Innovating for Industry 4.0 with IO-Link and Raspberry Pi

Faster development with Industrial Sensors and low cost controller

Reaping the benefits of Model Driven Development to meet challenges faster

Developing systems and innovating in the Industry 4.0 context can be challenging. This is especially true when you are entering new domains or need specific solutions for the challenges you want to solve.

The purpose of Industry 4.0 is to intelligently network the numerous links of a process chain. As a result, this may require specific solutions for individual challenges. Most likely you will need industrial sensors to meet the challenges you are trying to solve. Two important technologies are enabling new ways to develop solutions in this domain. First, it is the development of the IO-Link[1] standard defining a standard digital protocol for data from sensors and second the maturity of low cost computer boards such as the RaspberryPi or Arduino.

Until recently the challenge was connecting IO-Link Sensors to the Raspberry PI as this was missing. However, this has been solved by the award winning[2] bachelor thesis of Patrick Frei[3] – a student of the University of Applied Science of Berne in Switzerland, who developed the shield to connect IO-Link to the Raspberry Pi and the associated driver software during his bachelor thesis. Further, the shields are now also commercially available[4].

We at EVOCEAN could order one of the first shields. The timing was just right as we were asked to help a customer in integrating IO-Link sensors into Rhapsody[5], a leading visual development environment. We integrated the shield and the supporting software into our existing support package of the Raspberry Pi developed by EVOCEAN and also used for our Rhapsody with Raspberry PI Trainings[6]. The features of Rhapsody include the option of reengineering existing code into a model driven approach with the objective that the model will be the master after the import. You can check out more detail in our video below and also referenced in the footnote[7].

The advantage of a model driven approach includes easier understanding of the software, easier visualization and easier adaptation for future changes. The model helps also to develop your solution faster and as such helps to bring innovations faster to the market. Especially when you are innovating in a new domain the development and testing of the behavioral model is key for achieving your goal faster, as fast feedback and thus iterative development is key in understanding the detailed needs. Working with a Raspberry PI allows you further to deploy your software onto a standalone target for productive use.

The benefit of such a set-up using IO-Link sensors, Raspberry PI and Rhapsody is that you you can build up and test very fast systems, which need industrial sensors. This can be used for prototyping and validating the system concept, but also for individual productive solutions where you do not need or want to invest in specific hardware development.

Please feel free to contact us for any questions or if you want to know more about the set-up.

We are happy to help you!

#Innovation #IO-Link #Industry40 #IBMRhapsody #RaspberryPI #MBSE #MDD

[1] More information on IO-Link: https://io-link.com

[2] Siemens Excellence Award 2020: https://press.siemens.com/ch/de/pressemitteilung/siemens-excellence-award-2020

[3] Further Information can be found https://bfh.easydocmaker.ch/search/abstract/2056

[4] You can order the shield: https://ti.bfh.ch - contact: Markus Gafner

[5] Rhapsody from IBM is a model driven tool, allowing full behavioral modeling and code generation right down to the target. For more Info https://evocean.com/rhapsody

[6] Check out our training under: https://evocean.com/events/ibm-rational-rhapsody-raspberry-pi

[7] Link to the first of a video series linked to Rhapsody and IO-Link: https://youtu.be/bR98u68JqS4