Servicing industrial machinery: Challenges using wireless identification and networked sensing systems

Servicing industrial machinery and automation systems over their life targets at fast response and fast resolution. It requires skills, engineering knowledge and various data about the machine, its industrial environment, data from automation systems in the plant and historical information, which needs to be collected, correlated and analyzed. The advent of tiny smart devices such as RFID and networked wireless sensing nodes are promising and challenging for use in servicing industrial equipment. In this paper we identify fundamental challenges and requirements for establishing wireless networked sensing systems for industrial service applications. We further report on first design considerations for developing practical solutions and experiences from using prototypes in a test bed.