Measuring Node for Modular Wireless Sensor-Networks in Harsh Industrial Environments

In the era of Industry 4.0, monitoring systems supervise every stage of production processes and provide large measurement data-set, whose metrological traceability is difficult to be ensured. This paper describes the development of a node designed to be highly adaptable, which can be used with a variety of interchangeable transducers and characterized by on-site calibration, for integration into modular Wireless Sensor-Networks (WSNs) in industrial settings. The proposed architecture is based on a general-purpose board with a specialized front-end for temperature monitoring in harsh environments, in the specific case inside a freeze-dryer. Harsh environments and modularity demand a high degree of reliability and flexibility, which can be obtained thanks to long and short-range wireless solutions for data communication coupled with the data-logger capability obtained using a nonvolatile flash memory. The results here reported refer to the specialized node in the case study analyzed, considering that different measuring nodes can be customized to develop WSNs that extend along the entire industrial facility.