A step forward on intelligent factories: A Smart Sensor-oriented approach

Sensors always played a significant role on the industrial domain, since monitoring the current machine´s process state is notoriously an advantage for shop-floor analysis, and consequently, to rapidly take action according to the production system demands [3, 6, 7, 8]. The I-RAMP³ European Project explores exactly these demands, and proposes new approaches to efficiently address some of the nowadays difficulties of the European Industry. The Smart Sensor technology is explored in the I-RAMP³ Project using the NETwork-enabled DEVice (NETDEV) concept, as a logical entity for equipment encapsulation with high level of communication capabilities and intelligent functionalities. Therefore, not only how the NETDEV concept is implemented, but also how to use sensors is explored in the present paper, by means of UPnP Technology, for communication extensibility, and PlugThings Framework for easy sensor integration and complexity addition. Moreover, the importance of sensors based on the context of the I-RAMP³ is explored, discussing some trends and possible steps to be taken in conventional production towards the next generation of Smart Manufacturing Systems.