Design of Network and Node for Discrete Manufacturing Information Monitoring

This paper presents a design for information gathering networks and nodes for discrete manufacturing information monitoring. Firstly, the wireless network characteristics and categories are analyzed. The paper then proposes a combined wireless network with high speed WIFI and low speed ZigBee network to collect information. Requirements for production information monitoring are then analyzed. A monitoring node is designed based on the ZigBee protocol network. The software of the monitoring node and the hardware are designed based on functional requirements analysis. Then the discrete manufacturing network node is designed. Finally, An experiment was performed to test the actual network by discrete manufacturing way. Results show that the network and node performed effectively. Requirements of the actual network to collect information were fully satisfied. The nodes are more convenient, and easy maintenance, and low cost. the mix network strategies will play a more important role in the future in discrete manufacturing industry. Keywords-component; ZigBee protocol; Discrete manufacturing; Information monitoring; Wireless transmission; MES system