Application of Industrial Computer Tomography to Determine Wood Porosity

The main objective of this research was to analyse the limitations of iCT - industrial computer tomography for measuring the wood pores characteristics as a new non-destructive method which is primarily intended to measure and inspect complete components primarily made of plastics or light metal. The subject matter of this paper are wood samples of paulownia (Paulownia tomentosa) and ash (Fraxinus excelsior) before and after thermal treatment. Porosity, pore volume and distribution of pores on the wood samples before and after the heat treatment were measured by iCT Metrotom 1500. The total porosity of the samples before thermal treatment was 5.28 % (paulownia) and 14.90 % (ash), while after thermal treatment, porosity increased to 9.50 % (paulownia) and to 30.78 % (ash). Changes in the porosity of the samples before and after heat treatment show an increase in porosity of 3.87 % (paulownia) and 15.88 % (ash).

Industry Communication Based on TCP/IP Protocol

The design of control systems needs to ensure communication between multiple PLCs or external IoT devices. Furthermore, there are several ways of communication between them. This article dealt with the PLC communication based on TCP/IP protocol, and compared several communication options between two PLCs of the S7-300 and S7-1200 series connected using Profinet with a solution built in C# connected to the PLC via an OPC server. We used MODBUS TCP, TCON, and PUT/GET program blocks for comparison. We transmitted a digital Boolean data type and an analogue value of the integer data type via Profinet to read data from the S7-300 PLC and send data to the S7-1200. We compared the programming instructions standardly used as a client/server PLC programming with a Windows Forms application, and evaluated the advantages and disadvantages of this solution even when using external IoT devices. The solution was applied and successfully tested for communication between PLC S7-1200 and Nvidia Jetson Nano. We wrote program instructions for PLC in Siemens Tia Portal V15.

Analysis of Lifelong Learning in Industrial Enterprises in the Border Regions of the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic

Lifelong learning is a conscious learning process with the aim of acquiring knowledge, skills and competences throughout an individual’s life. For lifelong learning to be successful, learning activities must meet market requirements. Correct skills of employees and a serious approach to lifelong learning are now being viewed as essential meet the skills and workforce needs of the future. Well-adjusted education system improves quality of life and sense of self-esteem of employees, besides it brings benefits of competitiveness for the whole company. The key goal of the article was to identify the current needs of lifelong learning in industrial enterprises in technical fields. The conducted questionnaire survey was focused on the companies in the border regions of the Slovak Republic (the Trnava, Trenčín and Žilina regions) and the Czech Republic (the South Moravian, Zlín and Moravian-Silesian regions). The research was aimed primarily at the companies in the machinery and automotive industries. Based on the results of the questionnaire, the requirements for the training focused on technical areas such as: materials engineering, mechanical engineering, computer aided design and production preparation, automation and control of technological processes and mechatronic systems, production quality, IT security and others were defined.

Use of Blockchain Mechanisms in PLC Control and Safety Critical Processes

In a few past years, a lot of cyber-attacks on industrial systems were accomplished. The main point of vulnerability of industrial control systems (ICS) is their connection to the Internet. Standard ICS rely on local solutions; however, with the revolution in the shape of Industry 4.0 concept, there are only a few industrial sectors with no connection to the global network. Some researchers have revealed critical vulnerability of the control systems. In this paper, we briefly summarize the current situation, and introduce our solution to the check of changes in PLC via other nodes in industrial network. The way how to do it is possible through using a checksum of actual code, and comparing with the checksums stored in other nodes.

Increasing the Efficiency of a Robotic Cell Using Simulation

The paper deals with the possibilities of increasing the efficiency of a robotic cell. The robot assembly station is a part of a multi-robotic workplace capable of performing solitary operations. The complete production cycle of the cell is subjected to a thorough analysis. Deficiencies, having a direct impact on cell efficiency, are identified. These shortcomings include redundant movements of the robotic arm, the absence of an inspection mechanism for the presence of assembly parts, and inefficient instructions of the production cycle algorithm. The identified deficiencies are eliminated using the CIROS simulation tool. The result of the adjustments is a global 11.4% increase in the efficiency of the robotic cell in terms of time performance.

Virtual Control Object for Siemens Logic Controllers and Online PLC Education

This paper deals with the possibility of creating virtual C # models connectable to a virtual PLC of Siemens. The models will lead to the improvement and simplification of the online PLC education. Hardware solutions cost a lot of money, while using a software version of PLC leads to cheaper simulations. Paper presents the design and implementation of the virtual models, including the ways of the interconnection with PLCSIM, visualization and finally demonstration for the selected virtual model.

An Approach to Automated Programming of Industrial Robots Based on Graphic Data

The article contains the design and implementation of a system for automatic program generation for an industrial robot, based on the graphical input recorded by camera. The content is divided into two parts. The first section deals with processing the visual data acquired from an external source to appropriate form, using edge identification and transformation from raster to vector image. The second part deals with the automatic program generation for industrial robot. The article describes different possible approaches to solution. The selected way of solution was implemented in real environment in a chosen programming language. The final section of the article presents the results of experiments, together with the overall evaluation of the results.

Case Study of Building a Digital Twin for a Production System

As the term of Industry 4.0 becomes more and more relevant with each passing day, it is up to researchers and companies to find solutions to integrating all the technologies it covers. One of those technologies, even though not highly developed, is simulation and building Cyber-Physical Systems for gathering data and improving the production processes. In the research described in this paper, we focused on integrating production data with simulation models in order to make the process of understanding and learning about complex production systems as simple and as quick as possible. This paper contains three sections. The first one introduces the theoretical fundamentals of our research. The second one focuses on the methods used to create a digital model of production system. The final one discusses the results of the conducted experiments, and their impact on further research.

Reliability Assessment of the Systems with Simple Interconnections

The paper deals with determining the final value of simple systems reliability. Simple systems, the systems with simple interconnections, can be divided into a sequence of series and/or parallel subsystems. The paper presents the basic functional relationships used to assess the reliability of simple systems, however, they are also essential for understanding more complex systems. The paper graphically shows and analyzes the final reliability of the systems depending on the arrangement of subsystems, and also those depending on the number of subsystems.

Controlling a Small Mobile 3-Pi Robot Movement in a Maze Via the Neural Network Using Back-Propagation Learning Method

The contribution is focused on technical implementation of controlling a small mobile 3Pi robot in a maze along a predefined guide line where the control of the acquired direction of the robot’s movement was provided by a neural network. The weights (memory) of the neuron were calculated using a feedforward neural network learning via the Back-propagation method. This article fastens on the paper by the title “Movement control of a small mobile 3-pi robot in a maze using artificial neural network”, where Hebbian learning was used for a single-layer neural network. The reflectance infra-red sensors performed as input sensors. The result of this research is the evaluation based on the experiments that served to compare different training sets with the learning methods when moving a mobile robot in a maze.