Industrial Automation Networks Research Articles

A Flexible Retransmission Scheme for Reliable and Real-Time Transmissions in Industrial Wireless Networks for Factory Automation

Factory automation strongly relies on industrial wireless networks that are able to guarantee reliable and real-time transmissions. To this end, a recently approved International Electrotechnical Commission standard Wireless networks for Industrial Automation-Factory Automation (WIA-FA) is proposed to specify wireless networks for time-critical industrial applications. This paper proposes a Flexible Retransmission Scheme for reliable and real-time transmissions in WIA-FA networks, termed as FRS, which combines the advantages of a cyclic reservation diversity retransmission scheme and an on-demand retransmission scheme to make full use of the strictly limited communication resources. Further, we perform the reliability analysis by analytical modeling to FRS, whose major contribution lies in the dynamic selection of retransmission schemes according to the reliability analysis. Simulation results finally show that this work outperforms other retransmission schemes in terms of transmission reliability for different scenarios.

Deep Reinforcement Learning: A Study of Reinforcement Learning with Neural Networks in Industrial Automation

Deep Reinforcement Learning: A Study of Reinforcement Learning with Neural Networks in Industrial Automation

Real-Time Transmission Optimization for Edge Computing in Industrial Cyber-Physical Systems

With the rapid development of Industry 4.0, the industrial cyber-physical systems (ICPS) are expected to realize the digital sensing, automatic control, and refined management in smart factories. However, limited bandwidth resources and severe industrial interference make it difficult to meet the real-time and ultrahigh reliability in edge computing (EC)-based next-generation industrial automation networks. To tackle these challenges, in this article, we propose a real-time transmission optimization scheme to accelerate EC. First, we establish a hierarchical system model for smart manufacturing and automation scenarios. Then we present a power control optimization method based on noncooperative game to alleviate interference and reduce energy consumption. Finally, we propose a path optimization scheme based on Q-learning for low-latency and ultrahigh reliability transmission requirements. Extensive simulation results reveal that our proposals perform better in terms of transmission delay and packet-loss rate compared with traditional methods, and therefore, contributes to EC deployment in ICPS.

Synchronization in Time-Sensitive Networking: An Introduction to IEEE Std 802.1AS

Synchronization has become key in many applications. It is a key aspect of Industrial Automation networks, as those applications depend on synchronized time. It is also important for automotive applications, as synchronization is used for infotainment and handling sensor data. In Telecommunications networks, synchronization has been used for many years, and it is very important to fulfill 5G technology requirements. The Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) Task Group (TG) of IEEE 802.1 has developed several base standards to allow a deterministic network with bounded latency. IEEE Std 802.1 AS, “Timing and Synchronization for Time-Sensitive Applications,” is part of these base standards developed by the TSN TG. This article gives an introduction of IEEE Std 802.1 AS, and addresses synchronization concepts and its applications. IEEE Std 1588 defines a precision time protocol (PTP), and IEEE Std 802.1AS includes a profile of IEEE Std 1588; therefore, some concepts of IEEE 1588 are also described in this article.

Modeling and practical implementation of the optimal wireless security gateway for the industrial automation network

Reducing energy consumption in networks of IoT devices is very important. This paper presents the results of experimental studies of the proposed method of reducing power consumption for the protective gateway of the industrial network. Research was conducted for devices built on Lora modules. The LoRa Modem Calculator software from Semtech was used as a modeling tool. The recommended values of the program registers are given to achieve optimal energy consumption parameters for data reception and transmission modes. Information about the prototype is given and its practical implementation is shown. The developed prototype of the gateway implements the ?Protocol Transformation? method, which allows removing possible dangerous inserts from the data packets received by the gateway. This can improve the security of packets from the gateway to IoT devices and back, and thus the network as a whole.

Mathematical modeling on application of wireless networks for industrial automation-factory automation

Since traditional automation relies on wires, the machines’ versatility will be restricted. Thus maintenance is required to prevent cable wear and breakage, which would be costly and highlighted the importance of wireless connectivity in overcoming some of the limitations of conventional factory automation. Moreover, two of the most critical considerations, reliability and latency, need to be fulfilled so that a factory automation system can perform flawlessly. However, in factory automation, 0ms is the perfect condition since many machines share the same network. Furthermore, it can only reduce latency to a certain extent but not to zero. This study focuses on wireless networks for Industrial Automation Factor Automation’s system architecture, including network devices and topology, and then demonstrates one of the wireless networks’ main technologies, retransmission. This paper develops a mathematical analysis based on Negative Acknowledgement (NACK)-based retransmission mode as default retransmission for field devices to send data frames to the gateway device periodically. The results demonstrate an automatic on-demand retransmission (AODR) scheme able to provide higher efficiency of retransmission rate.

Dynamic Automobile Assembly Process using IOT

In the wake of #AtmanirbharBharat and #MakeInIndia planks, there is a huge thrust to Manufacturing. This paper focuses on the Automobile Manufacturing process, enabling a customizable product, vis-a-vis a rigid Manufacturing process developed as per Industry 4.0 principles aided by IOT (Internet of Things) tools. The solution proposes to modularize entire Automobile Production/ Assembly Process, which simulates the whole process of the delivery to every customer through to the Manufacturer facilitates highly customized products based on dynamic user choices. Seamless integration of Networked Production Components is realized by building interfaces between existing ERP systems and MES (Manufacturing Execution Systems). The system adopts M3 - Modular Manufacturing Mode, via Wireless Networks for Industrial Automation - Factory Automation (WIA-FA) and Dynamic Control System, to Manufacture and Maintain Automobile Products at Scale. Proposed approach also improved Production Equipment utilization. Another aspect of this approach is flexibility of the Production/ Assembly Processes to enable high customization in product specification

Efficient Resource Scheduling for Multipath Retransmission over Industrial WSAN Systems.

With recent adoption of Wireless Sensor-Actuator Networks (WSANs) in industrial automation, wireless control systems have emerged as a frontier of industrial networks. Hence, it has been shown that existing standards and researches concentrate on the reliability and real-time performance of WSANs. The multipath retransmission scheme with multiple channels is a key approach to guarantee the deterministic wireless communication. However, the efficiency of resource scheduling is seldom considered in applications with diverse data sampling rates. In this paper, we propose an efficient resources scheduling algorithm for multipath retransmission in WSANs. The objective of our algorithm is to improve efficiency and schedulability for the use of slot and channel resources. In detail, the proposed algorithm uses the approaches of CCA (clear channel assessment)-Embedded slot and Multiple sinks with Rate Monotonic scheme (CEM-RM) to decrease the number of collisions. We have simulated and implemented our algorithm in hardware and verified its performance in a real industrial environment. The achieved results show that the proposed algorithm significantly improves the schedulability without trading off reliability and real-time performance.

Implementation of flow control over WirelessHART sensor network using WirelessHART adaptors

<p>Despite the advantages of the industrial wireless standards such as WirelessHART, ISA100.11a and Wireless Networks for Industrial Automation-Process Automation (WIA-PA), their application still faces a lot of challenges especially when it comes to interfacing with the real plant. This is due to lack of adequate infrastructures such as interfacing circuitry to establish communication between the WirelessHART nodes and the actuators and sensors. Therefore, this paper presents the application of locally developed WirelessHART adaptors for flow process control. The adaptors serve as an interface between the WirelessHART network and the sensor and actuator of the plant. Experimental results of the controllers compared showed that wireless control is possible through the use of the adaptors.</p>

CKMI: Comprehensive Key Management Infrastructure Design for Industrial Automation and Control Systems

Industrial Automation and Control Systems (IACS) are broadly utilized in critical infrastructures for monitoring and controlling the industrial processes remotely. The real-time transmissions in such systems provoke security breaches. Many security breaches have been reported impacting society severely. Hence, it is essential to achieve secure communication between the devices for creating a secure environment. For this to be effective, the keys used for secure communication must be protected against unauthorized disclosure, misuse, alteration or loss, which can be taken care of by a Key Management Infrastructure. In this paper, by considering the generic industrial automation network, a comprehensive key management infrastructure (CKMI) is designed for IACS. To design such an infrastructure, the proposed scheme employs ECDH, matrix method, and polynomial crypto mechanisms. The proposed design handles all the standard key management operations, viz. key generation, device registration, key establishment, key storage, device addition, key revocation, key update, key recovery, key archival, and key de-registration and destruction. The design supports secure communication between the same and different levels of IACS devices. The proposed design can be applied for major industrial automation networks to handle the key management operations. The performance analysis and implementation results highlight the benefits of the proposed design.

WIA-FA and Its Applications to Digital Factory: A Wireless Network Solution for Factory Automation

Intelligent factory automation systems strongly rely on industrial wireless control networks which have to ensure timely and reliable data exchange among their components. This paper presents a comprehensive survey on recently approved International Electrotechnical Commission standard Wireless networks for Industrial Automation–Factory Automation (WIA-FA). This paper first introduces the system architecture of WIA-FA including network device, network topology, and system management, and then illustrates WIA-FA protocol stack and key technologies. Furthermore, two WIA-FA testbeds are described to demonstrate the high performance of WIA-FA. After that, three examples of practical applications are provided in this paper. One application deploys a WIA-FA network to monitor and control industrial robots in a digital workshop. The second application adopts the deployment of WIA-FA as a real-time wireless network that connects automated guided vehicles (AGVs) in a logistic sorting system. The last application coordinates multiple cooperative AGVs via the WIA-FA network to carry large and complex components. Finally, the open issues and future directions for WIA-FA networks are presented.

5G Industrial Networks With CoMP for URLLC and Time Sensitive Network Architecture

5G NR is designed from the ground up to provide support for mission critical communication with ultra-reliability and low latency (URLLC) in addition to other use cases such as enhanced mobile broadband. URLLC allows 5G network performance to approach that of wired networks (e.g., Ethernet) and paves the way for new use cases. In this paper, we focus on the end-to-end design of 5G networks for industrial factory automation. Providing URLLC wireless communication in these environments is especially challenging due to highly dynamic RF variations with possible signal blockage or reflections from moving metal objects. Coordinated Multipoint (CoMP) communication, which leverages spatial diversity to improve reliability without relying on packet retransmission, is a promising approach in these environments. We present a design and performance trade-offs between different CoMP techniques and their implication to capacity, robustness, and architecture. Subsequently, we describe architecture and protocol design aspects that allow 5G to operate as part of a time sensitive network including Ethernet bridging, time synchronization, and QoS. A prototype system that validates certain aspects of the design is also presented.

Regulating Scheduler (RSC): A Novel Solution for IEEE 802.1 Time Sensitive Network (TSN)

Emerging applications such as industrial automation, in-vehicle, professional audio-video, and wide area electrical utility networks require strict bounds on the end-to-end network delay. Solutions so far to such a requirement are either impractical or ineffective. Flow based schedulers suggested in a traditional integrated services (IntServ) framework are O(N) or O(log N), where N is the number of flows in the scheduler, which can grow to tens of thousands in a core router. Due to such complexity, class-based schedulers are adopted in real deployments. The class-based systems, however, cannot provide bounded delays in networks with cycle, since the maximum burst grows infinitely along the cycled path. Attaching a regulator in front of a scheduler to limit the maximum burst is considered as a viable solution. International standards, such as IEEE 802.1 time sensitive network (TSN) and IETF deterministic network (DetNet) are adopting this approach as a standard. The regulator in TSN and DetNet, however, requires flow state information, therefore contradicts to the simple class-based schedulers. This paper suggests non-work conserving fair schedulers, called ‘regulating schedulers’ (RSC), which function as a regulator and a scheduler at the same time. A deficit round-robin (DRR) based RSC, called nw-DRR, is devised and proved to be both a fair scheduler and a regulator. Despite the lower complexity, the input port-based nw-DRR is shown to perform better than the current TSN approach, and to bind the end-to-end delay within a few milliseconds in realistic network scenarios.

Distributed computing using SMART sensors in industrial automation framework

Transition from single node computing to complex distributed computing environments has proven its efficiency in the computer networks especially in executing heavy computational tasks. The sensors on the floor have become smart with additional computational capabilities compared to passive acquisition nodes. We merged these two entities and evaluated the distributed computing of PLC load on smart sensors on an industrial automation framework. We have utilized SoC (Raspberry Pi) to build a SMART sensor which has allowed us to create a distributed and scalable sensor network structure. This structure in conjunction with state of the Art Industrial Automation network improves the performance of the Automation networks.

Laboratory stand for designing industrial KNX networks on Siemens logo! Communication modules

Industrial automation networks based on the EIB / KNX protocol are very popular among European companies in the construction of intelligent buildings, but they are of little interest in high school education and currently professional specialists are not trained to use them. Developing the KNX‐based automation system simulator for the training of engineering students is required. We have designed and installed a KNX simulator for engineering students training on smart systems. The presented stand was developed on Siemens LOGO! Basic with CM KNX communication modules. The modules of simulator and KNX software programming tool ETS are explained. Besides, sample scenarios for engineering students to enhance and implement their projects are given.

Node-Identification-Based Secure Time Synchronization in Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks.

Time synchronization is critical for wireless sensors networks in industrial automation, e.g., event detection and process control of industrial plants and equipment need a common time reference. However, cyber-physical attacks are enormous threats causing synchronization protocols to fail. This paper studies the algorithm design and analysis in secure time synchronization for resource-constrained industrial wireless sensor networks under Sybil attacks, which cannot be well addressed by existing methods. A node-identification-based secure time synchronization (NiSTS) protocol is proposed. The main idea of this protocol is to utilize the timestamp correlation among different nodes and the uniqueness of a node’s clock skew to detect invalid information rather than isolating suspicious nodes. In the detection process, each node takes the relative skew with respect to its public neighbor as the basis to determine whether the information is reliable and to filter invalid information. The information filtering mechanism renders NiSTS resistant to Sybil attacks and message manipulation attacks. As a completely distributed protocol, NiSTS is not sensitive to the number of Sybil attackers. Extensive simulations were conducted to demonstrate the efficiency of NiSTS and compare it with existing protocols.

Energy Efficient Data Transmission Approaches for Wireless Industrial Automation

Background: The industrial wireless automation system enables the monitoring and control of processes. It may be difficult to recharge the battery of sensors installed in harmful environments. Hence optimization of the power is the major issue to be addressed while implementing the network. The proposed hybrid data transmission approaches optimize data accuracy and energy efficiency of a wireless sensor node deployed in any industry. Methods: In the time-driven method, the sensor nodes periodically sense the environment and transmit the data continuously over time. In the event-driven method, the sensor nodes transmit data only when there is a drastic change in the occurrence of a certain event. Results: Based on the nature of the process, applications are classified as, less critical, critical and most critical. The time-driven based hybrid transmission approach is suggested for the most critical applications because they need to be monitored continuously so as to attain data accuracy. In the case of critical applications, the data is not required to be sent continuously, but instead it can be sampled and transmitted once in two seconds. Though the above suggested methods intended to provide better outcomes in terms of power utilization, in the case of process control applications, most critical and critical applications need to be monitored continuously. Hence such applications could be done as a heterogeneous industrial automation network, which is the combination of wired and wireless connectivity. This can be implemented by replacing all the signal cables with wireless communication system, regular power supply must be provided for the radio module attached with final control elements and also to the transmitters involved in most critical applications. For the least critical applications, the data can be sampled and transmitted once in four seconds. Conclusion: Simulation has been performed for time-driven based and duty-cycling based hybrid transmission approaches. The results can guide process engineers in selecting the transmission approach for optimizing the power of IWAS based on the critical level of the process. In the case of a critical process, the time-driven based hybrid transmission approach may be used, and in the case of a less critical process, the duty-cycling based hybrid transmission approach could be selected. By selecting appropriate transmission approach the life time of IWAS could be improved. Keywords: Controllers, process control, transceivers, transmitters, temperature sensors, wireless sensor networks.

Software Defined Networks in Industrial Automation

Trends such as the Industrial Internet of Things and Industry 4.0 have increased the need to use new and innovative network technologies in industrial automation. The growth of industrial automation communications is an outcome of the shift to harness the productivity and efficiency of manufacturing and process automation with a minimum of human intervention. Due to the ongoing evolution of industrial networks from Fieldbus technologies to Ethernet, a new opportunity has emerged to harness the benefits of Software Defined Networking (SDN). In this paper, we provide a brief overview of SDN in the industrial automation domain and propose a network architecture called the Software Defined Industrial Automation Network (SDIAN), with the objective of improving network scalability and efficiency. To match the specific considerations and requirements of having a deterministic system in an industrial network, we propose two solutions for flow creation: the Pro-active Flow Installation Scheme and the Hybrid Flow Installation Scheme. We analytically quantify the proposed solutions that alleviate the overhead incurred from the flow setup. The analytical model is verified using Monte Carlo simulations. We also evaluate the SDIAN architecture and analyze the network performance of the modified topology using the Mininet emulator. We further list and motivate SDIAN features and report on an experimental food processing plant demonstration featuring Raspberry Pi as a software-defined controller instead of traditional proprietary Programmable Logic Controllers. Our demonstration exemplifies the characteristics of SDIAN.

A novel industrial control architecture based on Software-Defined Network

Traditionally, routers and other network devices encompass both data and control functions in most large enterprise networks, making it difficult to adjust the network infrastructure and operation to large-scale addition of end systems, virtual machines, and virtual networks in industrial comprehensive automation. A network organizing technique that has come to recent prominence is the Software-Defined Network (SDN). A novel SDN based industrial control network (SDNICN) was proposed in this paper. Intelligent network components are included in a SDNICN. Switches in SDNICN provided fundamental network interconnection for the whole industrial control network. Network controller is used for data transmission, forwarding and routing control between different layers. Service Management Center (SMC) is essentially responsible for managing various services used in industrial process control. SDNICN can not only greatly improve the flexibility and performance of industrial control network but also meet the intelligence and informatization of the future industry.

Detecting and preventing replay attacks in industrial automation networks operated with profinet IO

Modern industrial facilities consist of controllers, actuators and sensors that are connected via traditional IT equipment. The ongoing integration of these systems into the communication network yields to new threats and attack possibilities. In industrial networks, often distinct communication protocols like Profinet IO (PNIO) are used. These protocols are often not supported by typical network security tools. In this work, we present two attack techniques that allow to take over the control of a PNIO device, enabling an attacker to replay previously recorded traffic. We model attack detection rules and propose an intrusion detection system (IDS) for industrial networks which is capable of detecting those replay attacks by correlating alerts from traditional IT IDS with specific PNIO alarms. As an additional effort, we introduce defense in depth mechanisms in order to prevent those attacks from taking effect in the physical world. Thereafter, we evaluate our IDS in a physical demonstrator and compare it with another IDS dedicated to securing PNIO networks. In a conceptual design, we show how network segmentation with flow control allows for preventing some, but not all of the attacks.