During the iQonic project our partner Sensap investigated the use of rfid tags to monitor the product lifecycle.

The case study of this scenario was the die trays that is used into the optoelectronic industry to carry and store optoelectronic devices. Smart tagging application uses rfid technology in order to monitor the life cycle of the die trays (Figure 1).

Figure 1 – Left: Smart Tagging application architecture. Center and right: Antenna positioning and rfid tag in a die tray

Furthermore, a positioning algorithm was developed in order to maximize the utilization of the die trays. Optoelectronic devices are placed inside the die tray in suggested cells and reduced the health of each cell uniformly, extending the lifecycle of the die tray (Figure 2).

Figure 2- Left- Health index matrix without the suggestion algorithm. Right – Heath index matrix with suggestion matrix (Max health=16)

During iQonic Sensap contributed to two pilots with the Daedalus ITK data collection solution.  Data collection process was abstracted in two different layers (sensorization and CPSization – data preprocessing). The first layer dealt with the installation of sensors to the field in order to observe critical production parameters. The second layer was responsible for processing and monitoring sensorial data and finally making these data available to the upper layers (through the Holonix middleware).

The data collection module has been implemented as modular solution to be easily adaptable to different pilots (Figure 3 – left):

• Sensorization: physical installation and calibration of new sensors (Figure 3 – Right)
• Integration with existing ones. Support a variety of different protocols for the communication with sensorial modules or machineries ( I2C, modbus, S7, OPC-UA, JMS, FTP etc)
• Data preprocessing: Preprocess sensorial data and calculation of KPIs
• Real time monitoring: Monitoring dashboard for the production time enhanced with alerts (Figure 4)
• Gateway: connectivity with cloud-based platforms (For iQonic project, the connectivity with Holonix middleware and HLCM were developed) and data routing.

Figure 3- Left: A Daedalus data collection infrastructure. Right: Sensorization

Figure 4 – Monitoring of a production line