Anshan: Wireless Sensor Networks for Equipment Fault Diagnosis in the Process Industry

Wireless sensor networks provide an opportunity to enhance the current equipment diagnosis systems in the process industry, which have been based so far on wired networks. In this paper, we use our experience in the Anshan Iron and Steel Factory, China, as an example to present the issues from the real field of process industry, and our solutions. The challenges are three fold: First, very high reliability is required; second, energy consumption is constrained; and third, the environment is very challenging and constrained. To address these issues, it is necessary to put systematic efforts on network topology and node placement, network protocols, embedded software, and hardware. In this paper, we propose two technologies i.e. design for reliability and energy efficiency (DRE), and design for reconfiguration (DRC). Using these techniques we developed Anshan, a wireless sensor network for monitoring the temperature of rollers in a continuously annealing line and detecting equipment failures. Project Anshan includes 406 sensor nodes and has been running for four months continuously.