Wireless Ammeter Based on ZigBee for Continuous Monitoring of Induction Motors

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) has shown the ability to exploit the potential of data, transforming objects of everyday life essentially into computers, by equipping them with sensors capable of measuring physical variables of the environment that surrounds them, and equipped with standards and communication protocols, acquire the ability to build an ecosystem of identifiable objects in a unique way, which generate data automatically, and with the possibility of responding to stimulus from the same environment, in a few words generate automatic responses to well defined situations. These characteristics promise great benefits to the industrial sector making reality the fourth industrial revolution better known as Industry 4.0, whose fundamental pillar is the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). The objective of this work is to apply the Industry 4.0 technologies for the benefit of industrial maintenance by developing a measuring instrument using open source tools with the purpose to be a support for decision-making related to machinery maintenance. Specifically, the instrument to be developed fulfills the functions of an ammeter, which is an instrument of wide industrial use. The ammeter presented has integrated ZigBee technology that allows creating Wireless Sensor Network for remotely measure the electrical current consumption of the machinery to be monitored. Because induction motors are one of the most important assets within the industry, the proposed development is intended to be a support tool for the Condition-based maintenance approach to identify on time when the motors in a manufacturing process works abnormally and thus help to prevent critical failures.