Abstract
Pipes are one of the key elements in the construction of ships, which usually contain between 15,000 and 40,000 of them. This huge number, as well as the variety of processes that may be performed on a pipe, require rigorous identification, quality assessment and traceability. Traditionally, such tasks have been carried out by using manual procedures and following documentation on paper, which slows down the production processes and reduces the output of a pipe workshop. This article presents a system that allows for identifying and tracking the pipes of a ship through their construction cycle. For such a purpose, a fog computing architecture is proposed to extend cloud computing to the edge of the shipyard network. The system has been developed jointly by Navantia, one of the largest shipbuilders in the world, and the University of A Coruña (Spain), through a project that makes use of some of the latest Industry 4.0 technologies. Specifically, a Cyber-Physical System (CPS) is described, which uses active Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags to track pipes and detect relevant events. Furthermore, the CPS has been integrated and tested in conjunction with Siemens’ Manufacturing Execution System (MES) (Simatic IT). The experiments performed on the CPS show that, in the selected real-world scenarios, fog gateways respond faster than the tested cloud server, being such gateways are also able to process successfully more samples under high-load situations. In addition, under regular loads, fog gateways react between five and 481 times faster than the alternative cloud approach.
Highlights
Technology is evolving at a fast pace and companies have to adapt to such a constant evolution.In recent years, the industrial application of the paradigm of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the principles of Industry 4.0 have derived into the introduction of the latest technologies for monitoring, controlling and optimizing processes [1,2,3,4,5]
Note that pipes are essential in shipbuilding: a ship usually contains between 15,000 and 40,000 pipes that differ greatly in their typology, they all are built at the same workshop in a shipyard that Navantia owns in Ferrol (Spain)
Regarding the use of fog computing for cyber-physical systems, some examples can be found in the literature for smart manufacturing environments [30,31,32] and high-security applications [33], but it has been found that none adapted explicitly to the necessities of a shipyard workshop like the Cyber-Physical System (CPS) proposed in this article
Summary
Technology is evolving at a fast pace and companies have to adapt to such a constant evolution. The industrial application of the paradigm of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the principles of Industry 4.0 have derived into the introduction of the latest technologies for monitoring, controlling and optimizing processes [1,2,3,4,5] In this new industrial revolution, Navantia, a Spanish naval company that has been building hi-tech military and civil vessels for more than 300 years, decided that it was essential to adapt its inner workings to the Industry 4.0 principles to enhance its competitiveness. This paper presents a fog computing based Cyber-Physical System (CPS) that makes use of active RFID technology to track pipes, to show information on them and, eventually, to detect and automate certain life-cycle events related to the pipes built in a shipyard.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
