KR102708917B1 - How to monitor real-time production and material flow information using UWB - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for monitoring real-time production and material flow information using UWB, the technical gist of which includes: a zone setting step for dividing a factory into a plurality of zones; a transporter movement step for moving a transporter with a UWB tag attached thereto while carrying a material to be processed and entering and exiting the zone; a data collection step for collecting movement data of the transporter by a data server; and a material quantity confirmation step for transmitting the movement data collected by the data server to a cloud server, and the cloud server determining the quantity of the material based on the movement data and transmitting the quantity data to a terminal. As a result, it is possible to reduce wasteful costs due to excessive material purchase due to insufficient information, and there is an effect of being able to confirm production and material flow information in real time so as to prevent delays in delivery due to failure to secure materials.

Description

How to monitor real-time production and material flow information using UWB

The present invention relates to a method for monitoring real-time production and material flow information using UWB, and more specifically, to a method for monitoring real-time production and material flow information using UWB, which can check a process in real time so as to reduce waste of cost due to excessive material purchase caused by insufficient information and prevent delivery delays due to failure to secure materials.

A smart factory is a factory where the entire process of product production is connected by wireless communication and the process is carried out automatically. This allows the application of information and communication technology combined with digital automation solutions to production processes such as design, development, manufacturing, distribution, and logistics to improve productivity, quality, and customer satisfaction. In addition, the Internet of Things is installed in the facilities and machines within the factory, so that process data is collected in real time and decision-making is made based on the data, thereby maximizing productivity. Such smart factories are attracting attention as a core technology of the 4th Industrial Revolution, and as interest in smart factories grows, research institutes and companies around the world are actively conducting research on smart factories.

In general, manufacturing site activities consist of production and quality control, and the manufacturing process is determined according to the production method or technology, and the flow of parts or materials is determined accordingly. Accordingly, in the case of smart factories, information management is currently conducted from the time parts or materials are received, and after the finished product is manufactured and packaged, the shipping data is managed relatively accurately. In other words, information on product receipt and shipment is digitized and can be managed.

However, the smart factory currently in use has a shortcoming in that it cannot properly identify the intermediate process of when and where parts and materials are waiting and then moved to the next manufacturing process after they are put into the manufacturing process from the warehouse where they are received, until the finished product is made. In other words, there is a problem in that there is no way to identify information on parts and materials waiting in each process in real time, and information on parts and materials that have completed the process.

Korean Intellectual Property Office Registered Patent No. 10-2160545

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and provides a method for monitoring real-time production and material flow information using UWB, which can check the process in real time, so as to reduce waste of cost due to excessive material purchase caused by insufficient information, and prevent delay in delivery due to failure to secure materials.

The above object is achieved by a method for monitoring real-time production and material flow information using UWB, characterized by including a zone setting step for dividing a factory into a plurality of zones; a transport step for moving a transporter with a UWB tag attached thereto, in which the transporter carries materials to be processed and moves into and out of the zone; a data collection step for collecting movement data of the transporter by a data server; and a material quantity confirmation step for transmitting the movement data collected by the data server to a cloud server, and the cloud server determines the quantity of the materials based on the movement data and transmits the quantity data to a terminal.

Here, it is preferable to further include a material ordering step for ordering the material using the quantity data after the material quantity confirmation step, and it is preferable that the area is divided into a material warehouse section, a production section, and a finished product warehouse section.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to reduce waste of cost due to excessive purchase of materials due to lack of information, and to prevent delay in delivery due to failure to secure materials, thereby having the effect of confirming production and material flow information in real time.

Figure 1 is a configuration diagram of a monitoring platform according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a method for monitoring real-time production and material flow information using UWB according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, the technical idea of the present invention will be described more specifically using the attached drawings. The attached drawings are merely examples illustrated to more specifically explain the technical idea of the present invention, and therefore, the technical idea of the present invention is not limited to the form of the attached drawings.

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a monitoring platform according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a method for monitoring real-time production and material flow information using UWB according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The present invention relates to a method for monitoring real-time production and material flow information using Ultra Wide Band (hereinafter referred to as 'UWB'), which can be applied to a smart factory. UWB refers to a short-range wireless communication technology for transmitting a large amount of information with low power in a short-range section over a wide band compared to existing frequency bands, and is a technology that has recently been receiving attention along with the Internet of Things service due to its advantage of being able to accurately measure the distance and location between devices.

Conventional outdoor positioning technology mainly uses navigation systems based on the Global Positioning System (GPS), DGPS (Differential GPS) or RTK-GPS (Real Time Kinetics GPS) with improved precision, and indoor positioning technology is based on Bluetooth or WiFi technology. However, Bluetooth or WiFi have not been commercialized due to the radio wave transmission distance and positioning precision. Recently, UWB-based indoor positioning technology is being developed as the positioning precision is improved by improving the performance of UWB chips and combining them with inertial and acceleration sensors.

In particular, UWB can transmit a large amount of information with low power consumption across a very wide frequency band compared to the spectrum of other positioning technologies, and has the advantage of being able to perform positioning with the smallest margin of error among positioning technologies. To explain this in detail, while Bluetooth has a margin of error of less than 10 m, Wi-Fi has a margin of error of less than 10 m, and GPS has a margin of error of less than 50 cm, UWB has a very small margin of error of less than 50 cm. In addition, while Bluetooth, an indoor positioning technology, has a range of less than 20 m and Wi-Fi has a range of less than 30 m, UWB can reach the furthest distance of less than 100 m. In addition, unlike Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, whose battery life is within several days, UWB has the huge advantage of having a battery life of more than a year. Therefore, UWB has greater flexibility in equipment and construction than other positioning technologies.

Currently, there is a limit to managing the material warehouse within the factory and various materials in various regions only through manuals, and in the case of materials that require information identification, the manager needs to quickly identify them on site. Accordingly, the manager in charge of material management within the factory can minimize the risk of changes in the quantity and location of various materials, and even unskilled workers can easily identify the material quantity by linking a positioning system using UWB to the terminal, thereby providing the exact location of the required material and presenting the direction and distance to the location.

The method for monitoring real-time production and material flow information using UWB according to the present invention is performed through a monitoring platform (10), wherein the monitoring platform (10) includes a terminal (100), a data server (200), and a cloud server (300), as shown in Fig. 1. Here, the terminal (100) can be applied without limitation to a PC, tablet, mobile phone, etc.

The method for monitoring real-time production and material flow information using such a monitoring platform (10) includes a zone setting step (S100), a transporter movement step (S200), a data collection step (S300), a material quantity confirmation step (S400), and a material ordering step (S500), as illustrated in FIG. 2.

First, the zone setting stage (S100) refers to the stage of dividing the factory where production takes place into multiple zones.

Here, the factory corresponds to a smart factory where finished products are produced using materials to be processed, and the production line for producing finished products using materials is divided into multiple zones in sequence so that the quantity of materials consumed and production in each zone can be checked in real time.

These areas are divided into a material warehouse where a large quantity of materials are stored, a production department where finished products are manufactured using materials, and a finished goods warehouse where finished products are stored. At this time, the production department can be further divided into the first production department, the second production department, and the third production department, because the quantity of materials used in each production process varies.

Each area divided into the Material Warehouse, First Production Department, Second Production Department, Third Production Department, and Finished Goods Warehouse can set the quantity of materials consumed in that area. For example, the Material Warehouse can check the registration of material receipt and the status of materials, and can set the quantity of materials and the quantity of materials that change when the transporter passes through the Material Warehouse. In addition, the quantity of materials used in the First Production Department, Second Production Department, and Third Production Department can be set, and the quantity of materials and finished goods that must reach the Finished Goods Warehouse can be checked.

The transport vehicle movement stage (S200) refers to the stage where a transport vehicle with a UWB tag attached enters and leaves each area while carrying materials to be processed.

The UWB tag (Ultra Wide Band tag) is a configuration that transmits the location information of the UWB tag to a data server (200) by spreading the weak radio signal power over a wide area through a wide spectrum frequency with low power in a short distance section, and the location of the UWB tag can be accurately identified in a factory-scale. The transporter to which this UWB tag is attached corresponds to a smart rack or smart trolley for transporting materials to be processed, and the UWB tag is attached to the top or side of the transporter to facilitate recognition.

In some cases, UWB tags may be equipped with an additional Attitude and Heading Reference System (AHRS) sensor to prevent noise, which can reduce the communication cycle that is prone to causing frequency interference.

The data collection step (S300) refers to the step in which the movement data of the transport vehicle is collected by the data server (200).

A transporter with a UWB tag attached first enters the material warehouse among several areas, loads a set quantity of materials, and leaves the material warehouse. It then selectively enters the first, second, and third production areas. At this time, the required quantity of materials set for the first, second, and third production areas is checked before leaving. After passing the relevant area and obtaining finished products, the transporter enters the finished product warehouse, where the quantity of materials and the quantity of finished products are checked.

In this way, movement data of a transport vehicle entering and exiting an area is collected in a data server (200). For example, movement data of a transport vehicle, such as when the transport vehicle enters and exits the first and second production areas but does not enter the third production area, is collected in real time in a data server (200).

The material quantity confirmation step (S400) refers to a step in which movement data collected in the data server (200) is transmitted to the cloud server (300), and the cloud server (300) determines the quantity of materials based on the movement data and transmits the quantity data to the terminal (100).

When movement data obtained through the movement of the transporter is collected in the data server (200) and the movement data is transmitted to the cloud server (300), the cloud server (300) calculates the quantity of materials consumed in the area by comparing it with the area into which the transporter entered and exited. For example, when the transporter enters and exits the material warehouse, the quantity of materials stored in the transporter increases, and when the transporter loads materials and enters and exits the production area, the quantity of materials decreases by the set quantity. In other words, the data server (200) simply collects movement data including the movement path of the transporter, and the cloud server (300) calculates the quantity of materials based on the movement data.

The quantity of materials calculated in this manner is transmitted to the terminal (100) so that the worker can determine the quantity of materials, and by determining the quantity of materials, not only can the required quantity of materials be continuously ordered, but also, when there is sufficient material, separate material ordering can be prevented, thereby reducing waste of materials.

The material ordering stage (S500) refers to the stage of ordering materials using quantity data.

Based on the quantity data of materials calculated through the cloud server (300), if the materials currently in stock at the factory are insufficient and additional materials need to be ordered, a process of ordering materials is carried out. At this time, the ordering of materials is automatically and continuously performed by the cloud server (300) being connected to the server of the material supplier, or since the quantity data is transmitted to the terminal (100), the ordering of materials can be requested to the server of the material supplier through the terminal (100). In other words, the data server (200) is a server connected only to the inside of the factory, but the cloud server (300) corresponds to a configuration that is also connected to an external server.

In the past, the cost of collecting/analyzing real-time production and material information was high, so small businesses such as SMEs had limitations in applying it to their factories, and it was mainly applied only to large companies related to electricity/electronics/automobiles. However, if a real-time production and material flow information monitoring method using UWB according to the present invention is used, even small businesses such as SMEs can continuously check the real-time material quantity, so that wasteful costs due to excessive material purchases due to insufficient information can be reduced, and delivery delays due to failure to secure materials can be prevented.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and the scope of application is diverse, and various modifications can be implemented without departing from the gist of the present invention claimed in the claims.

10: Monitoring Platform
100: Terminal
200: Data Server
300: Cloud Server
S100: Zone Setting Stage
S200: Transport vehicle movement stage
S300: Data collection phase
S400: Material quantity confirmation stage
S500: Material ordering stage

Claims (3)

In a monitoring platform including a terminal, a data server and a cloud server and a method for monitoring real-time production and material flow information using UWB (ultra wide band),
A zone setting step in which the factory is divided into multiple zones through the above terminal;
A transport vehicle movement stage in which a transport vehicle with a UWB tag attached enters and leaves the above area carrying materials to be processed;
A data collection step in which movement data of the transport vehicle obtained through movement of the transport vehicle to which the UWB tag is attached is collected by the data server;
The movement data collected in the data server is transmitted to the cloud server, and the cloud server determines the quantity of the material based on the movement data and transmits the quantity data to the terminal; and
Includes a material ordering step for ordering the material through the terminal using the above quantity data;
The above zone setting step is,
The above areas are divided into a material warehouse where materials are stored, a production department where finished products are manufactured using materials, and a finished goods warehouse where finished products are stored.
The above material quantity confirmation step is,
A method for monitoring real-time production and material flow information using UWB, characterized in that the quantity of materials provided in the transporter increases as the transporter enters and exits the material warehouse, the quantity of materials provided in the transporter decreases by a set quantity as the transporter loads materials and enters and exits the production unit, and the quantity of materials and quantity of finished products are checked when the transporter, which has passed the production unit and obtained finished products, enters the finished product warehouse and the quantity of materials and finished products are transmitted to the cloud server as the movement data, and the cloud server calculates the quantity of materials consumed by comparing it with the areas into which the transporter entered and exited. delete delete