NFC, near field communication; RFID, radio frequency identification.
Table 1.4 Main specifications of sensor transmission protocols.
| Standard | Main specifications | References |
|---|---|---|
| ZigBee | WirelessIEEE802.15.4 standardWPANFrequencies: 868 MHz (Eu); 915 MHz (US); 2.4 GHz30−100 m wireless rangeNetwork type: star, mesh, cluster tree, peer to peerCapacity: 250 Kbit s−1 | [24–26] |
| WiFi | WirelessIEEE802.11 standardWireless local area networkFrequencies: 2.4–5.4 GHz1 km wireless rangeCommunication type: point to multipointCapacity: 54 Mbit s−1 | [26] |
| Bluetooth | WirelessIEEE802.15.1 standardWPAN networkFrequencies: 2.45 GHz1–100 m wireless rangeCommunication type: point to multipointNetwork type: starController: system on chipData rate: 1 Mbit s−1Capacity: 723.1 Kbit s−1 (versions 1.1 and 1.2); 3 Mbit s−1 (version 2.0)Bluetooth V4.0 | [21, 24] |
| RS‐232 | WiredLAN/PAN networkCommunication type: point to pointNetwork type: busCapacity: 75 bit s−1–115.2 Kbit s−1. | [27] |
| USB | WiredLAN/PAN networkCommunication type: point to pointNetwork type: tree, busCapacity: 12 Mbit s−1 (version 1.1); 480 Mbit s−1 (version 2.0); 4800 Mbit s−1 (version 3.0) | [28] |
| Ethernet | WiredLAN networkCommunication type: point to pointNetwork type: star, busCapacity: 10 Mbit s−1–10 Gbit s−1 | [29] |
| ZWAVE | Radio frequency technologySub‐GHz communications (900 MHz)Mesh networkNo coordinator nodeMaster/slave architectureData rates: 9.6/40/100 Kbit s−1 | [24] |
| Fifth Generation (5G) | Cellular network standardHigher throughputLower latencyArtificial intelligence capabilitiesVideo real‐time processing | [24] |
WPAN, wireless personal area network.
The information levels of a dynamic information system, allowing the upgrade from Industry 4.0 to Industry 5.0 production, is interconnected as in Figure 1.3, where the following six main layers are distinguished:
Sensor and actuator layer.
Agent, firmware and user interface layer.
Gateway layer.
IoT middleware.
Processing layer.
Application layer.
Figure 1.3 Layers of technologies related to an advanced technology.
Flexible technologies must act in these layers, and are fundamental to automatize all the production processes for:
In‐line/off‐line production monitoring.
The elimination of possible failure conditions.
The decrease of production defects.
The optimization of human resources and of their work.
Business intelligence (BI) and strategic marketing.
The optimization of the warehouse management.
A dynamic production following the real‐time customer requests.
The main flexible technologies are integrated in robotic systems. Robots process information acquired by sensors placed inside and outside the production machines, and generating different outputs suitable for decision making, for the processing coordination, and for the system control.
The flexibility of the information system is mainly in the interconnectivity of all the layers shown in Figure 1.3, representing a standard architecture upgraded by AI and big data system working in the processing layer. Big data systems are characterized by the following features:
Volume (dataset volumes larger than terabytes [1012 byte] and petabytes [1015 byte]).
Velocity (velocity refers to the data generation speed).
Variety (variety of sources with structured, semi structured and unstructured data).
Veracity (quality of the data that is being analyzed, the non‐valuable data are classified as nose or wrong data).
Big data uses the not only SQL (NoSQL) technology. The NoSQL databases (DBs) do not use the relational model, are performed efficiently on clusters, and can be open source.
A primary important aspect concerning the production optimization is the production traceability, performed by sensors. Digital traceability is fundamental in Industry 4.0 scenarios. Automatic detection by gates installed on the production line at each production stage is able to control quality processes and production in general. Table 1.3 lists the main sensors used for product traceability.
Radio frequency identification (RFID) systems are constituted by a reader and by a TAG or transponder, enabling the electronic identification of the traced product. The active version is equipped with a lithium (Li) battery or is powered by an external source. The passive RFID is not equipped with