Abstract
Visible Light Communication (VLC) is a short-range optical wireless communication technology that has been gaining attention due to its potential to offload heavy data traffic from the congested radio wireless spectrum. At the same time, wireless communications are becoming crucial to smart manufacturing within the scope of Industry 4.0. Industry 4.0 is a developing trend of high-speed data exchange in automation for manufacturing technologies and is referred to as the fourth industrial revolution. This trend requires fast, reliable, low-latency, and cost-effective data transmissions with fast synchronizations to ensure smooth operations for various processes. VLC is capable of providing reliable, low-latency, and secure connections that do not penetrate walls and is immune to electromagnetic interference. As such, this paper aims to show the potential of VLC for industrial wireless applications by examining the latest research work in VLC systems. This work also highlights and classifies challenges that might arise with the applicability of VLC and visible light positioning (VLP) systems in these settings. Given the previous work performed in these areas, and the major ongoing experimental projects looking into the use of VLC systems for industrial applications, the use of VLC and VLP systems for industrial applications shows promising potential.
Highlights
The ongoing research in optical wireless communications has opened the door for many uses of the optical spectrum that ranges from ultra-violet to infrared (IR) communications
The results indicated that a bit error rate (BER) of 10−6 can be achieved using pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) up to the order of 8, while the maximum achievable distance is reduced to 19 m for 16-PAM
The performance of a Visible Light Communication (VLC) system that suffers from inter-symbol interference (ISI) due to multipath reflections can be improved by using orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM)
Summary
The ongoing research in optical wireless communications has opened the door for many uses of the optical spectrum that ranges from ultra-violet to infrared (IR) communications. VLC and VLP have great potential considering that high power white LEDs are replacing existing lighting infrastructure in indoor and outdoor environments to achieve low-cost and energy-efficient illumination systems as part of the global green technology. Though significant development has been achieved in VLC for many applications, limited research works on the application of VLC in industrial environments have been reported in the literature These applications range in their intended use in different types of environments (i.e., mines, pipelines, warehouses, etc.). Considering the limited amount of research works reported on the application of VLC for industrial environments, this paper sets out to provide an overview of this emerging new wireless technology in industrial settings and examine its full potential.
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