Wireless Sensor Networks for Industrial Environments
Kay Soon Low, Win Nu Nu Win, Meng Joo Er
Intelligent Systems Centre
Nanyang Technological University
k.s.low@ieee.org, nnwin@ntu.edu.sg, emjer@ntu.edu.sg
Abstract
Deployment of large population of sensors for
sophisticated sensing and control in the industrial and
commercial infrastructures is a challenging research
area. The use of wireless sensor network (WSN) for
industrial applications has attracted a great deal of
interests today. Unlike the office networks, the
industrial environment for wireless sensor networks
are harsher due to the unpredictable variations in
temperature, pressure, humidity, present of heavy
equipments etc. In this paper, we present a survey of
wireless sensor network for industrial applications.
The interference and other issues that could be
encountered in WSN are discussed and strategies to
improve the link quality are described.
1. Introduction
Wireless sensor networks are systems that comprise
large populations (hundreds or thousands) of
wirelessly connected heterogeneous sensor nodes that
are spatially distributed across a large field of interest.
A multitude of different sensors are used to measure
and analyze information of the system parameters. The
sensor nodes are typically equipped with radio
transceivers, microcontrollers, and batteries. They are
physically small, inexpensive and could be deployed in
large numbers. Moreover, they consume little power to
allow prolong operation for years. They are integrated
through the wireless network and data fusion
performed to derive useful and accurate information.
They are useful in a wide array of applications such as
military, environment & habitat monitoring, health /
life sciences, agriculture, manufacturing etc.
The use of smart sensors or networks of sensors
exists in many industries to provide real-time data
acquisition and control. However, most of them are
wired solutions that usually result in high installation
and maintenance costs. The wireless solutions can
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offer lower system & infrastructure costs, improve
product quality, streamline operations, lower operating
costs, easy upgrading, greater physical mobility and
freedom etc [1]. In wired networks, each sensor node
requires a separate twisted shielded pair wire
connection. That becomes expensive if the cabling
across sensor nodes and the controllers are long and
configuration management is difficult. Wireless sensor
network is relatively very cost efficient. Moreover, its
self-configure, self-organizing characteristics make the
wireless sensor networks robust and ideal for
hazardous plant and high-assets protection applications
[2].
Unlike traditional wired networks, the sensors of a
WSN can be deployed in bearings of motors, oil
pumps, into the heart of whirring engines, vibration
sensors on packing crates, or many unpleasant or
inaccessible or hazardous environments which are
impractical with normal wired systems. For wired
networks, the isolation may be required for cables
running near to high humidity, magnetic field or high
vibration environment. It is also necessary to have
redundant wire for critical operations in wired
networks that pose difficulty in fault locations and
isolations. Applications that have frequent re-location
of devices also make wireless solutions more attractive
than wired networks.
In today’s competitive industrial sector, the
manufacturers invest significant amount of money to
ensure that the plants function with full capacity and
efficiently with zero downtime and without
unanticipated output quality. With the advancement of
RF components and technologies, wireless monitoring
and control of real-time health of equipments and other
M2M (Machine-to-Machine or Man-to-Machine)
monitoring applications become attractive. It can be
used in many industrial applications such as condition-
based maintenance systems, real-time process-control
systems and pervasive monitoring systems etc.
Selection of the right technology for the required
application is challenging for the industrial
 environment. Interferences to the mission-critical data
can result in costly disasters in terms of money, man-
power, time and even lives of employees or public. For
example, as a result of radio interference, the VHF
biomedical telemetry devices in two Dallas hospitals
stopped working when a near-by local TV station
tested HDTV broadcast for a short period [3]. Such
incident raises the concerns over the effects of
interferences. The noise and interferences are
significant especially in the harsh industrial
environments due to the wide operating temperatures,
strong vibrations, airborne contaminants, excessive
electromagnetic noise caused by large motors etc.
Therefore, it is important to study and understand the
characteristics in order to predict the communications
performance in such operating condition.
The outline of this paper is as follows. In section 2,
we first present a survey of several real industrial
applications of WSNs ranging from robotics, inventory
management, equipment monitoring to environmental
data logging. This is followed by a description of the
radio modulation techniques and their responses to the
noise and interferences in the industrial environments.
Finally, we present other issues that required attention
when designing the WSNs for industrial automation.
2. Wireless Sensor Networks for Industrial
applications
WSNs can be used advantageously for rare event
detection or periodic data collection for industrial
applications. In rare event detection, sensors are used
to detect and classify rare, random, and ephemeral
events, such as alarm and fault detection notifications
due to important changes in machine, process, plant
security, operator actions, or instruments that are used
intermittently. On the other hand, periodic data
collection is required for operations such as tracking of
the material flows, health monitoring of
equipment/process. Such monitoring and control
applications reduce the labour cost, human errors and
prevent costly manufacturing downtime.
Manufacturers nowadays are investing in wireless
technologies to allow the engineers to acquire and
control the real-time data of wireless sensor/actuator
networks of the factory at anytime anywhere.
Moreover, the adoption of multiple network
technologies in a single environment is becoming
common today. As shown in Figure 1, real-time
process control and maintenance systems are equipped
with wireless sensors/actuator networks on the plant
floor and can be integrated with the back-end
enterprise software as well as the internet web
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services. Data can be entered or acquired while the
alerts/alarms can be notified through SMS or emails to
the engineers at offices or remote locations.
Incorporating short-range communication technologies
like Zigbee/Bluetooth into the automation system will
enable the engineers to collect and control real time
sensors/actuators data from the factory floor, and
internet enabled handheld devices such as mobile
phones/ PDAs to connect with the outside world
(Internet) make ubiquitous computing possible in
industrial automation systems. Integration of such wide
range of devices and different technologies together
provide possible leverage strengths from one and
another resulting in an efficient automated system.
2.1. Industrial Mobile Robots
Autonomous mobile robots have been used widely
in the industries. They are very suited for applications
that are delicate, risky, heavy, repetitive or labor-
intensive tasks. Most robots used in the industries are
fixed and dedicated such as machine loading, welding,
assembly/ disassembly etc. The use of intelligent
mobile robots and wireless networks are being
exploited in recent years [4]-[8]. Unlike the traditional
navigation that used limited embedded sensors and
landmark objects to avoid obstacles in the paths,
sensors and processors are equipped on the robots to
navigate based on information obtained from the
networked sensors in the workspace [5]. Such
interactions among sensors in the field, sensors
attached to the robots, laptop and humans improve the
environment perception of the workspace with
collision free navigation.
In [6], multi-robot task allocation is used where
tasks are allocated explicitly to robots by a pre-
deployed static sensor network. In this way, the robots
can navigate efficiently throughout the workspace
using the deployed sensor network to explore their
environment. Potential applications include moving
stacks of containers between machine rooms and
warehouse, industrial floor cleaning robots, patrolling
robots in unsupervised areas or toxic waste cleanup
etc.
Mobile robots can also be used to calibrate,
recalibrate, or deliver power to sensors as an overall
caretaker/ service robot of the wireless sensor network.
Mobile robots equipped with calibrated sensors will
visit the field to collect data from many sensors and
decide whether the sensors need to recalibrate. In [7],
mobile robots and wireless sensor networks are tested
in the Intel PlantCare project to continuously calibrate
 Plant floor
Sensing & tracking
Temperature, pressure
viscosity sensors etc in
assembly line or
hi
Actuators
Monitoring
& Control
.
Figure 1. Industrial sensor/actuators networks
the deployed sensors. The wireless sensors on the
robot are used to take measurements at different
locations to approximate the actual placement of
sensors with better accuracy. By using mobile robot
sensor, it saves time and effort to overcome the
traditional heuristic methods. Mobile robot can do the
periodic visit to the sensors in the plant floors to
collect readings and calibrate the sensors. For example,
readings from the temperature sensors can be varied as
seasons change. Re-calibrations can be done by
deploying the robot as an agent visiting the sensor
anytime, anywhere. With the help of robot attached
with a sensor, accuracy can be significantly improved
to the wireless sensor nodes in the field without human
intervention.
In [8], the ABB Group has developed an assembly-
line robot with wireless proximity switch position
sensors that have wireless power supply by converting
magnetic energy into electrical power. The main
objective is to improve the robot reliability as cables
are main source of sensor fault and machine downtime.
2.2. Real-time inventory management
Inventory management systems based on manual
processes may cause out-of-stocks, expedited
shipments, production slowdowns, excess buffer
inventory, and billing delays situations. With WSN
technology, the inventory and asset could be monitored
in real time and information such as the arrival of the
raw materials etc could be routed across a distant to the
gateway for management decision and control.
WSN is used by BP to remotely monitor its
industrial customers' LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas)
tank fill levels [9]. Battery-powered ultrasonic sensors
are used and the information is transmitted by radio
signal to a low earth orbit satellite, which relays the
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WSN
(Bluetooth/ ZigBee/ UWB )
Gateway controllers Handheld devices
SMS
Office/Home
Sink
Work station
Server
Notebook
Ethernet/WLAN/
Wi-Fi
data for timely deliveries. With this real time inventory
data, BP could accurately and efficiently deliver
services to the customers for about 200 tanks in
England. They reported that there is an improved
delivery efficiency over 33%.
In another application, the General Motors is
implementing a real-time inventory tracking system
[10]. The tracking process of the inventory is starting
from the components suppliers, to the assembled cars
in the factory, the car dealers and until the car buyers.
Real time inventory tracking with WSN improves the
visibility of materials, its location and asset utilization,
reduces theft, provides the ability to immediately find
equipment and ultimately increases supply chain
efficiencies.
2.3. Process and equipment monitoring
WSNs can be used to enable remote monitoring the
health of machinery without the infrastructure needs
for cabling. By continuously monitoring the
temperature, pressure, vibrations and power usage etc
as shown in Figure 2, the manufacturers can reduce
unnecessary cost incurred due to failures or
malfunctions in machinery.
In [10], General Motor applies the wireless sensor
network technology to monitor the manufacturing
equipment such as the conveyer belts and other types
of machinery. Measured data such as the vibration,
heat and other factors are detected and transmitted to a
computer via a wireless mesh. By periodically
collecting information from the machinery, the
technicians could predict machine’s failure, mean time
to failure and perform pre-emptive maintenance. The
collected data also facilitates future improvement and
faster repair of equipment from the data collected.
 Intel’s EcoSense project group [11] is deploying a
pilot preventive maintenance application that uses
wireless sensor network to monitor the health of
semiconductor fabrication equipment. With this
advance real time monitoring system, the vibration
signature of water purification equipment is analyzed
and the data is used for preventive maintenance
operations. In another trial deployment, Intel and BP
has also collaborated and successfully experimented
WSN on a crude oil tanker at Scotland to monitor
machinery vibration to support preventive
maintenance. The test has shown that the WSN can
function well in hostile shipboard environment where
it would have to withstand temperature extremes,
substantial vibration and significant RF noise.
According to the United States Department of
Energy, the electric motors in the industries consume
23% of energy in the U.S industry. To counter such
immense energy use, the Department has
commissioned a project [12] to develop a low cost
self-configuring wireless sensor network to apply
monitoring and diagnostic systems for use in electric
motors. The sensors will have embedded intelligence
and could measure parameters such as voltage, current
and temperature. These wirelessly transmitted
information would then be used by the network’s
energy management system for the plant control. It is
targeted to have a 5% energy reduction when
implemented successfully.
In [13], experimental wireless sensor network was
set up for an ore processing facility to monitor the
wear conditions of the pumps that are used in the
factory. The wear rubble parts of the pumps are
monitored through embedded wireless sensors that
transmit the pump identification and the wear data. The
objective is to perform preventive maintenance to
replace the uneven and unpredictable wear so that the
200 pumps in the facility can be operated at the
optimum level.
Memory
Sensors:
Temp.
ADC
Vibration Micro-
Flow rate
controller
Strain
etc
Sensing Device Controller module
Figure 2. Condition monitoring of machine
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2.4. Environment monitoring
Wireless sensing can be used to provide solutions in
the industry for leakage detection, climate reporting,
radiation check, intrusion notification etc. Emergency
alerts could be sent to the operating managers
requesting immediate preventive actions. With WSNs,
the presence or the movement of abnormalities such as
toxic chemical, biological, radioactive agent or
unauthorized personnel can be tracked throughout the
facility.
Leakage of flammable liquids and gases such as
ammonia, chlorine etc in the petrochemical plants can
cause heavy loss, risks for public, and hazardous
emissions to the environment. Many oil and gas
companies are now pilot testing WSNs and plan to
deploy widely in near future. It is estimated that 2
million units could be deployed within the next five
years [14]. With the wireless sensors, once leakage is
detected, responsive actions can be activated such as
emergency alert to the operators, automatic switch off
of the machinery or trigger the sprinkler alarms etc.
Running wires in the hazardous environments is not
practical and also prohibitively expensive. To perform
critical functions in sensitive and harsh environments
such as propulsion test [15], WSNs are used by NASA
to provide the remote sensing and monitoring of the
engine testing with high reliability and accuracy. The
parameters that are monitored include acoustic, strain,
vibration level, vacuum level, temperature etc.
In [16], a wireless sensor network based system of
autonomous temperature logging of fish catches has
been successfully tested off the Irish coast. The
objective is to improve food safety and also the chain
traceability. For the implementation, the individual fish
box is equipped with a sensor node that transmits time
stamped temperature data and node identification
regularly to the base station on the ship. The processed
information is then transmitted to the computer server
on shore in real time via GSM modem.
Transceiver
RF module
 Other industrial monitoring with WSNs include:
UPS/power failure alert, water leak/humidity
notification, security intrusion detection systems,
emergency(smoke/fire etc) notification and locator,
HVAC monitoring and control etc.
3. Interferences in industrial environments
Before deploying WSNs in industrial applications,
it should be aware that the coverage areas and
reliability of data in the industrial environment may
suffer due to noises, co-channel interferences,
multipath and other interferers. The signal strength can
be severely affected in factory environments due to
reflections of walls and floors, interferences from ISM
bands and noise generated from equipments or heavy
machines [17]. It is important that data integrity is
maintained despite presence of noises and
interferences for mission-critical data such as alarms.
To ensure reliable delivery of messages from sensor to
application host, changes in the signal level and radio
connectivity are needed to address carefully.
The interference signal can be classified as
narrowband and broadband. Broadband interferences
are signals with a constant energy spectrum over all
frequencies and have high energy. They are usually
unintentional radiating sources whereas narrowband
interferences are intentional noise sources with lower
energy. Table 1 shows the narrowband and broadband
interference sources that are generally found in the
industries. Both interferences have varying degradation
effects on wireless link reliability.
Table 1. Interference sources
Broadband interferences Narrowband interferences
Motors Cellular telephone
Inverter, SCR circuits Radio and TV transmitters
Electric switch contacts Power-line hum
Computers, ESD Signal Generators
Ignition systems Local oscillator,UPS system
Voltage regulators Test equipment
Lightning electromagnetic Microwave & Ultrasonic
pulses equipment
Arc/vapor lamps Electronic ballasts
Pulse generators Medical equipment
Thermostats Microprocessor systems
Welding apparatus Pager transmitters
Frequency converters High-frequency generators
To reduce the interferences, spread spectrum radio
modulation techniques are desirable as it can offer
multiple access capability, anti-multipath fading
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capability, and anti-jamming capability. There are two
main spread spectrum techniques, namely the DSSS
(direct sequence spread spectrum) and FHSS
(frequency hopping spread spectrum). Due to different
physical mechanisms, DSSS and FHSS react
differently in industrial settings. Both have their
advantages depending on the applications and
environments.
Due to the nature of frequency hopping in FHSS,
other data packets still can reach the receiver even if
one packet fails despite strong narrowband
interference. Furthermore, the users have the option
not to use certain frequencies if there are known
sources of interference. Thus, FHSS is suitable for
harsh environments since only part of the spectrum is
affected even packets jam at one hop or another. In
general, FHSS scheme gives lower chances of
colliding with other transmission and improves
robustness since changing of the transmit frequency
makes it difficult to collide within a particular time
frame. Since it hops from one to another, interference
is not constant. On the other hand, DSSS can remove
the interference completely as long as interfering
signal power is within the jamming margin. For low to
medium narrowband interference environment, DSSS
can completely reject them whereas for heavy
interference, FHSS still can perform but DSSS fails.
Thus, DSSS radio is suitable for large packet messages
in low and medium interferences whereas FHSS is
good for small packet data in heavy interferences. For
applications that required lower cost with moderate
data rate, FHSS is preferred whereas for data intensive
applications that require high bandwidth, DSSS is the
choice. We can conclude that DSSS is ideal for
systems that need high speed and FHSS is cost-
effective, better interference immunity and for higher
number of users. There are other strategies that can be
incorporated with the radio modulation technique to
improve the link quality in industrial environments.
Four such strategies are 1) channel diversity 2) path
diversity, 3) temporal diversity, and 4) increased
transmit power.
4. Other issues
Sophisticated applications such as equipment health
monitoring for fault prediction require multiple sensors
to detect different complex conditions, fuse data
intelligently and extract information correctly. Sensor
nodes generally work from batteries that may not be
easily recharged or replaced. As such, technology that
can offer efficient power management is desirable.
There are also security concerns over deployment
 of radio-wave sensors. Wireless signals can be
detected easily by data thieves or eavesdroppers. Some
technologies like Zigbee uses 128-bit AES algorithm
to provide strong authentication mechanisms. It
prevents unauthorized devices from joining and
prevents attacker from using network key to control
devices. Though simple sensor data of equipment
conditions has little value and interest to hackers, the
security algorithms also serve to prevent unintended
network failure or an unresponsive device [18]. In
many applications, it is important to uniquely and
clearly identify a node on a network such that the time
and mission critical data can be securely sent or
retrieved to and from the correct node. This is
especially needed in industrial control and monitoring
applications where the sensor nodes may be mobile or
transient.
5. Conclusion
Wireless sensor networks provide the industries
with real-time tracking and remote monitoring/control
capability on systems or devices. This paper presented
several industrial applications that take advantage of
the wireless sensor network. It highlighted the issues
and requirements that the end-users need to be aware
when incorporating WSNs in the industries. The
existence of a wide array of wireless technologies
requires the designers to evaluate carefully the right
technology for their systems. The designers need to
address several metrics in terms of power
consumption, range, data rates, cost, size, scalability,
mobility, security and link reliability and tolerance,
lifetime, availability, robustness, and software
integration. Tradeoffs also exist depending on the
requirements and constraints.
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