Wide-input intelligent environments for industrial facilities

Abstract

Several factors affect the productivity and efficiency of an industrial facility. We made a revision of some of these factors, and we noticed that not all of them happen close to the workplace. There are also some of them that take place outside the industrial facilities having an impact in productivity and efficiency, and therefore they should also be taken into consideration. In this paper we propose a Wide-Input Intelligent Environment (WIIE) concept which includes local and remote factors. We also propose a conceptual model based on a simple black box concept in order to correlate input factors and output variables, in which the input factors are classified according to three dimensions (environmental vs. person-related, constant vs. variable, local vs. remote) and where the output variables are the productivity and the efficiency. We finally propose an implementation model based on a heterogeneous intelligent sensor-actuator network, which enables for the possibility of using local and remote factors as an input having an impact on the intelligent environment, and for the implementation of advanced distributed functionality. © Springer International Publishing 2013.