Flexible Wireless Automation in Real-Time Environments: FlexWARE

Nowadays a strong accent is put on the possibility of adopting wireless communication solutions to the requirements of industrial environments. Communication without cables provides new possibilities like: flexible production paths or sensors, which are moving through the whole factory. It could have a big influence not only on the efficiency of production processes; it could also significant reduce costs, which are related to network infrastructure.

The aim of the project ^flexWARE is to implement a novel platform, which offers secure and flexible communication with real-time capabilities. The technology used for this project will be based on Wireless Local Area Networks (802.11), although the final solution will be as independent as possible from the given technology. The core contribution of the project is a novel secure middleware with special emphasis on security, flexibility, and mobile, real-time enabled nodes that can roam between various access points of the system. This middleware along with location based services enables the dynamically reconfigurable factory of the future opening new market opportunities with revolutionary new possibilities for applications. However, the application interfaces will be open, leading to allow third party developments in a secure and predictable factory automation network.