The series of IEEE Workshops on Factory Communication Systems has become established as a widely known and respected forum for researchers and practitioners from industry and academia involved in the wide area of communication in automation.
In this 6th edition a special effort was made to attract submissions from research domains that are closely intertwined with industrial communication systems, or which have similar requirements. In particular, special attention was focused on, but not limited to, the following domains: Industrial Wireless Systems, Industrial Ethernet Systems, Building Automation Networks, Automotive Communication, Industrial Security issues, Information Technologies related to Industrial Communication Systems and Performance Evaluation issues.
This year, the WFCS workshop foresaw two types of submissions: full papers, reporting on novel and significant research contributions to the field of industrial communication systems; and short contributions, reporting on concise research results, industrial applications or case studies.
The call for papers resulted in 64 paper submissions, which were reviewed by the international Program Committee. To ensure the high quality of the reviewing process, each full paper had 4 independent reviews, whereas each short paper was revised by 3 reviewers. As in the previous WFCS edition, the final selection of the papers was made at a Program Committee meeting, which took place in Torino on March 17. As a result of the PC meeting, 21 papers were accepted as full papers, and 18 were accepted as short contributions.
The 21 full papers that will be presented at WFCS 2006 have been divided into 6 technical sessions, covering various aspects of industrial communication systems technologies and applications: safety, wireless, modelling & security, real-time Ethernet and performance analysis. In the same way, the 18 short contributions have been divided into 4 sessions: low-level communication, scheduling, modelling & industrial Ethernet and case studies.
Besides the technical sessions, there are two keynote speeches, both focusing on automotive communication networks. Sharing technology and solutions with the automotive sector has been one of the driving forces for the development of industrial communication solutions. Therefore, it is of utmost importance for the industrial communication systems community to assess their interest and potential. On the first day, Prof. Sergio Savaresi from the Politecnico di Milano will speak about the role of real-time communication in vehicle control systems. On the second day Dr. Rainer Makowitz from Freescale will speak about FlexRay, a protocol that will play a crucial role in next generation automotive control systems.
For the fourth time, the workshop program also offers two Work-in-Progress sessions. These sessions are meant to stimulate the discussion of current problems in the context of industrial communication systems. The call for Work-in-Progress papers resulted in 24 submissions, 18 of which were selected to be presented at the workshop. Each paper submitted to the WiP sessions was revised by 2 reviewers. We are very grateful to Ivan Cibrario Bertolotti and Christer Norström for organizing these WiP sessions. As in the past edition, and owing to the high quality of the submitted WiP papers, they have been included in the regular workshop proceedings.
For the first time ever, WFCS will also host two panel sessions, to be held on the second and the third day of the workshop. These panel sessions will focus on, respectively, the application of wireless communication networks in industrial environments and the integration of automation networks. In addition, a public discussion about future trends in industrial communication systems has been included in the Industry Day. We would like to thank Stefano Vitturi and Martin Wollschlaeger for the organization of both the panel sessions and the Industry Day.
As always, the workshop is the result of the hard work of many people. First, we wish to thank the iPC members and the reviewers for their careful reviews of the submitted papers. We are especially grateful to the iPC members who participated in the iPC meeting; taking their valuable time to attend the iPC meeting demonstrates a high level of commitment to the quality of WFCS.
Secondly, we would like to thank Marco Cereia and Claudio Zunino for their valuable support in handling the WFCS web site, the automated submission and reviewing system, and the timely production of the workshop proceedings.
Finally, we would like to thank all the participants of the 6th IEEE International Workshop on Factory Communication Systems for taking part of this event, and we hope that both the scientific program and the social events make your stay in Torino a pleasant experience.
Gianluca Cena and Francisco Vasques
WFCS 2006 Program Co-Chairmen