Use of 2D Codes and Mobile Technology for Monitoring of Machines in Manufacturing Systems

Transcription

1 Use of 2D Codes and Mobile Technology for Monitoring of Machines in Manufacturing Systems Boleslaw Fabisiak 1 1 West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin, Poland Abstract - Monitoring of machines, machine tools and robots in local manufacturing systems, especially the monitoring of communication between machines, robots work centers and other networked devices in computer integrated manufacturing is an important part of security assurance in a global manufacturing environment. The presented monitoring methods use 2D bar code technology including QR codes and Datamatrix, mobile devices currently available on the market, including smart phones (capable to utilize WiFi, 3G and UMTS technology) such as iphone, Android, Windows Mobile and Symbian systems as well as regular UNIX-based computer systems and selected diagnostic software tools available via the Internet on GNU license. The compilation of 2D bar codes, mobile devices with WiFi, 3G and HSPDA and UMTS technology, local networks and UNIX systems, software and commands - allows the introduction of a useful, flexible and scalable monitoring system, capable of being implemented in any size and any type of manufacturing systems. Keywords: 2D codes, monitoring, machines, machine tools, manufacturing systems 1 Introduction The basic idea is to use 2D bar codes, mobile devices and standard hardware, protocols and software modules (which are already built into the latest manufacturing machines, computer systems and mobile devices) for inventory management, monitoring and periodic audits of all networked resources within manufacturing systems, especially production networks, machine tools, robots and technological devices. The wide offering of mobile devices which can read and interpret 2D bar codes, and on the other hand - possibility use standard hardware components, compatible software and standard protocols in manufacturing machines, make this idea capable of implementation. The following technologies and devices are applicable here: 2D codes (two dimensional bar codes) mobile devices smart phones with GSM, 3G, EDGE, HSPDA, UMTS and WiFi modules UNIX systems with installed monitoring and front-end software LAN networks with wireless technology WiFi 2 Two dimensional bar codes 2D bar codes present data in a two dimensional matrix or grid pattern and are a kind of portable, small database in itself or an enter key to a larger database (opposite to regular - 1D bar codes, which are usually only an enter key to a database). 2D bar codes can be used to store all kinds of data, including URLs. As of year there are a number of two dimensional bar codes in use worldwide, invented or developed by different resources, such as [1]: Bumpy code - US Patent DI - Lunn LTD - US Patent ArrayTag - US Patent Aztec Code - US Patent Codablock - US Patent Code One (Ted Wiliams, 1992) Code 16k (Ted Wiliams, 1989) Code 49 (David Allais, 1987), public domain Color Code (proprietary code Korea Yonsei University) CP code (proprietary code, CP Tron, Inc.) DataGlyphs (Xerox PARC, US Patent ) Datamatrix (Robotic Vision, ISO) Datastrip Code (proprietary code, Datastrip Inc.) Dot Code A (Philips) HCCB High Capacity Color Bar Code (Microsoft Corporation) HueCode (Robot Design Accessories) ITACTA.Code (proprietary Code INTACTA) UPS Code/ MaxiCode/ Code6 (UPS) MiniCode (proprietary code Omnipanar Inc.) PDF417 and micropdf417 (Symbol Technologies) QR (Quick Response) Code (DensoWave, ISO) Snowflake Code (Electronic Automation Ltd) SuperCode (Ynjiun Wang) US Patent Ultracode (Zebra Technologies) US Patent Most of the presented 2D codes are patented and subject to property rights of the respective owners, however some property owners have put their code in the public domain. The following 2D codes are especially useful for utilization in a manufacturing environment, because they are in the public

2 domain and have technical features such as capacity and a high level of redundancy, for example: Datamatrix: - covered by several ISO Standards such as ISO/IEC 16022:2006 [2]. Datamatrix is capable to encoding up to 3116 characters. A sample Datamatrix code is presented in figure 1. Fig. 3 - Manufacturing machine marked with 2D-Code Fig. 1 Sample Datamatrix Code Generator: qrcode.kaywa.com [3] QR Quick Response Code a trademark registered to Denso Wave Corp. QR code is covered by ISO Standard ISO/IEC [4, 5]. QR Code is capable to encoding up to 7366 characters or 4466 Alpha numeric characters (with ability to encode domestic characters such as Japanese Kanji or Kana characters) A sample QR code is presented in figure 2. 3 Mobile Devices and Operating Systems Mobile technology vendors offer a large number of mobile devices on the market, which are equipped with a built-in camera and the ability to download software applications, including bar code readers, decoders and managers. Based on: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker [7], 5 largest vendors as of Q are as listed below: Nokia Samsung LG Apple ZTE Other vendors, such as HP, HTC, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, etc., also deliver this kind of mobile devices. Fig. 2 Sample QR-Code (ULR - link) Generator: datamatrix.kaywa.com [6] In monitoring applications presented here - 2D codes are used to mark machines, work centers and other inventory in the manufacturing area. Each 2D code physically attached to a machine can point mobile devices used by service staff to a permanent web address with monitoring results or with any other information, such as maintenance or an emergency contact. Example of machine marked with 2D-Code is shown in figure 3. Depending on the vendor - different mobile operating systems can be found in mobile devices as of 2011: Android BlackBerry iphone Java/ J2ME Palm webos (HP Palms) Symbian Windows Mobile/ WinCE All of these allow user installed applications, including 2D code readers. 4 Web browsers and 2D Code Readers To be able to browse web pages and review the results of monitoring provided by Unix systems a regular mobile web browser can be used.

3 Mobile devices have least one web browser already installed in system, such as: Android web browser BlackBerry web browser Firefox for mobile Internet Explorer Mobile Opera Mini Safari WebOS browser Depending on needs - other user-installable browsers can be additionally installed in mobile device by the user via the internet. To be able to read and manage 2D codes - owners of mobile devices, depending on mobile operating system, can download and install respective (one or more) 2D barcode readers, which have been designed for a selected operating system, such as: I-nigma for iphone, Symbian, Windows mobile, Blackberry, Android and Java [8] NOKIA Barcode Reader for Symbian/ Nokia Devices [9] Barcode Scanner for Android and Java [10] QR decoder for webos/ HP Palms [11] Many other 2D code readers and other applications are available for download via: App Store for iphone [12] Android Market for Android [13] Marketplace for WindowsPhone [14] OVI Store for Nokia/ Sumbian [15] BlackBerry App World for BlackBerry [16] ipaq Appstore - for ipaq/ HP [17] Fig. 4. Daily traffic, graph displayed on Android device Fig. 5. Weekly traffic, graph displayed on Android device 5 Network Monitoring Tools The Network Monitoring Tools listing maintained by Cottrell, SLAC Stanford University [18] shows a large selection of software for regular network monitoring, which can be also used for the monitoring of manufacturing resources. Fig. 6. Monthly traffic, displayed on Android device One such monitoring tool is the Oetiker and Rand s Multi Router Traffic Grapher (MRTG) [19], which is primary designed to monitor the traffic load on routers or network interfaces and - every 5 minutes - generates images, which show a live, visual representation of monitored traffic. The sample daily, weekly, monthly and yearly graphs achieved in a manufacturing system and displayed using a mobile device: Android examples are shown in figures 4-7. Fig. 7. Yearly traffic, displayed on Android device

4 6 Audits in Local Networks The MRTG [18] allows the monitoring and display of any variable which is represented by a numeric value. Other useful software tools are: the Network Mapper and Security Scanner (mnap) [20] and Cron Deamon a time-based job scheduler for Unix systems [21], which can be used for periodic audits inside local manufacturing networks. Using Cron Daemon, a system administrator can define any audit in a local network, repeated every defined (in crontab) time period. Therefore MRTG software can receive (from NMAP) representative numeric variables, which can be used for the monitoring of any networked machine, robot and/or other manufacturing resource. The status of each conducted audit for each machine (or status of each check point) can be acquired via the network and delivered to the MRTG at every 5 minutes time interval - for display on a a local MRTG web page with monitoring results. Figure 8 shows a sample graph obtained while monitoring a single machine using MRTG and displayed using an iphone 3GS with Safari browser. Fig. 10. Total number of machines logged into local network, weekly graph displayed on iphone 3GS Fig. 11 Total number of machines logged into local network, Monthly graph displayed on iphone 3GS Fig. 8. Selected machine activity displayed on iphone 3GS NNAP can also check the status of more resources at once, just in one audit. The next figures 9-12 (below) shows sample graphs obtained while monitoring all machines and devices logged into the local manufacturing network. Fig. 12 Total number of machines logged into local network, yearly graph displayed on iphone 3 GS Fig. 9 Total number of machines logged into local network, daily graph displayed on iphone 3GS The next graph shows the results of another audit: how continuous is the WiFi connection with the WISP (Wireless Internet Service Provider), using crontab and ping commands. The sample monitoring results of latency time and packets lost on the WiFi link is shown in figures

5 Last graph (figure 16) shows two issues with the monitored network, which was observed in January and in April that year (2011) in a tested local network. One issue was caused by a security problem, and the second - by raw technical problems. Fig. 13. Status of WiFi Link HTC HD2 daily graph Fig. 14. Status of WiFi Link HTC HD2 - weekly graph Fig. 15. Status of WiFi Link HTC HD2 - monthly graph Fig. 16 Status of WiFi Link HTC HD2 Yearly graph 7 Results and conclusions Practical applicability of 2D codes and mobile devices to read Datamatrix and QR codes and to point those mobile devices to monitoring results and show those results provided by manufacturing monitoring software were conducted using the following selected mobile devices/ phones: iphone 3GS with iphone system v and Safari web browser [22] Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 with Android 2.1-update1, and with downloaded Opera Mini web browser [23] HTC HD2 PocketPC T8585 with Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional CE OS 5.2 [24] Nokia N97 Mini with Symbian S60 and NG7.1.4 browser [25] All of 4 aforementioned mobile systems did show their ability to read 2D codes, however in each case the 2D Code reader had to be downloaded from the proper Application Store or directly from a software vendor. Each mobile device did log into standard WEP-Key or WPA/WPA2 secured WiFi local networks, however there were some unsolved problems with HTC HD2 phones based on Windows mobile system - to login into larger WiFi network, which was secured with: EAP-PEAP/ MSCHAPv2, where the CA CERT server certificate was required. The Nokia N97 Mini logged into the same large WiFi network after some configuration changes were made by hand and after downloading the server certificate (using another 3G/ UMTS connection). The iphone 3GS logged into the same network without any problems. The iphone found all the required security modules and protocols and downloaded the required server certificate automatically, after one key user confirmation of that certificate. A quality reading process of 2D code depends very much on the quality of the camera built-into each mobile device, here iphone was better and faster than other tested mobile devices. After reading the 2D code each mobile device was able to display the web page with monitoring results of the selected machines or manufacturing network parameters. The iphone provided the most comfortable display and handling (scrolling/ zooming) of monitoring results primarily because of its ability for smooth zooming of the web browser screen. Other mentioned devices as of today - do not have such smooth zooming ability; however zoomed pictures in all devices were good and readable. The use of 2D codes, mobile devices and outlined monitoring software can provide help for technical staff to get prompt information on physical resources marked with 2D codes and therefore essentially accelerate the solving of network and technical issues in manufacturing systems.

6 8 Disclaimer All remarks and references in this paper to any specific commercial product, service or resource by trade name, trademark, manufacturer or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by author or by ZUT, West Pomeranian University of Technology. The views or opinions of the author expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of ZUT, West Pomeranian University of Technology, and shall NOT be used for any product or service endorsement purposes. 9 References [1] Adams Communications, BarCode 1, Specifications for popular 2D Bar Codes, [2] ISO/ IEC 16022:2006/ Cor2: Information Technology Automatic identification and data capture techniques Data Matrix bar code symbology specification, 2006, corrigenda etail.htm?csnumber= [3] Datamatrix Generator: [4] ISO/IEC 18004:2000 Information Technology Automatic identification and data capture techniques Bar code symbology QR code, First edition: [5] ISO/IEC 18004:2006.Cor1:2009 Information Technology Automatic identification and data capture techniques Bar code symbology QR code, Corrigenda etail.htm?csnumber= [6] QR Code Generator: [7] IDC Corporate USA, Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, 1Q 2010 published 28 April [8] 3G Vision, I-Nigma, - retrieved [9] Nokia Inc., Nokia Beta Labs, Nokia Barcode Reader applications/apps/nokia_barcode_reader_s60_32.sis [10] Multi-format 1D/2D barcode image processing library with clients for Android, [11] Live Runway, QR decoder from Palm Web OS, [12] Apple Store, - retrieved: [13] Android Market, - retrieved [14] Market Place, [15] OVI Store, - retrieved: [16] BlackBerry App World, appworld.blackberry.com - [17] IPAQ Application Store, [18] Cottrell, L. (2010). Network Monitoring Tools, SLAC, Stanford University, retrieved: [19] Oetiker, Rand The Multi Router Traffic Grapher, - [20] Lyon, NMAP Network Mapper and Security Scanner, - retrieved: [21] Advanced Cronjob Turorial Online Cron Service & Cron Reference, - retrieved: [22] Apple Inc., iphone overview, - retrieved: [23] Sony Ericsson, Xperia X8 Specification ortfolio/specification/xperiax8 - retrieved: [24] HTC Corporation, HTC HD2 overview, - [25] Nokia Corporation, Nokia N97 Mini Overview,