Connecting web-based IoT devices to a cloud-based manufacturing platform

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) considers interconnected things e.g., devices that consumes web services through the internet. Such kind of devices may vary from smart phones, smart TVs, medical devices or industrial devices. Thanks to the development of the ICT field, many standards supports the existence of the IoT devices: HTTP (Hypertext Transferring Protocol), MQTT (Message Queue Telemetry Transport), and EtherCAT, among others. The challenge is to allow these devices to communicate with cloud applications wherein the mismatch of communication protocols may occur. In this context, this research work presents an approach for connecting industrial Remote Terminal Units (RTUs) with the Cloud Collaborative Manufacturing Networks (C2NET) project cloud-based platform for publishing the factory shopfloor data. In this manner, the C2NET platform exploits data that is generated by industrial equipment for further actions, such as the optimization of production plans. The presented approach is tested within the deployment of web-service enabled controllers in a real industrial case known as the FASTory line.