Reliable and Real-Time Wireless Automation

Wireless automation has many important applications from buildings to industrial machines and processes. The switch to the wireless systems can be justified by reduction of cabling, which means smaller costs and less error prone cables and connectors. Additionally, we can achieve a new level of flexibility. Wireless systems have become popular in monitoring applications, but they are not yet widely used in control systems. In here, the challenges are related on the reliability and real-time demands. In this project, the real-time wireless automation is approached from two angles. First, we research the new communication channel reservation and routing solutions, which improve the reliability. Second, we examine new control solutions, which improve the reliability and performance of the control loop in spite of the communication problems. Additionally, the project helps to establish the wireless automation research group in Aalto University and to make new contacts to important international research partners.

• Keywords: wireless sensor network, wireless automation, real-time, reliable, wireless communication, control
• Duration: 2010-2012
• Research area: Wireless Automation
• Related projects: WiSA, WISM, GENSEN, ISMO
• Funding: Technology Industries of Finland Centennial Foundation.

Contact persons at the Department of Automation and Systems Technology

• Vesa Hasu (project manager)

Publications (AS dept. only)

• Mikael Bjorkbom, Shekar Nethi, Lasse M Eriksson and Riku Jantti,
  "Wireless control system design and co-simulation,"
  Control engineering practice, Vol. 19, no. 9, pp. 1075-1086, 2011.
• Mikael Björkbom, Lasse M Eriksson and Joni Silvo,
  "Technologies and methodologies enabling reliable real-time wireless automation,"
  in New Trends in Technologies: Control, Management, Computational Intelligence and Network Systems, Meng Joo Er (ed.), Rijeka, Croatia: Sciyo, 2011, pp. 85-112.
  Electronic publication
• Mikael Björkbom, Riku Jäntti and Heikki Koivo,
  "Real-time wireless sensor systems for monitoring and control,"
  in Automaatio XIX SEMINAARI 15.-16.3.2011, Arto Visala (toim.), Helsinki: Suomen Automaatioseura ry, 2011, 6 pp.
• Emre I Cosar, Aamir Mahmood and Mikael Björkbom,
  "A-Stack: A Real-Time Protocol Stack for IEEE 802.15.4 Radios,"
  in Proc. IEEE 36th Conference on Local Computer Networks (LCN), October 4-7, 2011, Bonn, Germany, 2011, pp. 1020-1023.
  Electronic publication
• Lasse Eriksson, Joni Silvo, Mikael Björkbom, Jari Nieminen and Riku Jäntti,
  "Kohti reaaliaikaista ja luotettavaa langatonta automaatiota,"
  Automaatioväylä, Vol. 3, s. 24-27, 2011.
  Electronic publication