C3.2 - Miniaturized Self-Powered Sensors and Actuators for Factory Applications
- Event
- SENSOR+TEST Conferences 2011
2011-06-07 - 2011-06-09
Nürnberg - Band
- Proceedings SENSOR 2011
- Chapter
- C3 - Wireless Sensors II
- Author(s)
- B. Kärcher - Festo AG, Esslingen, M. Kreitmair - EnOcean GmbH, Oberhaching, D. Mintenbeck - HSG-IMIT Institut für Mikro- und Informationstechnik, Villingen-Schwenningen, A. Frey - Siemens AG, München, G. Scholl - Helmut-Schmidt-Universität, Universität der Bundeswehr Hamburg, H. Karl - Universität Paderborn, U. Niklas - Zollner Elektronik AG, Zandt (Germany)
- Pages
- 411 - 416
- DOI
- 10.5162/sensor11/c3.2
- ISBN
- 978-3-9810993-9-3
- Price
- free
Abstract
MIKOA stands for “Miniaturised self-powered components with reliable wireless communication for automation systems”. This is a funded research project of the Federal German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
Within this project, a consortium of institutes and companies has developed autonomously-operating components and systems for the factory and process automation of the future. Key topics are the miniaturization of function modules and the development of an interference-immune and reliable wireless communication system based on new transmission methods.
Vision
The automated factory installations of the future will consist of independent cells which will operate largely autonomously and offer a high level of
flexibility with regard to modifications such as conversion and expansion. The efficiency and reliability of factory and process automation installations of this kind depends to a large extent on the amount and quality of information available. This is usually provided by wired sensors and is available only locally at the end of the cable connection.
The following factors are crucial for the establishment in the market of a competitive concept of this kind:
- Realisation of an interference-immune and realtime-capable wireless communication
- Development of miniaturised and maintenancefree sensor/actuator units which allow efficient operation with internal or mono-energy power supplies.
Main aspects of work
On the basis of concrete market and customer require-ments, concepts for miniaturized and wirelessly net-worked components for use in factory and process auto-mation and diagnosis are designed, implemented and verified by means of appropriate prototypes. These components are selfpowered sensors or sensor/actuator modules used to control processes or carry out system diagnosis. In order for wireless solutions ever to achieve the necessary market acceptance in competition with wired systems, they must be comparable with these in terms of reliability, size and ability to provide maintenance-free operation and also offer significant advantages regarding installation and suitability for mobile applications.