Embedded smart box for legacy machines to approach to I 4.0 in smart manufacturing

Abstract

This paper introduces the design of a Linux-based embedded controller which includes machine state detection application for legacy machines and manufacturing line. For Industrie 4.0 (I4.0), it is important to acquire, manipulate, and transmit machine operating states or physical data to form useful information. However, many existing legacy machines lack of controller or sensor(s) to response to their operating status. Some machine controllers cannot be connected to provide internal parameter(s) by means of communication. Gathering machine operating state should be the first priority to approach to I4.0. This paper adopts widely used Raspberry PI as the core platform to build Embedded Smart Box (ESB). It uses external sensors to detect the machine operating status to compute the machine's availability (one of Overall Equipment Efficiency factors) and measures current to calculate the power consumption. In this research, the combination of embedded system and sensors can be a smart box for legacy machines. Such cost-effective design would help users to take the useful data from the machines and construct the base of I4.0 system even without the existence of the controller. This embedded-based design methodology has great potential implications that might fundamentally change the legacy factories into I4.0 smart one.