New technologies applied to production systems

Abstract

The concept of Industry 4.0 was recently introduced as a reference of the fourth industrial revolution, which has its origin mainly at the recent changes in the dynamics of consumption. Those changes demand more efficiency in the production’s processes, as well as more diversity and flexibility on the list of products offered by companies. One of the central elements in Industry 4.0 is the Internet of Things paradigm, which has been intensively discussed due to, among other reasons, the mass diffusion of devices capable of connecting to the Internet, and the many, and still not explored, possibilities of application, including the industrial area. The purpose of this work is to develop a platform that is capable of integrating devices, operators and production demands into a flexible manufacturing system. The rules governing the system are based on the concepts of Internet of Things, Multi-Agent Systems and Service Oriented Architecture. The platform is developed based on programming languages HTML and JavaScript, uses a tool called Node, and uses the MQTT as communication protocol. In addition, an application of the supervisory software Elipse E3 controlling a Dexter μDx100 PLC is used, representing the interaction of industrial equipment with the system; To represent the interaction of embedded devices it is used the prototyping platform Arduino UNO equipped with a Wi-Fi Shield. At the end, the functionalities obtained with this system, its limitations and the aspects that could be improved in future works are discussed.