The ongoing Industry 4.0 is characterized by the connectivity between components in the manufacturing system. For modern machines, the Internet of Things is a built-in function. In contrast, there are legacy machines in deployment functioning without digital communication. The need to connect them became popular to improve overall production efficiency. As building a new smart factory as a greenfield investment is a capital-intensive choice, retrofitting the existing infrastructure with IoT capability is more reasonable than replacing them. However, this so-called brownfield development, or retrofitting, requires specific prerequisites, e.g., digitization status assessment, technical and connectivity development, management requirement, and operational need, representing a significant disadvantage: lack of scalability. In the meantime, Industry 5.0 is under human-centric priority, which poses new challenges to the retrofitted system. Aware of the challenge, this paper provides a systematic overview of brownfield development regarding technical difficulties, supporting technologies, and possible applications for the legacy system. The research scope focuses on available Industry 4.0 advancements but considers preparing for the forthcoming Industry 5.0. The proposed retrofitting project approach can be a guideline for manufacturers to transform their factories into intelligent spaces with minimal cost and effort but still gain the most applicable solution for management needs. The future direction for other research in brownfield development for Industry 5.0 is also discussed.

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/ielx7/6287639/6514899/09794677.pdf

Retrofitting-based development of brownfield Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0 solutions

The ongoing Industry 4.0 is characterized by the connectivity between components in the manufacturing system. For modern machines, the Internet of Things is a built-in function. In contrast, there are legacy machines in deployment functioning without digital communication. The need to connect them became popular to improve overall production efficiency. As building a new smart factory as a greenfield investment is a capital-intensive choice, retrofitting the existing infrastructure with IoT capability is more reasonable than replacing them. However, this so-called brownfield development, or retrofitting, requires specific prerequisites, e.g., digitization status assessment, technical and connectivity development, management requirement, and operational need, representing a significant disadvantage: lack of scalability. In the meantime, Industry 5.0 is under human-centric priority, which poses new challenges to the retrofitted system. Aware of the challenge, this paper provides a systematic overview of brownfield development regarding technical difficulties, supporting technologies, and possible applications for the legacy system. The research scope focuses on available Industry 4.0 advancements but considers preparing for the forthcoming Industry 5.0. The proposed retrofitting project approach can be a guideline for manufacturers to transform their factories into intelligent spaces with minimal cost and effort but still gain the most applicable solution for management needs. The future direction for other research in brownfield development for Industry 5.0 is also discussed. 

Retrofitting-Based Development of Brownfield Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0 Solutions

This experimental study focuses on the comparison between two different sensors for vibration signals: a magnetoresistive sensor and an accelerometer as a calibrated reference. The vibrations are collected from a variable speed inductor motor setup, coupled to a ball bearing load with adjustable misalignments. To evaluate the performance of the magnetoresistive sensor against the accelerometer, several vibration measurements are performed in three different axes: axial, horizontal and vertical. Vibration velocity measurements from both sensors were collected and analyzed based on spectral decomposition of the signals. The high cross-correlation coefficient between spectrum vibration signatures in all experimental measurements shows good agreement between the proposed magnetoresistive sensor and the reference accelerometer performances. The results demonstrate the potential of this type of innovative and non-contact approach to vibration data collection and a prospective use of magnetoresistive sensors for predictive maintenance models for inductive motors in Industry 4.0 applications.

/pdf/magnetoresistive-sensors-and-piezoresistive-accelerometers-4ofvvzblmv.pdf

Magnetoresistive Sensors and Piezoresistive Accelerometers for Vibration Measurements: A Comparative Study

Smart buildings provide opportunities for technological transformations in building environments to improve resource management, comfort, and efficiency of the systems present in these facilities. For this, Internet of Things (IoT) solutions contribute, with monitoring and remote control features, to automate these environments. However, these solutions can promote the disposal or replacement of outdated but still-needed legacy systems. Thus, a reference model that uses retrofit techniques to update pre-existing systems would be an alternative to enable smart building convergence. The lack of models that advocate this type of strategy provides an opportunity for the emergence of methods capable of filling this gap. Thus, this work presents a strategy for implementing monitoring, control, and communication resources to achieve smart building convergence in legacy building systems. This strategy consists of the use of retrofit techniques based on the adaptation of the SmartLVGrid metamodel. To validate this proposal, we developed hardware platforms and, respectively, their firmware to implement the premises established in a legacy building lighting circuit. The results obtained present a new possibility of implementing smart buildings from the retrofit of legacy infrastructures, as the pre-existing building lighting circuit obtained new functionalities and was preserved as much as possible.

/pdf/a-novel-strategy-for-smart-building-convergence-based-on-the-6lspx0nq.pdf

A Novel Strategy for Smart Building Convergence Based on the SmartLVGrid Metamodel

The paper presents an approach for the retrofitting of industrial looms on the shop floor of a textile industry. This is a real case study, where there was a need to update the equipment, providing the machines with communication features aligned with the concept of Industry 4.0. The work was developed within the scope of the research project PRODUTECH-SIF: Solutions for the Industry of the Future. Temperature, Inductive, Acoustic and 3-axis Accelerometers sensors were installed in different parts of the machines for monitorization. Data acquisition and processing is done by a SmarBox developed on a cRIO 9040 from National Instruments. A SmartBox processes data from one to four looms, allowing these old machines to have communication capacity and to be monitored remotely through the factory plant’s MES/ERP. Communication can be done through the OPC UA or MQTT architecture, both protocols aligned with the new trends for industrial communications. The sensor data will be used to feed production and manufacturing KPIs and for predictive maintenance. The approach presented in this paper allows industries with legacy equipment to renew and adapt to new market trends, improving productivity rates and reduced maintenance costs.

Machinery Retrofiting for Industry 4.0

Constant search for efficiency and productivity has led to innovation on the factory shop floor, representing an evolution of the current production systems combined with new technologies of industrial automation and information technology. This work presents an experimental demo of a smartbox for Industry 4.0 scenarios, allowing sensing, monitoring and data acquisition. We have tested two different approaches, depending on the communication protocol used for real time applications: OPC UA or MQTT. Raspberry Pi’s platform act as an OPC UA server or MQTT broker, respectively. From the measurements, data stored in a cloud server can be accessed remotely with improved security and visualized from a computer dashboard. One of the conclusions that can be drawn is that both protocols allow data from the smartbox to be stored and easily monitored from a smartphone application or a computer web interface. MQTT is a good option in communications requiring very low bandwidth. However, there is a lack of suitable libraries to program alarm features for OPC UA Servers.

/pdf/industrial-iot-smartbox-for-the-shop-floor-1vxwozdy15.pdf

Industrial IoT Smartbox for the Shop Floor

Industry 4.0 paradigm is a reality in the digitization of industrial processes and physical assets, as well as their integration into digital ecosystems with several suppliers of the value chain. In particular, Industry 4.0 is the technological evolution of embedded systems applied to Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs). With this, a shift from the current paradigm of centralization to a more decentralized production, supported by Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), is implied. The work reported in this paper focuses on the development of smart devices (SmartBoxes), based on low-cost hardware such as Raspberry Pi and also platforms certified for industrial applications, such as NI CompactRIO. Both platforms adopted the OPC-UA architecture to collect data from the shop-floor and convert it into OPC-UA Data Access standard for further integration in the proposed CPPS. Tests were also performed with the MQTT protocol for monitorization. Each SmartBox is capable of real-time applications that run on OPC-UA and MQTT, allowing easy interaction between supervisory systems and physical assets.

Cyber-Physical Production Systems supported by Intelligent Devices (SmartBoxes) for Industrial Processes Digitalization

Constant search for efficiency and productivity has led to innovation on the factory shop floor, representing an evolution of the current production systems combined with new technologies of industrial automation and information technology. This work presents a versatile gateway for experimental demonstration of Industrial IoT technologies in a loom machine, allowing sensing, monitoring and data acquisition that was not originally available. We have implemented an approach, based on the OPC UA communication protocol for real time applications, and OPC UA to MQTT conversion mechanism. Raspberry Pi’s platform act as an OPC UA server. From the measurements, data stored in a cloud server can be accessed remotely with improved security and visualized from a computer dashboard. One of the conclusions that can be drawn is that the proposed gateway allows data to be stored and easily monitored from a smartphone application or a computer web interface.

https://online-journals.org/index.php/i-joe/article/viewFile/11853/6791

Development of a Smart Gateway for a Label Loom Machine using Industrial IoT Technologies

This work consists in the development of software with the main objective of increasing the quality of the communication system with Repetition Codes and GFSK modulation. To evaluate the probability of error we used simulation in software Python and implemented with hardware (Raspberry Pi, Arduino and transceiver NRF24L01).

Sergio Malhao

Papers

Industrial IoT Smartbox for the Shop Floor

Cyber-Physical Production Systems supported by Intelligent Devices (SmartBoxes) for Industrial Processes Digitalization

Development of a Smart Gateway for a Label Loom Machine using Industrial IoT Technologies

Machinery Retrofiting for Industry 4.0

Error Correction Repetition Codes with Arduino and Raspberry PI