The IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics Special Section
WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES IN FACTORY AND INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION
Wireless technologies have the potential of providing significant benefits in factory and industrial
automation systems. The wireless way of communicating makes plant setup and modification easier,
cheaper and more flexible. It provides a natural approach towards communication with mobile
equipment where wires are in constant danger of breaking. It enables new applications where wireless
transmission is the only option, e.g., measurements and control of rotating or highly mobile devices, and
provides a novel approach to existing applications, e.g., localization and tracking of goods. Wireless
technologies do, however, suffer from time-varying error rates, interference and security problems. This
imposes a number of problems, especially in the industrial application field, where often tight
constraints in terms of reliability, safety, dependability and real-time requirements have to be fulfilled in
order to avoid severe financial losses or even damage to equipment or life. Several other issues may
arise, including the interconnection of wireless systems with legacy industrial communication systems,
the provisioning of support for proper system planning, configuration and commissioning of wireless
industrial communication systems as well as power feeding problems. The goal of this special section is
to attract theoretical and practical papers attacking the main issues and challenges concerning the
adoption of wireless technologies in industrial communications; reporting about implementation
experiences; describing and evaluating the design of new applications of wireless technologies in
industrial and automation systems.
Paper submission deadline: August 31, 2006
Expected publication date: May 2007
The Call for Papers of the Special Session can be found
here
