Method and apparatus for the automated management of a coating plant

A plant for manufacturing products, in particular for applying a coating on parts, includes apparatuses having radiofrequency transmitters, with a pre-set periodicity, of a radio signal containing a unique identifier of each apparatus; a portable device carried by an operator and receiving the radio signal; a program loaded on and performed by the portable device to extract a unique identifier of the apparatus and detect the operator-apparatus distance through an analysis of the trend of the radio signal, the radio-transmitters transmitting periodically their unique identifier and having a remote configuring/setting channel through radio-frequency communication with an external control device to exchange data packets; and a connecting procedure between the portable device and the radio-frequency transmitter to receive information on the operating status of the apparatuses, the signals being transmitted to a remote server or a cloud to monitor the operating conditions of the apparatuses.

The present invention relates to the technical field of command and control of the machines in a production line. The following description relates to the technical field of the machines for the application through spraying of a coating to products, without for this losing generality. In a production line for applying a coating to parts, such machines are normally employed in a production line comprising sundry apparatuses, usually arranged in series. In particular, the present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for gathering information on the productive process under course.

In the instant description, the word coating is used as a generic term, comprising enamel, lacquer, paint, inks, transparent coats, base coats, adhesives and glues, and in general any sprayable substance having an organic base.

The pieces to be coated are preferably, but not exclusively, panels having two main dimensions, made of wood, plastics, glass, fibrocement, or any other material.

In the art, automated islands for applying a coating, with robots having visual sensors to detect the dimensions and the positioning of products. Often these coating islands are totally isolated from the data stream of the rest of the factory.

In the state of the art, the interfacing of the coating island requires an important and careful design of data interfaces.

To oversee the plant and gather information about the state of production progress, the most used architecture consists in interfacing every single apparatus with a concentrator (hub), which in its turn is part of the company network iec 802.3 or iec 802.11, and from there is connected to different servers and industrial applications or to Internet through suitable firewalls.

A concentrator (hub) is a monitoring system gathering the information coming from the PLC/PC of the single apparatuses, often through a web connection through Ethernet or Wi-Fi.

A drawback of this type of architecture is that the implementation of this system requires a careful design of the database, an exchange of data among the different managers of Information Technology, and normally also a significant investment in hardware, time of qualified professionals, travels, meetings and different kinds of resources.

Furthermore in plants comprising in combination several automatic machines carrying out different tasks of a complex workflow of the production process, which machines are often built by different producer. Upgrade or maintenance operations of such a plant causes often that some of the machines operating in combination are upgraded to a new and more modern technological level which is not directly compatible with one or more of the older machines. In many cases also an upgrade or modification of the production process due to changes in the kind of the product or upgrades or changes in some materials used during the production process or changes in the technology used for controlling the process and/or interfacing the machines causes hindering or complex problems in harmonization and integration of the upgrade.

These conditions are extreme when considering the processing units controlling the workflow and configurations of the corresponding machine and the compatibility of the hardware and the software resources available on each machine with centralized process management units. This is true at the hardware level and at the software level and it is also frequent the case that the hardware of a machine is not able to execute upgraded software. These problems also attain to the hardware and software for connecting the machine control units in a network allowing a centralized monitoring of the machines and a centralized management of the production process.

The most modern coating islands are provided with systems detecting the dimensions and positioning of parts to be coated, and can autonomously set up coating trajectories: this has the advantage of simplifying the interfacing needed to provide parts dimensions and their layout.

Nonetheless, such systems work as islands separated from the rest of the factory, at least for their functional part. They cannot provide the management of production information, industrial accounting and final accounting.

In a significant number of industrial plants, having obtained a minimal functionality of the production line, the buyers prefer to save on the investments, and do not buy the interfacing of databases.

Other buyers of plants decide however to interface data for data gathering and monitoring, reluctantly accepting to bear a considerable additional cost, not justified by the production line working criteria, but by management control only.

A first aim of the present invention relates to providing a simplification of the integration of a plurality of machines into a centralized management system pf the production process.

Aim of the present invention is providing an apparatus and a method for the automated management of a coating plant, allowing a simplification of data interfacing.

According to a first aspect of the present invention the above objects are achieved by an apparatus and a method having the features of the embodiments comprising the combination of features of the independent claims. Advantageous embodiments and refinements are specified in claims dependent thereon.

The features of the above embodiments and the advantages will appear more clearly from the following description

The present invention allows to enrich the operation of users (e.g. operators, service providers, administrative foreperson, etc.) of the production line with precious information concerning production line operation, productivity, safety, etc.

In a first embodiment, the invention according to the present invention comprises:Any number of apparatuses, each provided with a transmitting radiofrequency device, transmitting with a pre-determined periodicity a radio signal containing a unique identifier, allowing to recognize the apparatus itself,A portable device receiving the signals transmitted from the transmitting device embedded in the apparatus provided with a program (app) performed by said portable device, extracting the unique identifier of the apparatus, detecting its distance through the analysis of the intensity of the radio signal and radio-transmitting said information and/or a dedicated command signal for activating/configuring for each of the single apparatus, connecting to each of said apparatus.

According to an advantageous embodiment, the radio-transmitting device is a so-called beacon in a modified version, comprising a section radio-transmitting signals according to one of the different known communication protocols, a control processor by which a control program of the functions of the beacon itself is performed, a memory in which said control program is loaded, a radio receiving port for configuring/setting signals, through which an external device transmits configuring/setting parameters of the beacon to the control processor, and at least an output port of said processor. According to said embodiment, the radio receiving port is used to transmit the information and/or the command signals generated by the portable device to the beacon, while in its memory a communication program is loaded; said program commands and/or configures signals, which program is performed by the processor for actuating the information and/or the command signals commanded by the portable unit to said adjusting and control device of the apparatus making part of the production line.

According to the present invention, in the plant there is provided a plurality of beacon sensors, each characterized by its unique identifier, emitting information visible from all the personal devices of the operators inside a pre-defined area. The beacon sensors allow to correctly localize the personal devices (smartphone, table, or other, even wearable, devices) of operators on which an app with location based function is loaded. Furthermore by combining the beacon identifier with a machine identification code it is possible to univocally correlate the operations of the portable device in cooperation of a certain beacon with the corresponding apparatus.

On the market there are provided several commercial electronic modules, known as beacons. A Bluetooth® beacon transmits with a pre-determined periodicity a 2.4 GHz radio signal according to the Bluetooth® standard, containing a unique identifier for each device in a codified way according to the Bluetooth® standard. Analogously, a Wi-Fi beacon transmits with a pre-determined periodicity a radio signal according to the IEEE 802.11 standard, containing a unique identifier for each device in a codified way according to IEEE 802.11 standard.

From the above, it appears clearly that the improper use of the radio connection channel for configuring the beacon as a channel for transmitting command signals generated by the control program performed by the portable device allows reducing the hardware placed in the single lighting devices, with respect to what would be needed according to the known art. Concentrating hardware/software intelligence in the portable device, a very light communication program is obtained between beacon and apparatuses, in that the hardware must not perform processes transforming the identifying information of the apparatus, of the intensity of the signal received from the portable device and distance from said apparatus, and information concerning apparatus conditions, operation performed by operators and use of consumables, etc. . . . The hardware must only actuate the configuring and command signals intelligibly received by the apparatus on the actuating device. If the tracking of working data of apparatus must be changed, distributing software updates will be sufficient, without the need to modify the hardware of the plant.

Designing and building industrial beacons provided with sensors, like e.g. thermometers, vibration sensors, magnetometers, etc. is also possible, so that said beacons acquire their values and their variations at pre-defined intervals or upon an event. Said beacons can diffuse at each sent message a portion of the measurements, or make available the complete measurements or the log of measurements when the portable device explicitly connects to the beacon.

Moreover, generating a network among apparatuses for applying coating making part of the production line is not necessary, because the control software performed by the portable device manages the communication with the different apparatuses, correspondingly to pre-configured or pre-configurable modes, according to the user needs, to whom a portable device is associated.

Independent claims12and21disclose a further embodiment of the present invention which allows easily to carry out in an easy and rapid way monitoring operations of an automatic operating unit by avoiding manual input of the functional parameters describing the working status of the apparatus in a program for determining commands or control configurations for changing the workflow of the apparatus and/or one or more configuration parameters of the apparatus, having the advantage that the apparatus control unit does not need to be connected to a physical or wireless network for transmitting data to a central processor for generating the said commands and/or configuration controls basing on the parameters sent to the central processor by the apparatus and for transmitting the said generated commands and/or configuration controls as well as other information to the control unit of the apparatus and/o to the operator through the said control unit and the associated display.

According to the embodiment defined by the combination of features of independent claims12and21, also apparatus having very limited resources relating to the hardware of the control unit and to the capability of this hardware to be connected in a network and/o to carry out software may be easily monitored by the most technologically evolved management systems without the need of upgrade interventions on the apparatus and without needing complex upgrade process or the development of dedicated software for exploiting the existing hardware resources of the less developed apparatus which may still be used for carrying out some of the new tasks such as connection to a network or interfacing with management data such as commands and controls and their configuration and protocols.

As it appear clearly if needed the communication and connection with a centralized monitoring and management server is limited to the portable devices not being essentially needed a direct connection of these portable devices with the control hardware of the apparatus. Thus also when several apparatus are present which has to work in a cooperative manner in a production line, there is not the need to generate a network connecting directly this apparatus to a central monitoring and management server. This eliminates every problem in relation to retrofitting of older apparatus.

According to the further aspect disclosed in the dependent claims, this embodiments allow to integrate easily and without high burden in costs and technological complexity existing apparatus with sensors and devices which allow to integrate the monitoring or information which can be made available by the original native configuration of the control hardware and software of the apparatus, thus overcoming any upgrade or retrofitting problem and any compatibility problem.

When the existing hardware resources in an apparatus allow to generate a direct communication connection with a radio-transmitting device such as the beacon, it is possible to easily transfer data from and to the control unit of the apparatus using the radio-transmitting device as a communication unit and the portable unit as a gateway to the cloud server, which gateway is also particular since the radio-transmitting device operates blindly according to a transmission and reception protocol, while all the process is managed by the portable device.

In the following further advantages of the invention are disclosed.

A first advantage of the present invention is that said app can be the same for a plurality of coating plants, sold to different plant buyers and placed in completely different geographical regions.

A second advantage is that data flow from the production plant to a remote server takes place only when beacon sensors were previously enabled. Heavy interfacing with the enterprise resource program are not necessary any more, with an important saving.

A third advantage is that with the same instruments the supply of raw materials to production line can be detected, crossing it with the progress of production orders and with the progress of apparatus statistics.

A fourth advantage is that with the same instruments, context-aware contents delivery is possible: e.g. an operator can access the user manual of the apparatus when she/is in proximity of the apparatus itself; she/he can access to the consumables list of an apparatus when being in proximity of the apparatus itself.

A fifth advantage is that, in case of emergency, every app can triangulate the information of the emergency underway, with the supplementary advantage of the possibility of individuation of the persons present at the moment of the emergency. On one hand, this can help remote diagnostics, on the other knowing whether other persons were in the area, or knowing whether other persons must be evacuated in case of a dangerous accident may be useful.

FIG. 1shows an outline of the present state of the art, wherein each room (A, B, C) has an architecture of data gathering totally separated from the other rooms. Connecting the apparatuses to obtain information requires heavy investments in hardware and software.

FIG. 2shows the same scheme modified according to the principles of the present invention. In this scheme, the operating units of the different lines L1, L2, L3, L4are not provided each with a computerized control system connected in a network, which overall is under the control of a program performed by a server. The computerized control system of the operating units communicates with one or more mobile control units P1, P2, P3, P4. At least one of these units is associated to its corresponding line. Said units can be a unique identical unit, or a plurality of mobile units. Each unit receives from the operating groups of the different lines L1, L2, L3, L4information about the operating conditions, the set configuration parameters or diagnostic conditions through a transmission unit in the form of a so-called beacon. The control program of the operating units is performed by a dedicated processor for each operating unit, which is not intended to communicate through a network directly to a control server, but transmits data to said mobile devices P1, P2, P3, P4, to all of them or only some of the, and receives setting data of the operating parameters.

Many variations are possible, and many management modes of the communication and of the qualification of said mobile devices P1, P2, P3, P4to perform given command and/or control activities, thanks to the reading of the data provided by the different beacons B1,1, B2,1, B3,1, B4,1, . . . , B1,n, B2,n, B3,n, B4,n, and to the sending of setting data. As will appear in the following, advantageously the channels of beacon configuration can be used to transmit to the control processors of the different operating system, without the need of adding weight from the hardware and software point of view.

From the above, it is apparent that the single operating unit can have control unit that are less onerous in their hardware. Moreover, the possible continual upgrading or servicing of the control program performing the dialogue of the operating unit in the single lines and within the lines according to the workflow pre-set for the production activity under course is greatly simplified.

The sundry mobile devices P1, P2, P3, P4are wirelessly connected to at least one server cooperating with them, both for the access to operating functions residing at least partially in the server itself, and for a centralized control of the different management activities delegated to mobile devices.

FIG. 3is a generalization of the example ofFIG. 2, and shows that an interaction of a plurality of lines with the same mobile unit can work. From this scheme it is clear that the system according to the present invention breaks the traditional client/server architecture. Here intelligence is distributed according to a different scheme, wherein local networks among operating units of a line do not control the line anymore, making reference to a server through a wired network, but the operating unit control functions only, transferring the setting of the synchronized parameters activities in a workflow to local mobile units, which in their turn cooperate with a server.

FIG. 4shows a typical line1for applying a coating to a part according to the present invention. Said line1comprises a plurality of apparatuses, generally arranged in series; e.g. inFIG. 4, an apparatus11for pre-treating parts, an apparatus12for spraying a coating through a robot, an oven13for drying the applied coating.

In said coating line1, there is provided a plurality of beacon sensors: e.g. a first beacon111is placed on apparatus11, a second beacon112is placed on a pump of a liquid to apply, a third beacon113is connected to the piping for channelling said liquid to sprayer12. Each beacon111,112,113, . . . is characterized by its unique identifier, and transmits information visible by all the personal devices31,32,33. . . of operators21,22, . . . which enter into the area of transmission of a given beacon. Beacon sensors111,112,113. . . allow to correctly localize the personal portable devices (smartphone, tablet, or other kinds of devices) of operators21,22on which an app with location-based functions is loaded.

On each portable personal device31,32an app41,42is loaded.

Said app41,42can exchange data through a private Wi-Fi network or through a wireless public2g,3g,4g, etc. network, connecting to a remote databank (cloud), having the suitable reading and writing right of access.

In this context, cloud indicates a type of Internet-based computing that provides shared computer processing resources and data to computers and other devices on demand. It is a model for enabling ubiquitous, on-demand access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., computer networks, servers, storage, applications and services), which can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort.

In detail, said app41,42can transmit to remote cloud database200the information gathered from personal devices31,32, . . . coming from beacon sensors111,112,113, . . . or from apparatuses through scanning of the barcodes/QR codes51,52,53present on them, or directly acquired from the camera of the personal devices31,32or from scanning barcode121(FIG. 8) through the same camera. The successful delivery of signals coming from beacons111,112,113proves that the transferred data relate to the plant1and not to another plant.

If portable personal devices31,32have an active geolocation system, said app41,42can transfer to the remote cloud database200the geographical position of the plant, too, and the information relating to its productive status.

FIG. 5shows an operator21connecting to remote cloud200; said operator can visualize the geographical position of all the plants that adopted this technology and their productive status.

In parallel, an operator21, provided with a personal device31on which an app41is loaded, can perform a query in the remote server200in order to receive information, as will be better explained in the following.

A beacon sensor111placed on apparatus12can make public to all the operators provided with said app the working status of the apparatus itself (pausing machine, working machine, machine undergoing an emergency, etc.).

As shown inFIG. 5, the operator31, localized according to context by beacon sensor111as placed in front of apparatus12, can easily download context-aware contents, i.e. the contents related to apparatus12: e.g. user's manual, spare parts manual, service instructions for, etc.

In the same way, the operators21,22in proximity to one of the apparatuses11,12,13can consult with great ease the documentation relating to the apparatuses to which they are near.

In the line1there are provided beacon sensors111,112,113, . . . in particular relevant points, transmitting information according to an advertising modality.

It is worth mentioning that the normal working of a beacon consists in transmitting with a pre-determined periodicity data relating to its unique identifier (this modality is called advertising). Furthermore, the beacon can transmit also information relating to the data recorded by sensors.

In fact, beacons111,112,113, . . . can be provided with a wide range of sensors, like temperature, vibration, inclination sensors, magnetometers, etc.; it is known that measuring vibrations can help to diagnostic failures in apparatuses, even in an early phase.

As shown inFIG. 6, approaching to Bluetooth® sensors, the app41,42loaded on personal devices31,32, in addition to gathering the information transmitted according to advertising mode, can open a data connection with the beacon sensor, for a wider data exchange, as above explained.

As shown inFIG. 7, each apparatus11,12,13provided with a graphical interface shows on its first page a bar code/QR code51,52,53, . . . which periodically updates the visualization of statistics and data relating to production status.

A QR code (abbreviation of Quick Response Code) is a two-dimensional bar code (or 2D code), or a matrix code, consisting of black squares arranged in a square grid on a white background. It is used to memorize information generally intended to be read by an imaging device such as a camera present in a cell phone or a smartphone. In a single cryptogram there are provided up to 7.089 numeric characters or 4.296 alphanumeric characters. Generally, the matrix format is of 29×29 little squares.

E.g. the scanning of a bar code/QR code51,52,53, . . . placed e.g. on apparatus12or on the parts which underwent coating inside plant1allows to gather information on the statistics of number of parts and square meters produced by the apparatus in a unit of time.

It is worthwhile mentioning that on the operator interface display of the single apparatus11,12,13a dynamic QR code is visualized, automatically updating over time, containing the data relating to the statistics of the apparatus. The operator21,22can read said QR code with the camera present in her/his personal device31,32. This configuration allows to prevent the need of hardware wiring in plant1, and from plant1towards portable device31,32.

The data visualized in QR Code51,52,53can be available in an encrypted form, so that they can be interpreted and saved only by someone having explicit rights to perform this operation. The decryption operation can take place directly in the app41,42, or even only inside remote cloud200, accessing through a password or a reserved token.

Said app41,42loaded on the personal device31,32of operator21,22also has the function of camera for scanning barcodes and/or QR code51,52,53.

As shown inFIG. 8, the operator can scan barcodes121, e.g. of coating liquid cans or diluent cans which arrive into the plant.

Moreover, the operator can scan barcodes/QR codes of the production orders of the parts that undergo the coating treatment.

When the operator21does an inspection in the line with her/his personal device31, immediately the app41loaded on her/his personal device31receives all the information from beacon sensor111,112,113, . . . which were enabled by her/his app41and can perform a data exchange with remote server200.

Every time the operator scans a bar code and/or a QR code, said app updates the databank on cloud200.

In this way, a remote user, e.g. the administrative department, can know the progress of the working, simply consulting remote cloud200.

In relation to the disclosed QR-code or barcode, according to the present invention other kinds of codes can be used. One special code consists in the alphanumeric strings coding the information and the data values in a human intelligible language, so that the operator may directly read the data on the display of an apparatus. The decoder executed by the portable device can in this case be a character recognition software, a so-called OCR which transforms the alphanumerical characters in digital signals which can be interpreted and processed by the software executed by the printable devices and/or by the remote server.

Considering the example of the figures it appears that one embodiment of the present invention may be limited to an apparatus having a display on which a graphic or alphanumeric code is displayed. This code is generated by the processor of the control unit of the apparatus which executes a coding algorithm. Although in the case that the apparatus13and11cannot be connected to a common network each other and/or to a server, reading the graphic codes representing the measured parameters describing the working status of the apparatus by means of the portable device allow easily to integrate the apparatus11and13in a central monitoring and management process executed by the portable device and/o by a remote server. The network to be configured is in this case only the one connecting the portable devices with the server and in the present examples with a cloud.

As it appears by saving the monitored data in the cloud advantages are also provided consisting in a remote monitoring by way of the producer or maintenance services of the apparatus in the plant. Furthermore the same ones can also be able to monitor the development level of the apparatus and suggest new upgrades when these are available. Furthermore the monitoring data in the cloud allow the organisations producing and or carrying out maintenance of the apparatus to analyse the use which the clients makes of the apparatus in the plant and to help in modifying or integrating the plant with devices or add-ons in order to optimize the functionality and efficiency of the plant in relation to the mode of use followed by the client.1Coating plant11First apparatus12Second apparatus13Third apparatus21First operator22Second operator31Portable device of first operator32Portable device of second operator41App on the portable device of first operator42App on the portable device of second operator51QR code on first apparatus52QR code on second apparatus53QR code on third apparatus111First beacon sensor112Second beacon sensor113Third beacon sensor121Barcode200CloudP1, . . . , Pk−1, Pk Mobile unitsB1,1B1,m−1, B1,mBeaconsL1, . . . Lm Production lines