Marcelo V. Garcia

Developing CPPS within IEC-61499 based on low cost devices

The adoption of new technologies and automation standards, such as OPC-UA and IEC61499, is essential in order to satisfy the flexibility and reconfiguration needs required at the Factories of the Future. Currently, the Cyber-Physical Production Systems (CPPS) are at the core of the new control and automation distributed systems. However, it is necessary to provide the research community with low cost platforms capable of integrating these new technologies and standards for prototyping new products and concepts. This work presents a low-cost embedded architecture capable of providing process data by means of OPC-UA services, integrated as IEC61499 blocks. Thus, IEC61499 provides high-level capabilities by combining easily software components with independence of the hardware platform used.

Plant floor communications integration using a low cost CPPS architecture

Currently, factory automation systems need to cope with very different challenges, such as technological advances happening very fast, global and competitive market or product customization. These challenges lead to a new generation of automation systems based on the so-called Cyber-Physical Production Systems (CPPS) globally connected to form a flexible System of Cyber-Physical Production Systems (SoCPPS). CPPSs require acquisition of production system data and smart data processing to extract information to improve the overall system performance. To achieve that it is needed to bridge the gap between the control systems and higher layers. This paper discusses an approach to use the IEC 61499 function block concept to exchange data between plant floor and higher layers using an industrial standard like OPC UA. The OPC UA server offers subscription mechanisms, making possible the integration of several resources residing at plant floor. As it runs on embedded devices, the proposal makes possible to acquire plant information at low cost, enabling at the same time, a component-based design for enterprise plant floor control with independence of the hardware platform used.

OPC-UA communications integration using a CPPS architecture

Low Cost Automation promotes cost effective reference architectures and development approaches to increase flexibility and efficiency of production operations. This has led to the adoption of open networking standards for plant floor communications. OPC-UA may help industrial companies to become Industry 4.0 or Smart Manufacturing as it enables remote access to plant information, achieving thus horizontal and vertical integration. The main goal of this work is to make vertical integration a reality by means of a low-cost CPPS architecture that provide access to process data. The use of this architecture along the whole production automation system may certainly reduce the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). The paper describes both the hardware platform as well as the software including the proposed configuration file of the OPC-UA server.

A model-based approach for process monitoring in oil production industry

The basis for the fourth industrial revolution is the availability of accessing all relevant information in real time by connecting all instances involved in the value chain. The ultimate goal is to manage the entire value chain process, improving efficiencies in the production process and coming up with better products and services. The essence of vertical networking comes from the use of cyber-physical production systems (CPPSs) and vertical integration from sensors to the business level of the company. But in order to assure global interoperability, it is mandatory to use industrial standards to model the different views of stakeholders and communicate heterogeneous devices. This paper focuses on the field of process industry, particularly on the oil production process. A modeling approach based on industry standards is proposed. The final goal is to generate, from the models of the plant and data supplier devices, the OPC UA server configuration. The approach has been tested to model part of the Petroamazonas EP Company located in Ecuador.

Engineering tool to develop CPPS based on IEC-61499 and OPC UA for oil&gas process

Regarding current Oil&Gas production places, an important challenge is to deal with the increasing complexity of shop floor level data on existing production processes and, beyond that, allowing their possible vertical integration. In order to reach this goal, an integration of smart cyber-physical production systems (CPPS) into the automation production systems could be a solution. In the last decades, the Oil&Gas industry has been changing significantly with the progression of new and particular technologies; However, industrial IoT (IIoT) concepts have not yet been adopted and integrated. The aim of this work is to demonstrate the possible use of a CPPS architecture based on IEC 61499 and OPC UA for vertical integration in production systems to Oil&Gas industries. OPC UA can help industrial companies to integrate into the paradigm of Industry 4.0, allowing remote access to plant information and achieving vertical integration. An integrated development environment (IDE) has been created to easily design applications based on the IEC 61499 that allows Oil&Gas engineers a faster incorporation into this type of technology.

Fuzzy control implementation in low cost CPPS devices

In the present day, industry has been brought closer to the Industry 4.0 paradigm due to its needs of reaching better industrial communications and improving the control process. According to the IIoT concepts, Cyber Physical Production Systems (CPPS) are normally connected to each other, and also connected to the virtual world of global digital networks. By introducing the IEC-61499 standard, CPPS will be allowed to implement flexible, reconfigurable, and distributed controllers. Fuzzy controllers are an advanced control solution that adds certain level of human reasoning to the system, making it possible to obtain a suitable alternative for traditional controllers. Due to the requirement of IEC-61499 of using as controller device an embedded platform, the encapsulation of advanced techniques of control in the algorithms of a systems becomes more simple and efficient. This is why it is necessary to provide the industry with low-cost alternatives who can easily integrate more complex and efficient controllers, making it possible to redirect the CPPS development to a new variety of devices. This paper proposes the development of the Function Blocks (FBs) needed in order to create a distributed control system based on Fuzzy Logic to control an analog process.

CPPS on low cost devices for batch process under IEC-61499 and ISA-88

A cyber-physical production system (CPPS) integrates capacities such as computing, storing and communication along with others in the physical world such as objects tracking and/or objects controlling. According to the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) concepts it is possible to infer that CPPS systems are normally connected to each other, and also connected to the virtual world of global digital networks. It is here where, introducing the IEC-61499 standard, will allow the CPPS to implement distributed, flexible and reconfigurable controllers. In the industrial context, the ISA-88 regulation offers a coherent set of standards and terminology for batch control and defines models: physical model, controlling model etc., for this kind of industries. That is why it is necessary to provide the industry with low-cost alternatives which could redirect the CPPS development to a new variety of devices. This paper proposes the development of the Function Blocks (FBs) networks needed in the integration of distributed control systems with the use of two embedded hardware like: BeagleBone Black and Raspberry PI; having the models presented in the ISA-88 standard as the base for developing the control algorithms encapsulated inside the FBs of control.

Multifunctional Exoskeletal Orthosis for Hand Rehabilitation Based on Virtual Reality

Within the field of physical rehabilitation in patients with fine motor deficits due to tendon injuries, this article is a novel proposal for the treatment and recovery of hand mobility. The mechanism works within virtual environments designed according to the needs of the beneficiary, through a mechatronic prototype controlled by algorithms based on fuzzy logic, the data sent by the Unity3D graphics engine and bending sensors is verified. The results of this system are focused on the process of digital signals for activation of the force feedback mechanism, this is done through the use of a flexible orthosis that allows the flexion and contraction of the fingers of the hand, thanks to this, excellent control results and an adequate performance in the development and execution of the proposed tasks in the virtual environment are obtained in a way that significantly promotes and improves the quality of life of the user.

Robotic Arm Manipulation Under IEC 61499 and ROS-based Compatible Control Scheme

Currently, the generation of traditional and straight-line production systems are being replaced with the objective of generating flexible and modular production systems. To achieve this goal, one of the main alternatives used by enterprises is the integration of robotic systems in the production cells. This robotic integration, indirectly allows robots to be compatible with the concepts of Smart Factories and Industry 4.0, where the high processing and communication capacities of the devices allows better and faster data exchange among the devices conforming the system. IEC-61499 proposes an architecture for the generation of distributed and modular production systems under Industry 4.0 paradigm. This paper proposes the development of an based IEC-61499 agile architecture implementation using a low-cost controller as Raspberry Pi 3B for control of KUKA youBot™ industrial robotic arm in a Pick and Place process.

Virtual Reality-Based System for Hand Rehabilitation Using an Exoskeletal Orthosis

This research shows an alternative device in the field of fine motor rehabilitation. This device is a flexible orthosis that helps the flexion and contraction of the hand fingers using a virtual interface environment. In addition, it has been designed with the ability to perform different assistive and resistive tasks, allowing its adaptation to the recovery status of the patient. The mechatronic prototype is controlled by algorithms based on fuzzy logic that compares data from the Unity3D graphics engine and flex sensors from the device. For the correct execution of the rehabilitation tasks the proposed fuzzy algorithms have been implemented using a Raspberry Pi. The proposed system is aimed to users with deficits in fine motor skills because of tendon injuries, achieving excellent control results for an efficient execution of tasks.