The Wireless Internet of Things (IoT) Is Destined to Make Factories Smarter
Advances in wireless technology and particularly the use of 5G networks is changing manufacturing. The vision of a “factory of the future,” with predictive and prescriptive maintenance programs, self-healing production lines with near zero downtime, remote control processes, autonomous robotics and augmented reality systems is now within reach for many industry sectors.
Delivering faster download speeds, with lower latency and higher data throughput for the connected equipment and data processing required on the factory floor while also enabling a massive number of lower-power battery-driven sensor devices, 5G has the potential to become the future communication platform of choice for manufacturing.
Transforming a manufacturing facility into a smart factory offers tremendous benefits in terms of greater productivity and operational efficiency. Connecting sensors, actuators, effectors, and controllers allow a physical stimulus to be transformed into electrical signals, which then can be evaluated and analyzed for making decisions about the operations being carried out.
However, several challenges exist in implementing IoT solutions on the factory floor. Connectivity, security, data fragmentation, interoperability, data sensitivity and data growth are just to name a few.
One of the top concerns among industrial network managers and enterprise IT engineers and main barriers of a smart factory is being able to connect devices on the plant floor. Historically wired connectivity was preferred in manufacturing because wireless did not provide the high-speed bandwidth and penetration into the building needed for stability. Moreover, manufacturers had not seen the level of reliability necessary to risk introducing it until 5G came along.
Wireless Technologies on the Factory Floor
Over the last decade, standards like Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11), Zigbee, Zwave, Wireless IO-Link, WirelessHART, ISA100.11a and Bluetooth. In addition to today’s 5G, have been the dominant wireless technologies on factory floor, but the recent introduction of Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax PHY), LoRaWAN, Sigfox, NB-IoT, LTE-M, and Bluetooth LE have entered or are entering the manufacturing industry as well.
Wireless technologies enable mobility and free movement fostering greater flexibility in configuring the factory floor. The greater flexibility generates a financial advantage for manufacturers, faster time to market, improved scalability, and enabling innovation.
Industry 4.0
The Fourth Industrial Revolution, also known as Industry 4.0 represents the ongoing automation of traditional manufacturing and industrial practices, using networks of sensors for the acquisition and analyzing of data to gain insights and efficiencies from that data. To reap the full benefits of Industry 4.0, manufacturing facilities will need to incorporate, edge computing, flexibility, real-time information and high-speed streams for video and data.
One of the biggest and most overlooked challenges in operation of multiple wireless technologies in harsh environments comes from attenuation. The multipath environment in heavy-industrial factories can lead to propagation challenges, resulting in difficulties communicating, a loss of latency, difficulty in tracking of workers or movement of specialized vehicles like forklifts.
Understanding how RF platforms work in these harsh environments is the first step toward designing and deploying reliable wireless networks that can provide data that can improve plant productivity and efficiency.
Network Testing is a Must to Ensure the Success of a Smart Factory
Problems on the manufacturing floor can be quite expensive. In some instances, a manufacturing facility can lose thousands of dollars a minute due to a problem or even a momentarily downtime. That is why network uptime is critical for factories.
RF performance is critical for factories. Any possible interference directly impacts factory performance. Thus, there is a need for testing. Devices that perform under harsh coverage environments with specific tasks in IoT applications, require comprehensive testing of the final design under real-world conditions in a variety of operational modes.
How can a factory ensure the connectivity to minimize the downtime and maximize its production? Network testing comes to rescue and helps companies ensure business continuity. Proper and timely testing helps manufacturing organizations to ensure reliability, throughput, low latency, connectivity, flexibility, and efficient spectrum utilization.
Please join the James Brehm & Associates and Rohde & Schwarz for the webinar “How 5G and Wireless IoT is Enabling the Smart Factory” hosted by IoT Evolution on March 2nd, 2021 at 1pm US EST. This webinar will discuss how wireless technologies can impact a manufacturing environment, role of IoT and challenges factory operators face to meet their increasing demand and real life 5G deployments in a factory in Germany.
How 5G and Wireless IoT is Enabling the Smart Factory (iotevolutionworld.com)