EtherCAT-enabled next generation Baggage Handling Systems

Author

Xuepei Wu ; Lihua Xie ; Lim, Felicia

Author_Institution

Sch. of Electr. & Electron. Eng., Nanyang Technol. Univ., Singapore, Singapore

fYear

2013

fDate

10-13 Sept. 2013

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

6

Abstract

Communication networks are essentially the backbone of industrial automation systems such as Baggage Handling Systems (BHS) and are experiencing technological transition from traditional fieldbus to Real-time Ethernet (RTE). EtherCAT is evolving into one of the fastest RTE protocols due to its unique “processing on-the-fly” characteristic. This paper presents how EtherCAT can be the key technology for the innovative next generation BHS. Network performance indices such as communication delay and cycle time are analyzed and discussed in comparison with fieldbus to illustrate the applicability of EtherCAT in BHS. A case study of baggage handling application is given to demonstrate the advantages of EtherCAT-based architecture.

Keywords

conveyors; local area networks; protocols; BHS; EtherCAT-based architecture; RTE protocols; communication delay; communication networks; cycle time; industrial automation systems; network performance index; next generation baggage handling systems; real-time Ethernet; Airports; Delays; Motor drives; Network topology; Payloads; Ports (Computers); Protocols;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Emerging Technologies & Factory Automation (ETFA), 2013 IEEE 18th Conference on

Conference_Location

Cagliari

ISSN

1946-0740

Print_ISBN

978-1-4799-0862-2

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ETFA.2013.6648067

Filename

6648067