Tracking concepts in Industry 4.0

As defined in [1], Industry 4.0 is a name for the current trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies. There are different definitions available and different technologies inside this concept but two elements are very clear: data and data connections.

For this reason the tracking of the products has become a critical aspect to improve or develop, as it makes it possible to connect several data sources and moments of the process. In some cases the information extraction from data already available but not exploited is allowed. This is a frequent case in classic industries which already have a good level of automatization but lack of exploitation of these data.

As for concrete tracking challenges, they strongly depend on the product transformations:

  • If the product unit remains the same, the tracking system has to follow it either physically or by software (images, video). This possibility happens in warehouses or products that suffer changes inside the same unit (a heat treatment in a piece, a coil)

  • If the product follows a continuous process, the concept has to be adapted. Basically, the measurements define a time series that represent the whole. Chemical industry is a good example and also liquid steel process.

  • If, for example, the product changes from liquid to solid or is divided in parts. The parenthood-childhood relationship has to be considered and data transformed accordingly.

This last example occurs in steel industry - among some others – and has been a long time unsolved challenge. High temperatures and some other aspects as speed of the product, cuts of the endings add difficulty to the aforementioned challenge. Even more, the consensus in the industry has considered enough the amount of tracking available.

But new technologies in the last years have made it possible to go one step beyond. New possibilities have aroused, as identifying the products and their movements by image analysis [2], or soldering by robots strong metallic tags [3], or “painting” with laser the products and reading them by image analysis, or RFID or similar technologies. In all the cases, strong links are needed between hardware and software and among different systems as MES systems or level 2. Other recent improvements are also important to overcome previous bottlenecks: for example, the jump in image recognition in difficult illumination or changing conditions.

The tracking process is a long chain with several interconnected links. It has the potential of enriching the rest of the data and measurements already available but it requires a plant-by-plant adaptation as small details are essential for correct function.

  

[1] https://www.capri-project.com/news-1/7kumbr1ddl2g1txs9qulc09oh2ghcf

[2] https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/isijinternational/59/1/59_ISIJINT-2018-506/_html/-char/en

[3] https://polytec.bmgroup.com/sites/default/files/2019-07/PolyTAG%20BLE%202019%20WEB.pdf

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