IoT Gateway Failure Detection for Mobile Robot Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
When a WAN failure occurs in an IoT system connecting a factory to the cloud, it affects communication quality, leading to delays or stoppages in automatic transport robots, which in turn decrease production efficiency and can cause robots to move into areas with communication failures, impacting normal operations.
Innovation Solution
A system that includes a gateway device and a control device which detects WAN failures and determines whether movement control instructions pass through the affected gateway, allowing the control device to stop transmission of instructions through the failed gateway, thereby minimizing the impact of the failure area and maintaining work efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the transport robot moves to the subordinate of the IoT-GW in which the failure has occurred, then the robot can continue its transport work, but the communication quality deteriorates causing the robot to be stopped or slowed down
Solution Approach 1:
The control device performs preliminary detection of WAN failure status before issuing transport instructions. By detecting the failure in advance and identifying affected IoT-GWs, the system prevents robots from being assigned to areas with poor communication quality, thereby avoiding work stoppages while maintaining productivity
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements a feedback mechanism where the control device continuously monitors WAN failure status and adjusts transport instructions accordingly. When failures are detected, the control device identifies affected areas and modifies robot assignments to avoid those regions, creating a closed-loop control system that adapts to changing communication conditions
2Reliability
If the control device stops transmission of movement control instructions through the failed gateway, then the influence of failure area is minimized, but the transport robot cannot perform work in that area
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the factory area into zones based on WAN failure status, identifying specific IoT-GWs and their subordinate areas as affected or unaffected. This segmentation allows the control device to selectively issue instructions only to robots in unaffected areas, maintaining reliable communication while preserving as much productivity as possible through spatial separation of affected and unaffected operations
3Ease of operation
If the robot operates in the failure area, then the robot can utilize the available communication, but control messages are stagnated causing the robot to be slowed down
Solution Approach 1:
The control device performs preliminary detection of WAN failure status and identifies affected IoT-GWs before issuing transport instructions. By proactively avoiding assignment of robots to areas with known communication failures, the system prevents message stagnation and maintains optimal robot operation speed while ensuring communication availability through alternative routing
Data Source
AI summary
A gateway device is wirelessly connected to a mobile device and a control device that is connected to the gateway device and controls the mobile device. The mobile device reports a completion report indicating completion of a movement work according to a movement control instruction from the control device, and wherein the control device includes a work control unit that transmits the movement control instruction to the mobile device. It is determined whether or not a failure has occurred in communication between the control device and the gateway device, and it is determined whether or not the movement control instruction executed by the mobile device passes through the gateway device in which the failure determined by the failure detection unit has occurred, and stops transmission of the movement control instruction of passing through the gateway device in which the failure has occurred to the mobile device.