Safety monitoring system for a manufacturing workstation using 6LoWPAN technologies

After installation, safety systems are usually not upgraded anymore, because producers have no financial incentive to impose modifications on the production line . The traditional approach to installing safety systems is to connect all safety components within a workcell in series. The crucial associated problem is the subsequent identification of the source of a fail state. This paper proposes a safety monitoring system as a way to overcome this problem using the 6LoWPAN wireless technology. The used technology supports the implementation of a sensor network, fully accessible by IPv6, on top of existing solutions without any additional rewiring. Sensor data is processed by the monitoring system and displayed on the operator panel, to provide information concerning the location and type of the safety issue.