Wireless connectivity for mobile sensing applications in industrial environments

The future deployment of distributed and mobile sensing technologies in industrial environments provides interesting opportunities to further improve the workers' health and safety in the Factories of the Future. Such technologies will allow detecting in advance dangerous situations and conditions, and taking the necessary preventive actions. Wireless technologies would represent an essential component of the Factories of the Future in order to facilitate the real-time and ubiquitous connectivity of mobile sensors. In this context, this paper presents initial results of a measurement campaign that analyses the connectivity capabilities of the IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee technologies for mobile sensing applications, and their use in collision avoidance applications.