I can see where this would be great for remote/hazardess sensors and transmittion, but not anytime soon for control. Hell, we still extensivly use rs232 over ethernet.
I am billdar, and I approve this message.
This is pretty sweet. This way, you don't have to waste more energy by putting a transformer onto the motor's circuit. The best part is that it uses energy that you're normally wasting anyway.
Show me on the doll where his noodly appendage touched you.
The electric charactaristics of a machine change when it's broken. I don't really understand how putting sensors everywhere will improve that situation rather than just managing eletronic load. For that matter, doesn't wireless need much energy?
Since when has this country used intellectual elite as a pejorative term?
Usually, but for most devices under the 2m wavelength mark (>150MHz or so, which these would probably be), human body absorbption drops quickly.
Of course, this is moot when compared to the EMI that most industrial electrical equipment generates. Hundreds of 3-phase motors, giant transformers, and multi-kilowatt circuits make for a far stronger field at the low end of the spectrum than an army of small sub-watt range transmitters.