Wireless Communications
for Future Manufacturing Field~Flexible Factory Project~

National Institute of Information and Communications Technology
Wireless Network Research Center
Wireless System Lab.
Satoko Itaya

Today’s Talk
• Wireless Communications and Manufacturing• In the manufacturing field• Problems of wireless communications• Needs of wireless communications• Toward Flexible FactoryPotential economic impact by IoT @2025
Information Gathering for Solution of Problems
・ Workforce and skilled workers shortage, High-mix low-volume production ,Change of value chain

Reconfiguration of production line
• Inspection process in theproduction line
１１

２

３３２４
５3times/year

Future usage of wirelesscommunications

５４

Change sequence of systems

The assembling tool has arole of inspection machine

Current usage of wirelesscommunications

4Why not wired?
Disconnected！？

Messy!!!!

Information has to deliver right place.
5

Communication Nodes for Factory
Automation▌Share of wireless nodes is 4%, but is increasing at an annual growth rate of 30%.
WLAN(2%)Bluetooth(1%)
Other Wireless (1%)

Wireless 4%
Annual growth 30%
Fieldbus 58%
Annual growth 7%

Other fieldbusesAS-interface

EtherNet/IP
PROFINET

CAN/CANopen
EtherCATDevicenet

Modbus-TCP
CC-Link

HMS’s estimation for 2016 basedon number of new installed
nodes in 2015 within FactoryAutomation.

Powerlink

ModbusOther Ethernet

Industrial
Internet 38%
Annual growth 20%

PROFIBUS

Source http://www.automationinside.com/2016/03/industrial-network-market-shares-2016.html

Independent Wireless Systems▌Step-by-step installation for each equipment or process flow resulting
in complexity with independent wireless systems.
・Standard-compliant wireless systems using ISM or globally available frequency-bands.
・Non-standard wireless systems.
・Small-power specified wireless systems.

Industry specific and applicable wireless standards
Frequency Band

Industry specific

Wi-SUNSIGFOX
LoRa
Wi-Fi/HaLow

920MHz

2.4GHzIndustry applicable

WirelessHARTISA100.11a
WSAN

Wi-Fi
Bluetooth, BLE
Zigbee

5GHz

Wi-Fi

60GHz

Wi-Fi/WiGigWhat is most important thing?
• Top priority issues in the manufacturing field are…
• Productivity• Quality• Security

Of course, they are most important for
introduction of Wireless Communications!

Flexible Factory Project▌Efforts to solve real problems in the manufacturing fields.
Revealing crucial requirements for wireless communications.
Conducting wireless environment evaluation and wireless packet transmission tests at factories
in operation.

▌Collaborating work since 2015
Participants:• NICT• OMRON• ATR• NEC• NEC Communication Systems• FUJITSU• FUJITSU KANSAI-CHUBU NET-TECH• Mobile Techno• Sanritz Automation• MURATA MACHINERYPartners: 7 factories of 5 companies

Challenges for Wireless Utilizationin Factories▌Dynamic Wireless Environment Change
Motions of materials, parts, products, and carriers in a closed space.
Retooling, equipment changeover, and system on/off.
Layout reconfiguration, and production-line installation.

msec to sec
hours to daysmonths to years▌Diverse Wireless Environment
Depending on scale of the facilities, existence of obstacles for radio propagation, noises, andthe number of deployed wireless systems.

▌Independent Wireless Systems
Step-by-step installation for each equipment or process flow.
Coexistence of heterogeneous and legacy devices/systems.

Flexibility is a key to address the issues.

Delay tolerance

Source: Flexible Factory Project11

Diverse Wireless Environment
List of Evaluated Factories in Operation
1. Location
2. Scale of the facility
3. Obstacles for radiopropagation
4. Machine noise inmicrowave frequency
5. Evolutional stage forwireless utilization

Burst Loss in the Factory▌Long burst-loss observed at higher data rates.
Significant loss measured at 54Mbps for 2.4/5GHz (IEEE802.11g).
Maximum burst-loss duration: 1sec for LOS, 4sec for NLOS.
Maximum Burst-loss
Length (# of packets)

Maximum Burst-loss
Length (# of packets)

1sec

Data Rate (Mbps)
Maximum Burst-loss Length(LOS)

Data Rate (Mbps)
Maximum Burst-loss Length(NLOS)

4sec

Effect of metal for wireless communications
Comparison of packet loss (NLOS)
SLarge MetalCutting
Machine27.5m
Large Metal
Cutting
Machine

Metal
MobileobjectWall

Large Metal
Cutting
Machine4m
M

S:Slave
M:MasterNoises in Factories▌External and internal noises at 2.4GHz
Wi-Fi access points placed in residential area near the factory.
Inverters of motors in equipment in the factory.

Factory for printed circuit board assembly near residential area

Factory for large-metal mold castingMix Heterogeneous Systems• Sequence of introduction of wireless communications• Switch, remote controller, RF-ID tag etc. (not control)• Use 2.4 GHz band

Factory of Large Metal Process（2016/02)• Past: Automatic Guided Vehicle (AGV) using 5GHz wi-fi (aboutinterference of other systems of 2.4GHz)• Now: ICT infrastructure also use 5GHz wi-fi→Battle

Dynamic Change of Wireless Environment
920MHz(1) 2015, JulyTrial(2) 2015, Dec.
New SystemOperating

City Infrastructure Glow
Growth of City
(Traditional Style)100

Mexico city

Health, Safety Security

90

Beijing

80

Jahanessburg

70

Singapore

60

Paris50

New York City40

Stockholm

30

LondonMunbai20

Sao paulo

10

Sydney005Tokyo
Direct Introduction ofwireless technology(Recently Style)PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2013

101520ICT Competitiveness index

25Unwire Stage
Inter-company backbone system
and IP phone, monitoring datausing wireless communications

several systems(sensing systemsand RF-ID etc. )Mature Stage

Mature Stage

Data Size is smaller than 50Byte notsensitive about data delivery delay

Example of Mature Stage 1

Communication Quality Specific Optimization Stage
Packet delivery delay of channel using Automatic Guided Vehicle (AGV) control
Tact: One unit time ofmanufacturing line

Long CSMA/CA waiting time:
Sending huge number ofsame data packets

Typical packet
delivery delay

Bandwidth are free but high possibilityof communication problems

Evolution of manufacturing tools
FutureNow
Small-Volume Data

Large-Volume Data

Wireless Poka-yoke

Next Generation Wireless Poka-yoke•••

Screw Tightening OK
20~30Byte*O(1)/O(10)sec
O(100)sets/line•••

Screw Tightening OK + torque waveform(20~30Byte＋20~30Kbyte)*O(1)/O(10)sec
O(100)sets/line
No gap
OKGapNGWhen we will change parts of machine?
This spark is OK,
not need tochange it now.

Spark! Should Ichange partsnow?

We have to keep
quality ofproducts. Now
we shouldchange this part!

We could use it
more longer!
Not-skilled worker

Skilled worker

The key issue is how to sense the sense ofskilled works.

Example of Mature Stage 2

Application Specific Optimization Stage• Long term, high frequency, huge dataex) Video Stream , waveform data etc..
Breakdown MaintenanceSensing data sending

Inspection MaintenanceTime Based MaintenancePreventive
Maintenance

Condition Based Maintenance
Corrective MaintenanceFew applications occupy of bandwidthWireless Communication with AI• Definition of the communication
requirement for Condition BasedMaintenance• Dynamic Communication Managementwith AI

Real-time Visualization ofWireless Communications

Collaboration with DFKI

Toward Flexible Factory• Wireless communications receive a lot of attentions• Special problems of wireless communications in the manufacturing field• Dynamic wireless environment change• Diverse wireless environment• Independent wireless systems• Make clear• Purpose of application• Utilizing limited and fluctuating radio resources• Harmonized over different wireless systems• Application-aware coexistenceSpecial Thanks
 OMRON Corp.
 Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International
 NEC Corporation
 NEC Communication System Ltd.
 FUJITSU LMITED FUJITSU KANSAI- CHUBU NET-TECH LIMITED Mobile Techno Corp.
 Sanritz Automation Co., Ltd., MURATA MACHINERY LTD
Many factories support our research activity and field experiments.