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ABSTRACT: In this paper, the problems related to the management of a farm made up of several greenhouses are discussed. The management of this kind of farms requires data acquisition in each greenhouse and their transfer to a control unit which is usually located in a control room, separated from the production area. At present, the data transfer between the greenhouses and the control system is mainly provided by a suitable wired communication system, such as a fieldbus. In such contexts, even though the replacement of the wired system with a fully wireless one can appear very attractive, a fully wireless system can introduce some disadvantages. A solution based on a hybrid wired/wireless network, where Controller Area Network and ZigBee protocols are used, is presented along with all the related problems that this integration involves. In particular, in order to integrate at the Data Link Layer the wireless section with the wired one, a suitable multiprotocol bridge has been implemented. Moreover, at the Application Layer, porting of Smart Distributed System services on ZigBee, called ZSDS, allows one to access the network resources independently from the network segment they are connected to.
IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement 03/2011; · 1.21 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Power Line Communication Networks (PLCN) represent a very attractive communication system which can be used for many applications in the area of both home/building automation and street lighting control. The main problem is how to organize the many nodes, in order to implement a network where all nodes can exchange information with a master node. In this paper a tree-based clustering approach is introduced and discussed. The approach has been tested on a real power line system and some operational tests and evaluations have been performed.
IECON 2010 - 36th Annual Conference on IEEE Industrial Electronics Society; 12/2010
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ABSTRACT: Application of wireless technologies in Industrial communication claims for timely data delivery, since many applications are based on processes with real-time constraints. Currently, the 802.11B is the most used wireless protocol in the industrial applications area but it is not the ideal solution owing to the contention for medium access which can cause unbounded delays. In this paper the authors discuss the use of a token based approach as a possible solution and present the WTB protocol which is a middleware located over the 802.11B protocol. The analysis and the measurements performed on a real testbed have shown the potentiality of this approach which is able to support both the real-time and non real-time traffic still maintaining the delay within suitable bounds.
Industrial Electronics (ISIE), 2010 IEEE International Symposium on; 08/2010
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ABSTRACT: Gesture recognition has been extensively investigated and has traditionally been accomplished by methods based on computer vision. In this paper we present an hand gesture recognition system which is of general use and can be used for different applications. The system is based on a MEMS accelerometer and it is able to recognise several gestures which have been previously recorded into a suitable vocabulary.
Human System Interactions (HSI), 2010 3rd Conference on; 06/2010
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ABSTRACT: In this paper we compare three clock synchronization protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks and evaluate their performances under different operating conditions. The ¿Dynamic Continuous Clock Synchronization¿ (DCCS), here is compared with the ¿Reference Broadcast Synchronization¿ (RBS) and the ¿Continuous Clock Synchronization¿ (CCS). The performance evaluation of the three protocols has been carried out via simulation using the OMNeT++ discrete event simulation system. Synchronization is a key aspect in WSNs but some features such as the limited bandwidth, hardware and energy available, as well as the nature of the wireless medium, make a good synchronization a challenging objective. We performed a set of simulations to evaluate how the protocols behave by varying some influent factors, and compared the results obtained in order to achieve information useful to select the most suitable protocol for a specific application.
Wireless Days (WD), 2009 2nd IFIP; 01/2010
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ABSTRACT: Education in the field of distributed process control and intelligent actuation and measurement (IAM) systems can be greatly enhanced through the use of tools that simulate the behavior of real systems, thus allowing students to test and compare different configurations. In this paper, we present an educational virtual laboratory, called the IAM-Pilot Virtual Laboratory (IPVL), which simulates a physical process consisting of a closed circuit of treated water implementing four regulation loops for pressure, level, flow, and temperature, respectively. This tool is the virtual implementation of a real research laboratory (IAM-Pilot), which was developed a few years ago in the framework of several projects funded by the European Commission, in order to test concepts regarding distributed systems, technologies, and components. The tool allows students to set several different system configurations, both in the control and communication parts, and then assess the resulting behavior. They can also install on the plant different virtual devices, with different features, and monitor their effect on the system. The tool produces graphs that allow students to evaluate the performance offered by the control system. This paper describes the architecture and implementation of the IPVL and reports on its usage in the context of the distributed process control network course at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Catania.
IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics 01/2010; · 5.16 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: This paper presents a home monitoring system which enables a user to limit both methane (CH<sub>4</sub>) consumption and carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) emissions by a proper control of the heating system. A case study on a real home automation scenario, where a wireless sensor network based on ZigBee is used for home heating control, is presented.
Industrial Electronics, 2008. IECON 2008. 34th Annual Conference of IEEE; 12/2008
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ABSTRACT: Clock synchronization is an important service in wireless sensor networks (WSN) since it can be used for data integration, for the implementation of TDMA based approaches or for synchronous data acquisition. One main issue in WSN concerns the power consumption since the batteries have a limited capacity an often they cannot be replaced. In this paper we present a dynamic continuous clock synchronization algorithm which provides a virtual common clock among a master and a group of slaves. The main feature of the approach proposed is the ability to allow nodes to sleep for long times and exchange only rare synchronization packets however providing a good quality common clock. The synchronization algorithm has been implemented inside embedded devices as a middleware over the MAC, without any modification to the original communication protocol.
Industrial Electronics, 2008. IECON 2008. 34th Annual Conference of IEEE; 12/2008
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ABSTRACT: The interactions between controls units and users in Domotics applications constitute a critical aspect which has greatly limited the diffusion of home automation systems. Usually, ordinary people have not familiarity with automation systems and find difficult to use their control interface. In this paper the authors exploit the interactive and representative potentialities provided in synergy by both the MHP decoder and TV, in order to develop an innovative way to simplify this interaction. As an example the control of a home alarm system is presented.
Human System Interactions, 2008 Conference on; 06/2008
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ABSTRACT: In this paper we describe the architecture and implementation of a virtual lab designed to show the effect of the network delay on a distributed network-based control system. In particular, we focus on electric motor actuators which represent one of the most time-critical devices in the process control area. The virtual lab allows the user to send commands to the motors through several communication networks with different features and to evaluate the performance degradation produced by the network delay.
Advanced Motion Control, 2008. AMC '08. 10th IEEE International Workshop on; 04/2008
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ABSTRACT: This paper presents the design and implementation of an educational testbed developed for a course on industrial communication networks at the Engineering Faculty, University of Catania. The aim is to realize a platform capable of emulating various network configurations, thus enabling students to find out by themselves through practical experiments how different design choices, parameter settings, network configurations, and algorithms impact on the overall network performance. The testbed comprises a number of basic components (hosts, routers, and access points) implemented on nodes equipped with operating systems and open source software, which together make up a modular system. Each router can be loaded with data flows and monitored over preestablished time windows so as to evaluate its performance in a wide range of operating conditions. The wireless part makes it possible to configure environments with different levels of noise and bandwidth utilization so as to emulate a broad spectrum of real operating environments. The testbed can be used via remote access through a web interface that not only allows the operating conditions to be configured but also permits real-time monitoring. Students can configure the testbed on the basis of the network they are studying and can measure its performance for evaluation purposes.
IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics 01/2008; · 5.16 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Handoff is defined as the phase during which a mobile node has a temporary connection loss during the transfer from one wireless communication cell to another one. As in industrial applications wireless networks are often used to connect mobile devices such as, robot, trolleys, conveyors, to a control station, handoff introduces a temporary interruption of monitoring and control of the mobile device that can be disruptive. This paper proposes the Mobile Association Handoff Protocol (MAHP), which, if compared with the standard protocol, provides a notable reduction of the handoff latency.
Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation, 2007. ETFA. IEEE Conference on; 10/2007
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ABSTRACT: Bluetooth does not provide support for real-time (RT) traffic scheduling. This paper discusses two different server-based scheduling techniques for hybrid (periodic and aperiodic) RT traffic scheduling over Bluetooth networks, comparing them with each other and with standard Bluetooth scheduling.
Industrial Embedded Systems, 2007. SIES '07. International Symposium on; 08/2007
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ABSTRACT: One aspect to be investigated in the attempt to enhance BT support of process control traffic is the transmission scheduling algorithm used. BT scheduling does not, in fact, provide support for real-time traffic. The paper presents an approach to transmission scheduling in BT networks that not only renders scheduling deadline-aware but also enables the integrated management of all real-time traffic, both periodic and aperiodic. After describing the approach, the paper illustrates its performance, giving the results of a wide range of simulations run in various operating situations.
Industrial Embedded Systems, 2007. SIES '07. International Symposium on; 08/2007
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ABSTRACT: The teaching and study of distributed process control systems can be greatly enhanced through the use of suitable tools which emulate the behavior of real systems, thus allowing students to test and compare different configurations and choices. In this paper we present a software tool which emulates a steam turbine-based current generator with distributed control, where communication between the different devices (sensors and actuators) can be supported by different types of fieldbuses. Students can set several different system configurations and simulate their behavior. The tool produces graphs which allow students to monitor and evaluate the behavior of the system and the performance offered by the control system
E-Learning in Industrial Electronics, 2006 1ST IEEE International Conference on; 01/2007
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ABSTRACT: This paper addresses the problem of supporting soft real-time traffic over IEEE 802.11 wireless local area networks in the presence of competing non-real-time traffic. The proposed solution is a wireless traffic smoother (WTS) which uses as inputs the throughput and the number of frame retransmissions at the MAC level. Combining these two inputs, the WTS is able to adapt the smoothing action to the current wireless network condition. The paper discusses the WTS, also highlighting the way it advances the current state of the art. Then, the WTS performance obtained from experiments performed on a real testbed, also in comparison to another approach recently proposed in the literature, is discussed.
Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation, 2006. ETFA '06. IEEE Conference on; 10/2006
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ABSTRACT: In the context of the Packet Switching Networks, the main need is to optimize the paths connecting the source and the destination. In this paper the authors deal with the problem of routing by means of a neural approach. This is based on the assumption that each switching node is made up by a Hopfield network which is capable to determine the optimal path which connects the local node with a generic node in the packet switching network. On this basis, the suitable output link on which each incoming packet must be routed is chosen.
01/2006: pages 583-592;
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ABSTRACT: The Bluetooth (BT) standard, originally designed as a cable replacement technology for low-cost, effortless connection of electronic devices, is becoming quite an attractive option even in industrial communication, as it allows low-power, cheap and easy-to-build solutions to be obtained using the available BT modules and application profiles. The great recent interest in using Bluetooth in distributed process control systems (DPCSs) provides the motivation for this work, which has a twofold aim. Firstly, investigating scenarios and architectures enables full exploitation of BT capabilities in industrial communication. Secondly, exploring technological enhancements could improve the performance of the protocol even further.
Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation, 2005. ETFA 2005. 10th IEEE Conference on; 10/2005
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ABSTRACT: Traceability in food chains is now mandatory for companies interested in food processing. Every food chain is made up of a variable number of companies which cooperate through the exchange of materials and services. Since the guarantee about a product doesn't depend on a single company, but it depends on all the factories of the food chain, a traceability system can provide information useful to reconstruct fully the path the food has followed during its production. To carry out a full traceability system we propose a general approach based on a distributed collaborative information system where every company exchanges traceability data with the others over a network. XML was used as the format to represent data, for its ability to cope with data structures of different size. WebServices based technology has been adopted to interface different suppliers which communicate through HTTP protocol. A prototype has been implemented and some experiments have been performed with the aim to test the usability of the system
Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation, 2005. ETFA 2005. 10th IEEE Conference on; 10/2005
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ABSTRACT: In this paper we address the problem of creating a remote testbed for distance learning. The area we focused on is the study of the problems involved in managing quality of service in networks for real-time applications, like those to be found in a factory, testing various ways of handling traffic in routers and controlling congestion. The testbed incorporates various operating modes that the user can choose between so as to configure the traffic flows and to modify the working conditions of the network. Measurements are performed using software modules which allow the user to monitor the network while it is operating and, following the measurements, acquire log files for an accurate analysis of its behavior
Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation, 2005. ETFA 2005. 10th IEEE Conference on; 10/2005
