Mitsubishi Electric has developed an Internet of Things (IoT) Factory Controller, designed to its connect factory automation (FA) solution, e-F@ctory, with the cloud.
This innovation could potentially pave the way for next generation factories.
The company announced that the IoT Factory Controller is currently being verified in test operation and is expected to be commercially tested in April 2016.
The IoT Factory Controller is expected to be integrated into e-F@ctory to provide real-time connection between the shop floor and the cloud, facilitating collaboration virtually.
The controller is also likely to provide advanced security to secure the systems against wire tapping, data manipulation, unauthorised access and other forms of cyber attacks.
The e-F@ctory solution by Mitsubishi Electric will use advanced technologies to directly connect shop-floor data, making the factories truly visible.
The solution will also help factory operators to visualise and analyse data using graphs which will further enhance quality and facilitate productivity.
According to Mitsubishi, factories are expected to become interconnected through the cloud for superior production management, and the e-F@ctory solution is designed to provide real-time security and high reliability for manufacturing execution and quality management systems on a non-cloud basis.
IoT Factory Controller has a scalable structure that can expand data-processing capability, which is important as increased data from sensors on production lines are expected to increase the need for expanded data-processing capacity in factories.
Mitsubishi said: "In some cases, access control is required to establish a cloud connection to multiple manufacturers’ equipment."
"Mitsubishi Electric’s new IoT Factory Controller enables access to specific floor machines pre-registered by maintenance operators."
