Wireless, Self-Powered Vibration Monitoring and Control for Complex Industrial Systems (WIBRATE)

Framework: FP7 — Cooperation
Programme: Information and Communication Technologies
Destination: Alternative Paths to Components and Systems
Action type: Collaborative project
Countries involved: Netherlands,Italy,Belgium,Switzerland,India,United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-ICT-2011-7, 2011)
Start date: 2011-09-01
End date: 2015-02-28
Duration (months): 42.0
Total project cost (EUR): 4045171.0
EU funding (EUR): 2849883.0
Participants: 7
Project status: CLOSED

Vibration is a daily occurrence in a wide range of machinery used in industries such as manufacturing, aerospace, petro-chemical and building and construction. One of the major problems of vibration is that it causes wear and tear which in many instances can lead to equipment or structural failure. To prevent such occurrences, it is essential to not only monitor vibration levels but also to try and understand the underlying causes. This knowledge can subsequently be used to perform active vibration control which in turn improves the overall system’s performance, efficiency, lifetime and safety. WiBRATE explores new paradigms for developing innovative strategies for wirelessly monitoring and controlling vibration using a network of intelligent embedded devices that power themselves using harvested vibration energy. The project contributes directly to strengthening the European market in several key sectors such as quality control systems, safety systems, wireless communication and industrial automation and control systems. WiBRATE’s key innovation lies in the development of a self-powered, vibration monitoring and control platform. Unlike existing vibration monitoring devices available in the market that operate as individual entities, WiBRATE’s unique approach is based on individual intelligent sensor-actuator nodes that communicate wirelessly to collaboratively predict impending failures, perform fault diagnosis or provide real-time feedback. The use of robust wireless communication strategies ensures that the system is highly flexible and allows for a new class of monitoring and control applications that are not possible using traditional wired systems. The WiBRATE project will provide a complete end-to-end solution for carrying out fully automated condition-based maintenance for high vibration environments, thus totally eliminating the labour-intensive process of periodic monitoring. In addition, WiBRATE’s continuous monitoring system will also provide proactive maintenance capability. Safety will be increased, since failures can be detected earlier and accidents possibly avoided. The technologies developed in WiBRATE will be demonstrated through multiple case studies in diverse domains such as automotive manufacturing, aerospace and the railway industry. The project consortium includes major industrial players who are world leaders in various aspects of vibration monitoring such as Fiat Research, Honeywell Research and LMS International. This will help to enable rapid commercialisation of the technologies developed in the project. Moreover, WiBRATE’s SMEs, Inertia Technology and Perpetuum will have the opportunity to diversify their existing product ranges and thus explore new markets. The academic partners will also play a leading role in training qualified systems and control engineers to serve Europe’s hi-tech manufacturing sectors.

Keywords: wireless,self-powered vibration monitoring and control