Industrial Weighing System based on 6loWPan sensors

Application note

Industrial Weighing System based on 6loWPan sensors

Using Analog Devices’ SmartMesh(r) IP

Industrial Environment

IoT describes the current trend that allows relatively simple devices (sensors, actuators) to interconnect and share data independently of computer or human intervention. Besides the hype, the Internet of Things (IoT) has the potential to increase efficiency, improve safety and enable new business models especially in the industrial environment.

Overview

 

Local intelligent devices (like sensors, actuators, pumps, switches), local computing, visualization services, mobile workforce applications: when these nodes need to communicate with each other using the Internet they cannot be connected directly. This is due to several factors:

  • harsh industrial environment
  • firewalls
  • NAT address translations
  • dynamic addresses behind routers
  • special local protocols routed to the Internet

Security concerns make it difficult to imagine a different situation even when these constraints can be avoided.

Solution

 

Security concerns make it difficult to imagine a different situation even when these constraints can be avoided.

More sensors means better plant monitoring. The achievable number of industrial sensors can be multiplied by eliminating all cabling requirements through the use of robust, wireless, micropower sensors that run for years on a small battery. Better yet, eliminate the need to replace or recharge batteries. Instead, sensors harvest energy from their immediate environment, taking advantage of locally available energy sources, such as light, vibration or temperature gradients.

A combination of easy-to-use, high performance power management, and wireless networking devices enable the design of self-contained, completely wireless sensor products. The time-synchronized wireless mesh network ensures that minimal power is used to reliably transmit data from node to node, and the on-chip microprocessor can further save power by duty cycling power to the sensor circuitry.

SmartMesh IP is built for IP compatibility, and is based on 6LoWPAN and 802.15.4e standards. The SmartMesh IP solution is widely applicable and cost-effective and enables low power consumption even in harsh, dynamically changing RF environments.

See  more  at  www.analog.com/smartmesh