Interoperability between devices is the key to the transformation of traditional factories into smart factories

The transformation from traditional factories to smart factories will inevitably become the biggest wave in the future world manufacturing industry. How can traditional factories quickly realize the transformation of roles? We believe that interoperability between devices is key.

In the long run, Industry 4.0 will invest far more in smart factories than in the general industry, but the project's profitability will also increase significantly, and the greater the capital investment and the steeper the slope, the higher the marginal rate of return on investment. Regardless of the economy, Industry 4.0 will be the only way to avoid the development of manufacturing. We have always been focusing on the field of industrial control, and at the same time deeply felt the changes brought by this industrial intelligence to manufacturing and production. The Internet of Things has been continuously entering industrial manufacturing. In our cooperative enterprises, industrial production data is real-time. Acquisition (such as MES system) is typical, and in the industrial production information network, zigbee deserves to be the protagonist.

Figure 1 Production information management network built by zigbee

The MES system is a set of production information management system for the manufacturing floor of the manufacturing enterprise. It can provide enterprises with manufacturing data management, planning and scheduling management, production scheduling management, inventory management, quality management, tool tooling management, and procurement management. , the underlying data integration analysis, the upper layer data integration decomposition and other management modules. It is the link of enterprise CIMS information integration, and is the basic technical means to implement the enterprise agile manufacturing strategy and realize the agile production of the workshop. The factory manufacturing execution system MES is a production management technology and real-time information system that has been rapidly developed in the international market for the past 10 years and is oriented to the shop floor. MES can provide users with a fast-responding, flexible and refined manufacturing environment to help companies reduce costs, deliver on time, improve product quality and improve service quality. Applicable to different industries (home appliances, automobiles, semiconductors, telecommunications, IT, medicine), it can provide good enterprise information management for a single mass production and hybrid manufacturing enterprises with many varieties and small batch production and mass production.

Figure 2 zigbee wireless module AW824P2 applied to the system

In the whole system, the zigbee module can build a variety of network topology structures through a robust network transparent transmission protocol, so that the entire layout of the entire manufacturing system can be informed and networked, and can be accessed through the gateway to connect to the Ethernet. Intelligent management and mature application in various complex factory environments.

Figure 3 User MES Hardware System Exhibition

At present, 44% of the major industrial sectors in Germany have adopted the production and technology models related to “Industry 4.0”. There are more and more manufacturing companies and factories in the country to enter this direction, which fully shows that Industry 4.0 has changed from a concept to a reality.

Figure 4 Smart Factory Model

However, we know that many zigbee are similar to zigbeePro, Home Automation, and Smart Enengy. However, in the networking process, node dropout is easy, and communication efficiency is low, and the number of supported nodes is small. For these situations, Zhiyuan Electronics Specifically for the application with high requirements on these parameters, a set of industrial application fast networking communication protocol - Fastzigbee, the main feature of the protocol is to support more nodes, overcome the zigbee node drop phenomenon, easy to use, Flexible and efficient, it is suitable for all types of networking functions. At the same time, the zigbee networking with zero threshold is used.

Traditional zigbee protocol: understand the zigbee protocol, develop and test third-party libraries, test network robustness and stability, and repeatedly debug, plan application network, start waiting for networking, and implement zigbee communication;

Fastzigbee protocol: black box, software configuration, deployment network, realize zigbee networking communication.

Figure 5 Comparison of the zigbee protocol

The traditional zigbee communication protocol node types are divided into three types: coordinator, router, and terminal node. The user's own development needs to understand from the underlying communication mechanism of zigbee to the user API, and the hidden cost of zigbee communication exists in more than 50% of users due to the complexity of the wireless protocol and the high cost of the wireless experimental platform environment. .

Figure 6 zigbee topology

Let's take a look at zigbee's current use of the most network communications, such as peer-to-peer communication, master-slave mode (point-to-multipoint) communication, networking communication. These three kinds of communication are currently the most common and relatively simple network used by zigbee.

The traditional zigbee communication protocol should deal with the role allocation of these networks, the setting is relatively troublesome, the networking time is slow, the communication efficiency is not high, and the application is not flexible.

Fastzigbee can easily handle these networks, giving customers the ultimate user experience, while Fastzigbee also meets zigbee's network specifications.

1. As shown in Figure 7, the target node addresses of the two points A and B can be pointed to each other to achieve data transparent transmission between the two points A and B. Setup can be done easily using the matching Fastzigbee configuration software, open the serial port - get information - modify the configuration.

Figure 7 Schematic diagram of point-to-point communication

2. As shown in Figure 8, the master-slave mode (point-to-multipoint) communication only needs to point the target node address of the slave nodes such as B, C, D, etc. to the master node A, and set A to broadcast, or use a switch. The target address (without restart) command can realize multi-point data transparent transmission of nodes such as AB, C, and D. For the same reason, just use the matching Fastzigbee configuration software.

Figure 8 Schematic diagram of master-slave mode (point-to-multipoint) communication

3. As shown in Figure 9, when the distance between the master and slave nodes cannot be directly communicated, only one of the two points (such as point C) can be set to the routing mode, and the data forwarding can be completed. All other settings are the second. The settings for the point are the same.

Figure 9 Schematic diagram of network forwarding

4. From the above three basic networks, expand a more complex network, as shown in Figure 10 below, multi-level networking communication. The Fastzigbee protocol should also be handy for the network. The usage is completely the same as the setting of the third point. Just set the node in the middle of the distance that cannot be reached in the link and set it to the routing mode. Fastzigbee supports up to 10 levels of route forwarding, and single-level routing is up to 2.5KM, which can satisfy most networks.

Figure 10 Schematic diagram of multi-level networking communication

Fastzigbee has been used in many MES system hardware to provide a stable and reliable networking communication solution for intelligent manufacturing. We will continue to provide new blood to smart factories, from manufacturing in China to Chinese intellectual manufacturing. This is the era of Industry 4.0. ! Combining big data, cloud computing technology and mobile Internet, Chinese companies can keep abreast of the market, establish a new type of interaction with users, and gain insight into user needs. The new generation of IT technology can also help the integration of the whole industry and the integration of the industry and service sectors, and play the "team advantage" of the Chinese industry. We will also launch more Industrial 4.0 accessories to support the formation and implementation of China's “Industry 4.0”, help China's various industries to innovate and upgrade, and then promote China's economic transformation.