A wireless sensor platform for industrial non-hermetic metallic enclosures

Monitoring the reliability of equipment in industrial environments requires the installation of wireless sensors inside such equipment. A common challenge associated with having a wireless sensor inside a metallic enclosure is hindered wireless signal propagation and reception. We design a wireless sensor platform for such industrial applications and test its resilience to the shielding effect of metallic enclosures. A generic model of an industrial metallic enclosure is created with only 1 mm gap in its structure. We show that our sensing platform can successfully establish a low-data-rate wireless link. Signal measurements are made to quantify the received signal strength.