Rick Candell (seated) and Murat Aksu (standing) examining wireless communications performance in a virtual chemical processing plant created by the NIST Industrial Wireless Test Bed. (Image courtesy of Fran Webber/NIST.)
The ongoing Wireless Systems for Industrial Environments project at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) aims to address this issue through understanding and innovation of industrial wireless communications.
The team, led by NIST’s Intelligent Systems Divisions researcher Rick Candell, is working with private-sector collaborators to collect data on how radio frequencies behave in industrial settings for replication and study in controlled lab experiments.
"Understanding how RF platforms work or don't work in these harsh environments is the first step toward designing and deploying reliable wireless networks," explained Candell. "With the data from this research and future tests, we can define factors that can hinder RF propagation--including heat, vibration, reflection, interference and shielding--and then develop measures to address them."
In their recently published study, “Industrial Wireless Systems Radio Propagation Measurements,” Candell and his colleagues detail experiments evaluating radio frequency propagation in three different industrial settings by measuring its strength over distance, dispersion across the floor, and the effects of absorption or reflection caused by elements in the environment.
The team is using the data they have collected to create an NSIT test bed to recreate different types of industrial environments where radio frequency signals can be studied.
"The test bed supports the development of measurements and tests to evaluate signal performance, gives us the means to evaluate the usefulness of NIST computer models and simulations of wireless networks, and hopefully, will help us design and road test solutions to current propagation problems," explained Candell.
The test bed requires more data, however, and the team is still looking for additional private-sector collaborators.
"We hope that more managers will consider letting us conduct field trials of wireless in their facilities, especially ones with outdoor operations such as oil refineries or with possible signal-absorbing materials such as paper mills," said Candell.
The team also needs access to more factories and plants to study their specific details, such as layout, structural makeup, operations and communications networking, in order to make the test bed as robust as possible.
The Wireless Systems for Industrial Environments project will be featured in a panel session on wireless networking for industrial automation on March 13, 2017, at the IEEE Sensors Applications Symposium at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey.
For news on other NSIT projects, check out NIST Discovery Could be The Golden Ticket for Wearable Tech and Why the Skills Gap Might Not Be Manufacturing's Biggest Problem.