The Vision-Based Data Reader in IoT System for Smart Factory

A Brief Review on Flexible Electronics for IoT: Solutions for Sustainability and New Perspectives for Designers

The Internet of Things (IoT) is gaining more and more popularity and it is establishing itself in all areas, from industry to everyday life. Given its pervasiveness and considering the problems that afflict today's world, that must be carefully monitored and addressed to guarantee a future for the new generations, the sustainability of technological solutions must be a focal point in the activities of researchers in the field. Many of these solutions are based on flexible, printed or wearable electronics. The choice of materials therefore becomes fundamental, just as it is crucial to provide the necessary power supply in a green way. In this paper we want to analyze the state of the art of flexible electronics for the IoT, paying particular attention to the issue of sustainability. Furthermore, considerations will be made on how the skills required for the designers of such flexible circuits, the features required to the new design tools and the characterization of electronic circuits are changing.

Digital Twin for a Collaborative Painting Robot

A collaborative painting robot that can be used as an alternative to workers has been developed using a digital twin framework and its performance was demonstrated experimentally. The digital twin of the automatic painting robot simulates the entire process and estimates the paint result before the real execution. An operator can view the simulated process and result with an option to either confirm or cancel the task. If the task is accepted, the digital twin generates all the parameters, including the end effector trajectory of the robot, the material flow to the collaborative robot, and a spray mechanism. This ability means that the painting process can be practiced in a virtual environment to decrease set costs, waste, and time, all of which are highly demanded in single-item production. In this study, the screen was fixtureless and, thus, a camera was used to capture it in a physical environment, which was further analyzed to determine its pose. The digital twin then builds the screen in real-time in a virtual environment. The communication between the physical and digital twins is bidirectional in this scenario. An operator can design a painting pattern, such as a basic shape and/or letter, along with its size and paint location, in the resulting procedure. The digital twin then generates the simulation and expected painting result using the physical twin's screen pose. The painting results show that the root mean square error (RMSE) of the painting is less than 1.5 mm and the standard deviation of RMSE is less than 0.85 mm. Additionally, the initial benefits of the technique include lower setup costs, waste, and time, as well as an easy-to-use operating procedure. More benefits are expected from the digital twin framework, such as the ability of the digital twin to (1) find a solution when a fault arises, (2) refine the control or optimize the operation, and (3) plan using historic data.