Diagnostics of Machining and Assembly Systems by Networked Motes

Distributed computing solutions based on miniature computing devices called "smart dust" were introduced in the beginning of the current century. Prototype applications of wireless sensor networks, which form a subset of smart dust solutions, have been developed in military, meteorological, agricultural and office domains. As shown in the current research this new technology has great potential in manufacturing systems, enabling the creation of independent monitoring layer for measurement essential parameters like temperature, humidity, vibrations, movement, noise. The sensors are integrated into small sized boards and equipped with small sized accumulators; because of autonomous power supply and wireless communication interface the deployment of these systems is simple, relatively cheap and fast - integration with existing equipment is possible with little effort. For industrial applications the size of the sensor board is not critical, and therefore it enables to increase the size of energizer allowing maintenance free operation. The modularised test network model was built at Tallinn University of Technology for adding information input from flexible manufacturing system consisting of two robots, CNC mill, two CMM and conveyer system. The system is monitored by eight motes. Data from sensor boards is analyzed and saved in database.