Remote sensing, diagnosis and collaborative maintenance with Web-enabled virtual instruments and mini-servers

摘要

Optimised maintenance can reduce operating costs by demanding less resources and avoiding equipment breakdown, hence ensuring that daily manufacturing and production will not be interrupted. Web-based maintenance is one of the most efficient methods for optimising maintenance. The Web-based maintenance system that we have developed uses virtual instruments, to provide remote sensing, monitoring, and on-line fault diagnosis for equipment, together with a collaborative maintenance platform for international experts to interactively share their experiences in maintenance. Moreover, Web-based maintenance is suitable for multi-tasking and multi-user types of industrial work environments. In this paper, we summarise the methods used for Web-based remote sensing and monitoring, the design and implementation of Web-enabled virtual instruments, the architecture of the collaborative maintenance platform, and the design for the mini-servers. Each mini-server is equipped with a conventional mini-Web-server and a data acquisition (DAQ) server. With the help of Web-based maintenance, local companies can be transformed into global companies providing services to their customers anywhere and at anytime.