Survey on Applications and Challenges of Wireless Sensor Network in Industries

Dr.P.Velmani,

Assistant Professor in Computer Science,

The M.D.T.Hindu College,

Tirunelveli, Tamilnadu.

E.mail:vel_comp@yahoo.com

Abstract

Recent advancement in wireless communications and

electronics has enabled the development of Wireless

Sensor Network (WSN). These networks promise to

revolutionize sensing in a wide range of application

domains. One of them is industrial automation, which

is necessary for competing globally. Industrial

automation from component assemblies to data

integrated manufacturing execution systems are

available to achieve greater precision, improves quality

and enhances control over the whole process. Another

one is industrial and environmental safety. The aim of

this paper is to analyze the possibilities of applying

WSN technology in industrial platforms from the use of

simple detector; complex analyzers to latest MEMS

(Micro Electro Mechanical System) based system,

machine vision system with their advantages and

implementation challenges.

1. Introduction

Although computer-based instrumentation has

existed for a long time, the density of instrumentation

made possible by a shift to mass-produced intelligent

sensors. WSN gives a new kind of scope that can be

applied to a wide range of uses. In industrial processes

such as assembly, manufacturing, instrumentation,

packaging and communications, data is continuously

being monitored through sensors, digitized, analyzed,

collected and stored. Despite the impoverishment, pollution, health and

environmental problems created, the government

(people) believes that industrialization at any cost is the

way for advancement and it is impossible to avoid

industrialization. But the environmental assessment

concerned with identifying, predicting and evaluating

pollution both beneficial to people and development of

a country is necessary. To make the world a better

place to live, there is a need to wise in managing our

resources, and take positive action towards preventing

any forms of pollution to the environment.

In this paper, WSN application in industrial area is

viewed in two directions namely, intelligent industrial management and secure industrial management.

2. Industrial Sensor and Sensor Network

A sensor should be selected depending on the

application in mind. Sensors are of two types. Some

sensors simply detect the presence of a stimulus (Fig

1). These are called detectors. A sound sensor that

detects the presence of a sound. Other sensors can

actually discern relative values of a stimulus. These are

called analyzers that can do qualitative and quantitative

analysis of measuring element. A sound sensor that

detects the number of decibels in a sound.

Figure 1. Examples of Stimulus

Both are important to the society such as analysis of

industrial samples (steel, mining ores, plastics),

pharmacological samples (drugs and medicines), food samples (agriculture) and environmental samples

(quality of air, water, soil and biological materials)

The WSN has enabled new classes of applications

that benefit an industrial sector and industrial

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automation. The implementation of these applications

in industrial automation sector is increasing the graph

of productivity in marketplaces [1]. According to

survey result, the leading application for industrial

networks (both wired and wireless) is Supervisory

Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA).

The major classifications of WSN in industrial

automation are found in the literature are [2]

Rare event detection- Sensors are used to detect rare, random and ephemeral events such

as fault detection, notification system and

alarm warnings due to uncertainty in machines

and in plants [3].

Periodic data collection - Data collection

from unreachable terrain and then transmit the

information to the sink is a fundamental task

in periodic sensor networks. [4]

Real-time data Detection, acquisition -

Leakage detection and location is one of the

paramount concerns of pipeline operators all

over the world. A timely evaluation and

response to a leakage, allows proper

management of the consequences and an

effective risk minimization [5]. Other real-time applications are monitoring hazardous

chemical levels and fire detection.

System Control and monitoring - Several

industrial organizations, such as WINA and

ZigBee , have been advocating the application

of wireless technologies in industrial control.

Weaving machinery monitoring and control

system displays real time state of weaving

machines status and gives information about

the number of picks and warp, weft and

mechanical halts and stops of weaving

machine [6].

Industrial mobile robots - Sensors will flow

through pipelines, emitting data on leakages

and bursts. Faults can be remotely monitored.

Intra pipe inspection (inside the pipe) and

between pipes, already applied to nuclear power plants using a MEMS based mini robot

[7].

3. Applications of WSN in industries

Industrial automation system can be defined as the

use of computers and sensors to control machines and

processes. There is the obvious benefit of automation; it

dares to work where humans do not, such as oil

refineries, manufacturing certain hazardous chemicals,

welding nuclear reactors etc. Autonomous machine

controlled through WSN are more effective in such areas than a scared human worker. WSN application in

industrial area is viewed in two directions namely,

intelligent industrial management and secure industrial

management.

3.1. Intelligent industrial management

The application of WSN satisfies the business

objectives to enable a broad spectrum industry to

significantly increase productivity, quality, safety while

reducing cost and time to market for new products.

This will be accomplished by the improved control of

industrial operations via the introduction of industrial

control systems. Significant developments are taking

place in industries with the upgrading technology and

the incorporation of information technology.

Some of the modern applications in industries are

Machine vision system – application of computer vision to factory automation. Just as

human inspectors working on assembly lines

visually inspect parts to judge the quality of

workmanship. Machine vision systems use

digital cameras and image processing software

to perform similar inspections. Manufacturers

favor machine vision systems for visual

inspections that require high-speed, high-

magnification, 24-hour operation, and

repeatability of measurements. This may be

installed at the end of production lines, to

inspect for flawed products [8,9, 10]

Automated assembly – Automated assembly

of devices using robots - commands for

aligning the parts were automatically

calculated based on the sensor data and

executed. [11] Intelligent system – Real-time process

diagnostics and abnormal condition

management [12]

Smart transmitters – In refineries, chemical

plants, paper mills and power generating

plants to measure and report fluid flows,

temperatures, pressures tank

levels and valve positions at specific points in

the process to the host computer [13]

Managing inventory control - Monitoring

the inventory product conditions and

environment [14]

Vibration analysis- industrial wireless sensor

network (IWSN) for industrial machine

condition monitoring and fault diagnosis. For

example induction motor may be monitored

due to its wide use in industrial processes. Motor stator current and vibration signals are

measured for further processing and analysis.

Mainly used to detect the faulty parts, which

need repair or changing by analyzing their

vibration signature [15].

Process monitoring- in process monitoring

and control, process data such as pressure,

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humidity, temperature, flow, level, viscosity,

density and vibration intensity measurements

can be collected through sensing units and

transferred wirelessly to a control system for

operation and management [16].

Building automation - Building automation

systems (BAS) are typically used to monitor

and control heating, ventila-tion, and air

conditioning (HVAC) systems. Some applications are, Building access controls ,

HVAC controls , Lighting controllers,

Thermostat , Lifts / Elevators / Escalators ,

Remote alarm triggering , Water Management,

Electrical blinds [17].

Industrial process automation- Water/Wastewater Monitoring, Landfill

Ground Well Level Monitoring and Pump

Counter, Flare Stack Monitoring, Water

Tower Level Monitoring, Vehicle Detection,

Electric utility automation, Monitoring device

parameters, Automatic meter reading,

Machine Health Monitoring or Condition

based maintenance, Intelligent control system,

Intelligent integrated management system and

many more. Inaccessible locations, rotating

machinery, hazardous or restricted areas, can

now be reached with wireless sensors [18]

3.2. Recent trends in industrial automation

As the reasons to automate increase day by day and

as companies begin to realize this need, opportunities

for technology solution provides in this space are also

increasing proportionately [19]. With the increasing

need for quality and flexibility, the following new

trends are introduced in industries.

3.2.1. MEMS based sensors and actuators. The

widespread use of MEMS technology has increasingly

optimized the performance, size, and cost of sensing

systems. "Key innovations in MEMS-based sensors and

actuators are taking place in many associated industrial

applications such as Heating, Ventilation, and Air-

Conditioning (HVAC) applications, industrial safety,

processing, and control, networked health monitoring

of devices. The research and development focus is also shifting toward a large array or a network of MEMS

sensors rather than just single MEMS devices. MEMS

Technology Can Enable Industrial Automation Achieve

Higher Standards [20].

3.2.2. Chemical sensors. Chemical sensors

(detectors/transducers) covers a wide category of

devices used to monitor, measure, test, analyze data as

generated due to changes in a measured norm. Some

system-connected detectors also alert a monitoring

service that can dispatch emergency services if

necessary. Varieties of chemical sensors such as , Opto-

Chemical, Biomimetic, Electrochemical,

Semiconductor and their applications are endless [21].

3.2.3. Ultrasonic sensors. Ultrasound ID (USID) is a

real-time locating system technology used to

automatically track and identify the location of objects

in real-time using simple, inexpensive nodes attached

to – or embedded into – objects and devices that transmit an ultrasound signal to communicate location

to microphone sensors. Ultrasonic sensors are used to

detect the existence of objects (digital) and distance

(analog) in factory automation and processing.

Applications include positioning systems, asset

tracking, workflow and locating personnel in mines

[22].

3.2.4. Electronic sensing. The expression "electronic

sensing" refers to the capability of reproducing human

senses using sensor arrays and pattern recognition

systems. Since 1982, research has been conducted to

develop technologies, commonly referred to as

electronic noses that could detect and recognize odors

and flavors. Till now online communication involved

only two of our senses. Sense of sight, Sense of

hearing. A new technology targets on sense of smell. Digital Scent Technology intends to change the

interactive entertainment experience. it is possible to

sense, transmit and receive smell through internet.

Electronic Tongue is specially designed for taste

analysis in R and D, formulation, food product

Development, and food process improvement

applications. It has got several applications in various

industrial areas: The pharmaceutical industry, food and

beverage sector, etc. It can be used to: identify toxic

substances. Search for drugs, explosive. Searching for

chemical/biological weapon, Detect trace amounts of

organic substances [23, 24].

3.3. Secure industrial management

In addition to the process automation other area of

using WSN in industry is secure industry and

environment management. Security and safety

compliance vary from industry to industry. Fire alarm,

Smoke detection, leak detection , Protect sensitive or

restricted areas, Protect valuable assets, Detect

unauthorized vehicles, Suspicious individual detection

are some common applications, nowadays, in buildings,

industries and in most countries it is imposed by

relevant laws [5, 8, 25].

One important application of WSN is monitoring

indoor and outdoor air pollution through industrial sources. The environmental assessment concerned with

identifying, predicting and evaluating pollution both

beneficial to people and development of a country is

necessary. The first step is to do continuous air

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pollution monitoring round the clock and online

reporting [26]. The latest technology is Electronic

Tongue to monitor agriculture and industrial pollution

of air and water. Industrialization is for growth of the

people, at the same time that must assure the secure

lifetime of the people. Therefore there is a need to

increase implementation of WSN in this direction also.

4. WSN Challenges in industrial

environment

Even though there are so many advantages in using

WSN in industries, there was a serious debate over

whether or not WSNs and wireless communication in

general were a technology suitable for industrial

applications. To create robust network architecture, it is

crucial to know the differences among all the wireless

standards.

From industrial point of view, ISA SP100

workgroup introduces the following six classes (Class 5

– Class 0) for wireless communications based on

analysis of industrial, inter-device wireless

communication applications [27].

Class 5 *items related to monitoring without immediate

operational consequences.

*without strong timeliness requirements

*reliability requirements may vary

Class 4 *monitoring with short-term operational

consequences

* high-limit and low-limit alarms and other

information

* require further checking or involvement of a

maintenance technician. Timeliness of information

in this class is typically low (slow)

Class 3 * open loop control applications, in which an

operator, rather than a controller, “closes the loop”

between input and output.

* The time horizon for this class is in a human scale,

measured in seconds and minutes.

*an operator could take a unit offline, if required.

Class 2 *consists of closed loop supervisory control, and

applications usually have long time constants * with the time scale measured in seconds to

minutes

Class 1 *closed loop regulatory control, includes motor and

axis control as well as primary flow and pressure

control.

* The timeliness of information in this class is often

critical.

Class 0 *emergency actions related to safety, which are

always critical to both personnel and the plant.

*Most safety functions are, and will be, carried out

by dedicated wired networks in order to limit both

failure modes and vulnerability to external events

or attacks. Examples in this category are safety

interlock, emergency shutdown, and fire control.

There are number of challenges in migrating from a

wired to WSN implementation [28].

* Coverage area of the network may suffer in the

industrial environment due to various interferences.

* The reliability and the signal strength may get

affected due to the reflection from the walls,

interference from other devices or machines and

interference from the environment itself.

* Time delay through the network from sensor to

monitoring site.

* Balance between battery life and data update rates.

* Power management and harvesting technologies

* Wireless network advances like ISA 100 and

wirelessHART make WSN a more viable possibility in

traditional manufacturing environments, but the

challenge of latency remains. * WSN protocol requirements, network architecture

that is suitable topology

*Suitable wireless standards, bandwidth, dropped

packets rate, throughput tradeoffs

* Special computers called PLCs are used to

automatically interpret the data collected from sensors

and events on a continuous basis and use this output to

trigger certain actuators and events.

* Co-ordination between several technologies ranging

from information systems to computer controlled

machinery.

* As wireless is the best way for disparate, dispersed

automation, wireless networks should be capable of

integrating with standard plant and office networks [29]

* With so many network and volume of

communication, security is a critical aspect.

* Longevity – lifetime of a sensor and sensor network

* Standard in data access specification * Data access specification in Multi model arrays of

sensors to capture a complex scene.

*Method to convert raw data from sensor to useful

information and data redundancy

* Instead of passing large volume of data from WSN to

destination, other option is better data aggregation

*QOS requirements

5. Conclusion

The industrial wireless business and use of WSN

continues to grow fast every year. At the same time

challenges are also there and depend on application and

industrial environment. There is a need to concentrate

on areas where the challenges and apply WSN to get

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information and run processes more effectively and

improve safety and production.

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