Open Sensor Manager for IIoT

Abstract

Data collection in an industrial environment enables several benefits: processes and machinery can be monitored; the performance can be optimized; and the machinery can be proactively maintained. To collect data from machines or production lines, numerous sensors are required, which necessitates a management system. The management of constrained IoT devices such as sensor nodes is extensively studied. However, the previous studies focused only on the remote software updating or configuration of sensor nodes. This paper presents a holistic Open Sensor Manager (OSEMA), which addresses also generating software for different sensor models based on the configuration. In addition, it offers a user-friendly web interface, as well as a REST API (Representational State Transfer Application Programming Interface) for the management. The manager is built with the Django web framework, and sensor nodes rely on ESP32-based microcontrollers. OSEMA enables secure remote software updates of sensor nodes via encryption and hash-based message authentication code. The collected data can be transmitted using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT). The use of OSEMA is demonstrated in an industrial domain with applications estimating the usage roughness of an overhead crane and tracking its location. OSEMA enables retrofitting different sensors to existing machinery and processes, allowing additional data collection.