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Wireless Sensor Networks in Industrial Applications

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A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Sensor Networks".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 October 2023) | Viewed by 15133

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Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Stavros Koubias

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Guest Editor

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Patras, 26504 Patras, Greece
Interests: real-time distributed embedded systems; advanced real-time communication structures; wireless sensor and actors networks; hybrid (wired/wireless) industrial networks; security; Internet of Things; cyber-physical systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Wireless Sensors/actuators (actors) Networks (WSNs) support several important and critical applications areas, the most important of which is probably the critical real-time industrial/factory applications domain. The rapid evolution of the WSNs technologies and the increasing smartness of instrumentation are leading the industrial sector to evolve and reach the industry 4.0 era.

Main problems/requirements concerning,

the effective integration of sensors into demanded industrial and factory plants/domains-networking systems characterized by strict real-time specifications,
the characteristic resource constrained nature of sensors
the unreliable performance of the wireless channel into harsh production environments,
the design of advanced real-time robust protocols (i.e. MAC sub-layer, Network layer),
the need for lowering the power consumption of the WSN nodes which affects the life time of the network,
the effective communication architectures/topologies
the increasing need of ensuring advanced system interoperability, flexibility, mobility, dependability (reliability, availability), safety, security, sensor localization,
the decreasing of the cost and the improving of productivity,
the broad use of the WSNs in advanced IoT applications,
the standardization of new achievements/developments targeted to support the transition to the Factory of the Future,
the tools for the modelling, design, development and testing WSNs

are of great theoretical and practical importance.

This Special Issue will provide an opportunity for researchers to publish their original achievements related to the above mentioned aspects which characterize the real-time industrial WSNs as a whole.

Prof. Dr. Stavros Koubias
Guest Editor

If you want to learn more information or need any advice, you can contact the Special Issue Editor Anny An via <[email protected]>

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

real-time WSNs
real-time protocols and services
system integration
interoperability
flexibility
mobility
dependability (reliability, availability)
safety
security
sensor localization
tools
standards
factory of the future
IoT

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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14 pages, 345 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Fast and Low-Overhead Time Synchronization for Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks with Mesh-Star Architecture

by Zhaowei Wang, Tailiang Yong and Xiangjin Song

Sensors 2023, 23(8), 3792; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s23083792 - 07 Apr 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1076

Abstract

Low-overhead, robust, and fast-convergent time synchronization is important for resource-constrained large-scale industrial wireless sensor networks (IWSNs). The consensus-based time synchronization method with strong robustness has been paid more attention in wireless sensor networks. However, high communication overhead and slow convergence speed are inherent drawbacks for consensus time synchronization due to inefficient frequent iterations. In this paper, a novel time synchronization algorithm for IWSNs with a mesh–star architecture is proposed, namely, fast and low-overhead time synchronization (FLTS). The proposed FLTS divides the synchronization phase into two layers: mesh layer and star layer. A few resourceful routing nodes in the upper mesh layer undertake the low-efficiency average iteration, and the massive low-power sensing nodes in the star layer synchronize with the mesh layer in a passive monitoring manner. Therefore, a faster convergence and lower communication overhead time synchronization is achieved. The theoretical analysis and simulation results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed algorithm in comparison with the state-of-the-art algorithms, i.e., ATS, GTSP, and CCTS. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks in Industrial Applications)

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22 pages, 1424 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Impact Localization Solution Using Embedded Intelligence—Methodology and Experimental Verification via a Resource-Constrained IoT Device

by Ioannis Katsidimas, Vassilis Kostopoulos, Thanasis Kotzakolios, Sotiris E. Nikoletseas, Stefanos H. Panagiotou and Constantinos Tsakonas

Sensors 2023, 23(2), 896; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s23020896 - 12 Jan 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1976

Abstract

Recent advances both in hardware and software have facilitated the embedded intelligence (EI) research field, and enabled machine learning and decision-making integration in resource-scarce IoT devices and systems, realizing “conscious” and self-explanatory objects (smart objects). In the context of the broad use of WSNs in advanced IoT applications, this is the first work to provide an extreme-edge system, to address structural health monitoring (SHM) on polymethyl methacrylate (PPMA) thin-plate. To the best of our knowledge, state-of-the-art solutions primarily utilize impact positioning methods based on the time of arrival of the stress wave, while in the last decade machine learning data analysis has been performed, by more expensive and resource-abundant equipment than general/development purpose IoT devices, both for the collection and the inference stages of the monitoring system. In contrast to the existing systems, we propose a methodology and a system, implemented by a low-cost device, with the benefit of performing an online and on-device impact localization service from an agnostic perspective, regarding the material and the sensors’ location (as none of those attributes are used). Thus, a design of experiments and the corresponding methodology to build an experimental time-series dataset for impact detection and localization is proposed, using ceramic piezoelectric transducers (PZTs). The system is excited with a steel ball, varying the height from which it is released. Based on TinyML technology for embedding intelligence in low-power devices, we implement and validate random forest and shallow neural network models to localize in real-time (less than 400 ms latency) any occurring impacts on the structure, achieving higher than 90% accuracy. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks in Industrial Applications)

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14 pages, 1488 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Enhanced Tree Routing Based on Reinforcement Learning in Wireless Sensor Networks

by Beom-Su Kim, Beomkyu Suh, In Jin Seo, Han Byul Lee, Ji Seon Gong and Ki-Il Kim

Sensors 2023, 23(1), 223; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s23010223 - 26 Dec 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1457

Abstract

In wireless sensor networks, tree-based routing can achieve a low control overhead and high responsiveness by eliminating the path search and avoiding the use of extensive broadcast messages. However, existing approaches face difficulty in finding an optimal parent node, owing to conflicting performance metrics such as reliability, latency, and energy efficiency. To strike a balance between these multiple objectives, in this paper, we revisit a classic problem of finding an optimal parent node in a tree topology. Our key idea is to find the best parent node by utilizing empirical data about the network obtained through Q-learning. Specifically, we define a state space, action set, and reward function using multiple cognitive metrics, and then find the best parent node through trial and error. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed solution can achieve better performance regarding end-to-end delay, packet delivery ratio, and energy consumption compared with existing approaches. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks in Industrial Applications)

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16 pages, 5393 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Semantic Interconnection Scheme for Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks and Industrial Internet with OPC UA Pub/Sub

by Chenggen Pu, Xiwu Ding, Ping Wang, Shunji Xie and Junhua Chen

Sensors 2022, 22(20), 7762; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s22207762 - 13 Oct 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1528

Abstract

In the Industry 4.0 era, with the continuous integration of industrial field systems and upper-layer facilities, interconnection between industrial wireless sensor networks (IWSNs) and industrial Internet networks is becoming increasingly pivotal. However, when deployed in real industrial scenarios, IWSNs are often connected to legacy control systems, through some wired industrial network protocols via gateways. Complex protocol translation is required in these gateways, and semantic interoperability is lacking between IWSNs and the industrial Internet. To fill this gap, our study focuses on realizing the interconnection and interoperability between an IWSN and the industrial Internet. The Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture (OPC UA) and joint publish/subscribe (pub/sub) communication between the two networks are used to achieve efficient transmission. Taking the Wireless Networks for Industrial Automation Process Automation (WIA-PA), a typical technology in IWSNs, as an example, we develop a communication architecture that adopts OPC UA as a communication bridge to integrate the WIA-PA network into the industrial Internet. A WIA-PA virtualization method for OPC UA pub/sub data sources is designed to solve the data mapping problem between WIA-PA and OPC UA. Then, the WIA-PA/OPC UA joint pub/sub transmission mechanism and the corresponding configuration mechanism are designed. Finally, a laboratory-level verification system is implemented to validate the proposed architecture, and the experimental results demonstrate its promising feasibility and capability. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks in Industrial Applications)

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17 pages, 3731 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Fruchterman–Reingold Hexagon Empowered Node Deployment in Wireless Sensor Network Application

by Jiahao Li, Yuhao Tao, Kai Yuan, Rongxin Tang, Zhiming Hu, Weichao Yan and Shiyun Liu

Sensors 2022, 22(14), 5179; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s22145179 - 11 Jul 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1427

Abstract

Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data technologies are becoming increasingly significant parts of national defense and the military, as well as in the civilian usage. The proper deployment of large-scale wireless sensor network (WSN) provides the foundation for these advanced technologies. Based on the Fruchterman–Reingold graph layout, we propose the Fruchterman–Reingold Hexagon (FR-HEX) algorithm for the deployment of WSNs. By allocating edges of hexagonal topology to sensor nodes, the network forms hexagonal network topology. A comprehensive evaluation of 50 simulations is conducted, which utilizes three evaluation metrics: average moving distance, pair correlation diversion (PCD), and system coverage rate. The FR-HEX algorithm performs consistently, the WSN topologies are properly regulated, the PCD values are below 0.05, and the WSN system coverage rate reaches 94%. Simulations involving obstacles and failed nodes are carried out to explore the practical applicability of the FR-HEX algorithm. In general, the FR-HEX algorithm can take full advantage of sensors’ hardware capabilities in the deployment. It may be a viable option for some IoT and Big Data applications in the near future. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks in Industrial Applications)

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Review

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26 pages, 1868 KiB

Open AccessReview

Drone Routing for Drone-Based Delivery Systems: A Review of Trajectory Planning, Charging, and Security

by Asif Mahmud Raivi, S. M. Asiful Huda, Muhammad Morshed Alam and Sangman Moh

Sensors 2023, 23(3), 1463; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s23031463 - 28 Jan 2023

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 6645

Abstract

Recently, owing to the high mobility and low cost of drones, drone-based delivery systems have shown considerable potential for ensuring flexible and reliable parcel delivery. Several crucial design issues must be considered to design such systems, including route planning, payload weight consideration, distance measurement, and customer location. In this paper, we present a survey of emerging drone routing algorithms for drone-based delivery systems, emphasizing three major drone routing aspects: trajectory planning, charging, and security. We focus on practical design considerations to ensure efficient, flexible, and reliable parcel delivery. We first discuss the potential issues arising when designing such systems. Next, we present a novel taxonomy based on the above-mentioned three aspects. We extensively review each algorithm for drone routing in terms of key features and operational characteristics. Furthermore, we compare the algorithms in terms of their main idea, advantages, limitations, and performance aspects. Finally, we present open research challenges to motivate further research in this field. In particular, we focus on the major aspects that researchers and engineers need to consider in order to design effective and reliable drone routing algorithms for drone-based delivery systems. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks in Industrial Applications)

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