A novel approach for Flexible Wireless Automation in Real-Time Environments

To widen the control over a factory from purely wire based to the wireless domain, both secure and reliable communication infrastructure with real-time capabilities is needed. Based on wireless communication technologies, such infrastructures may be used to gain new flexibility within any step of a manufacturing process hence enabling the development of revolutionary new applications. The international FlexWARE (flexible wireless automation in real-time environments) initiative establishes such a new infrastructure in order to fill this technological gap in the market. This paper gives an overview of the main ideas and the targeted goals.