ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a truly wireless sensor/actuator interface with wireless power and wireless communication for real-time factory. Wireless communication is increasingly used in many industrial automation applications, which have many differing requirements. The chapter explains the practical requirements and the system specifications, the design concepts for communication, and power supply. It describes practical experience gained especially with respect to reliability and coexistence with other wireless systems. The chapter examines simple performance profiles for wireless interface for sensors and actuators (WISA) and other wireless technologies being discussed for industrial use, based on the requirements in factory automation. WISA was designed to be robust by using adaptive retransmissions. WISA has in practical applications a nearly constant frequency usage, which is determined mainly by its downlink, thus making its effect on other systems relatively predictable. The effect on the WISA transmissions due to interference from other WISA base stations was also measured in a realistic scenario.
