TIMES

Contribution "THz(23)000168 Use case on Real-time industrial control"

Industrial machines are equipped with one or multiple industrial computers (e.g., Programmable Logic Controllers) for the control of the manufacturing process. Computers communicate with sensors and actuators installed on the machine to monitor the status of the process and trigger actions. Similarly, sensors and actuators within a machine or across multiple machines can communicate directly with each other to exchange information relevant for decision-making. Current solutions use wired fieldbus connections (e.g., Profinet, EtherCAT, Powerlink, Sercos, etc.) between sensors/actuators and industrial computers. Such wired connections can be replaced with wireless communications at THz frequencies. This solution has the potential to provide the communication performance required by industrial real-time applications without the need for cabling.

Moreover, sensing capabilities of THz signals can be exploited to aid the monitoring of the industrial process and to supervise machine operations.