Sensor cloud: SmartComponent framework for reconfigurable diagnostics in intelligent manufacturing environments

Sensor networks that consist of a variety of sensor nodes, with capability for distributed storage and analysis, interoperable and delay-tolerant communication, will pave the way for a truly scalable network of sensors which will support adaptable plug-and-produce assembly stations. The concept of Sensor Cloud has emerged as the cornerstone for enabling the integration of nearly real time data sources into Service Oriented Architectures and as one of the enablers for Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems. Hitherto there are still some challenges that need to be tackled, namely the on-the-fly instantiation and update of services at the system level and the dynamic (re)organization of the services created. This paper presents the first steps in the development of a framework (taking advantage of several technologies like UPnP, OSGi and iPOJO) to address these challenges and make Sensor Clouds a reality in the shop floor. The results from the first implementation reveal that the performance of the system is linear in terms of scalability, and from these scalability tests, we proved the framework´s robustness and consistent responsiveness.