The first two generations of industrial machines were mechanical and electromechanical machines. These machines were mostly manually controlled machines that required constant handling from one or multiple machine operators. The 3rd generation of machines came into existence with the advent of computer-controlled machines. These were fully or semi-automated machines that required less intervention from human operators. The 4th generation of industrial machines is IOT based cloud-connected machines that perform their operation autonomously. IOT Industry Automation Using Raspberry Pi is an advanced project in all of these generations.
In the era of the 4th industrial revolution, modern industrial machines are required to be controlled and monitored from remote locations. This will increase the productivity and efficiency of the manufacturing processes by manifold. For this purpose, an IOT based industry automation using Raspberry Pi project is proposed. In this project, 4 different industrial devices will be controlled by means of four relays. The devices can be controlled from anywhere in the world using the IOT remote server interface.
The power supply on the circuit board provides 5VDC to the Raspberry Pi controller and the LCD. The Raspberry Pi single board computer is used as the main device controller in the project. The Raspberry Pi controller has built-in WiFi, USB, and A/V ports. The programming of the Raspberry Pi controller is done is Python scripting language. The Raspberry Pi controller runs the Raspbian OS which is a distribution of Linux OS.
There are four relays connected to the output pins of the Raspberry Pi controller. Four different industrial devices are connected to these relays. The Raspberry Pi board communicates with the remote server-based IOT platform by means of built-in WiFi. The control commands are provided by the user in the IOT platform. These commands are then communicated to the Raspberry Pi controller over the WiFi using IOT protocols. According to these commands, the Raspberry Pi controller turns the relays on and off. An LCD is also connected to the Raspberry Pi controller which is used to display the device statuses as well as other messages.
The block diagram of the IOT industry automation using the Raspberry Pi project consists of multiple system blocks. A description of these blocks is given below: