Remote control and monitoring of a hydraulic machine

Abstract

An electronic system based on an open source programmable board was designed and tested, for remote control and monitoring of a fluid power machine. To satisfy the requirements for remote two-way communication between the machine and the user interface, a connection must be established via the Internet. The Arduino Uno Wi-Fi Rev 2 board is designed to connect wirelessly to a local network. To transmit the data between the board and the graphical interface, on a device that is on an external network, a MQTT broker was generated on an AWS server. A program receives the information from the sensors, sends it to the user interface, makes logical decisions, processes the information of control orders, and establishes the protocols to govern the machine. The electronic system was tested with a mobile hydraulic crane. Four variables were selected to control and monitor the crane performance: the load position, the current demanded by the electric motor, the flow supplied by the hydraulic pump and the presence of mechanical pins to lock or release the hydraulic linear actuator. Two tests were conducted to control the machine remotely, one within the same location and the other from Berlin, Germany. It was possible to use the open source board for connecting with the user interface generated with Node-RED via MQTT protocol and control and monitor the machine performance.