Remote monitoring and control of factory equipment promises a more streamlined and therefore less expensive system operation and maintenance. The geographical distance between a factory and its control center, however, may influence the Quality of Service parameters of the network connections which might stymie the overall control process. To get a better understanding of these potential issues and their impact, we conducted a series of measurements over varying distances for the remote control, operation and simulation of Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) that are often used in modern factory environments. To achieve these tests, we defined three communication patterns reflecting local and remote connections as well as the usage of cloud-based services. Applying these patterns, we connected the Factory of the Future at the Aalto University in Finland with the VxLab at the RMIT University in Australia and the Microsoft Azure cloud in the Netherlands. This allowed us to measure important Quality of Service networking parameters for the communication over short, medium, and very long distances. In this paper, we present first empirical results and discuss their impact on the remote control of AGVs.
This paper presents the development progress of a methodology to enhance the dynamic visualization of remote Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) using open source frameworks as Gazebo and ROS. The approach is based on a deterministic path pre-calculated by edge computing, accessible for a 3D web visualization cloud platform. The trajectory displayed is verified by a live position streaming from the AGV and a predicted communication delay value. By succeeding on the methodology proposed, it is expected to enhance the fidelity of the 3D live representation for every trajectory executed dynamically and autonomously by AGVs in the shop floor, leaving behind an initial scenario with low visualization fidelity due non-deterministic behavior of long-distance communication channels (including wireless networks essential for AGVs). This work aims to have an impact on improving the user experience of remote interfacing tools, supporting a web-based paradigm to visualize the behavior of cyber-physical systems in agile manufacturing.
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