Course info

Welcome to Wireless communications for Industry 4.0


Description:

Wireless is identified as a major enabler of the Industry 4.0 vision. Factories of the future are indeed expected to replace the bulky wired control infrastructure with industrial wireless networks, aiming at supporting agile reconfiguration of production resources, non-linear production via usage of robot swarms, lean changeover; ultimately translating to major efficiency benefits and product customization.
This course addresses how new wireless technologies can revolutionize the production paradigms in current factories and how to overcome the challenges that wireless
communication encounters for achieving often demanding industrial requirements in termsof latency, reliability and throughput.
The main contents of the course are the following:

a) Introduction of relevant industrial production use cases and associated communication requirements (considering the multiple levels of the automation pyramid, from MES connectivity to fast closed loop control at sensor/actuator level) also including new use cases that can only be enabled via wireless communication (e.g., robots fleets or swarms). 

b) Description of candidate wireless technologies for Industry 4.0, with a critical analysis on their suitability in addressing the communication requirements at different layers of the automation pyramid. In particular, 5G New Radio (NR) with Time Sensitive Communications (TSC), NR-Unlicensed (NR-U), 802.11 n/ac, Wireless Interface to Sensors and Actuators (WISA) and Wireless HART will be introduced.

c) Introduction of open research challenges in a beyond 5G perspective, including a vision for a new wireless system aiming at coping with the more stringent Industry 4.0 use cases (e.g., support of closed loop control with below 0.1 ms cycles).

d) From theory to practice: experimental verification of wireless technologies potential in a real industrial setup including FESTO production lines and robot fleets, located in the Smart Production Laboratory. Also, it will be shown how to estimate the impact of wireless connectivity performance to potential variations in the production outcome, by using digital twins.

The course consists of frontal lectures, and laboratory sessions. Laboratory sessions will be structured as hands-on activities where PhD students have the opportunity of setting up their own wireless solutions for a real Industry 4.0 use case, verify their effects on the production, and identify the new open challenges.
The evaluation will be based on mini-projects to be carried out in groups. Such mini-projects may involve the usage of laboratory facilities.

Organizer: Associate Professor Gilberto Berardinelli

Lecturers: Associate Professor Gilberto Berardinelli, Postdoc Ignacio Rodriguez Larrad, Professor Klaus Pedersen, Professor Ole Madsen 

ECTS: 2

Time:

October 8: 9-4pm, Fib 14, room 56

October 12: 8.15-12, FRB7, B2-109

October 16: 1pm-4pm, FRB7, B2-109

October 19: 8.15-12, Fib 14, Smart Production Lab

Prerequisites: Basic knowledge of wireless communication theory and technologies is required

Place: This course will take place with physical attendance in Aalborg

Zip code: 

City: 

Number of seats: 30

Deadline: September 17

Important information concerning PhD courses: We have over some time experienced problems with no-show for both project and general courses. It has now reached a point where we are forced to take action. Therefore, the Doctoral School has decided to introduce a no-show fee of DKK 3,000 for each course where the student does not show up. Cancellations are accepted no later than 2 weeks before start of the course. Registered illness is of course an acceptable reason for not showing up on those days. Furthermore, all courses open for registration approximately four months before start. This can hopefully also provide new students a chance to register for courses during the year. We look forward to your registrations.