Abstract—Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) technology is rapidly becoming a feasible solution for monitoring and control at the lowest level of manufacturing automation systems. This paper presents a distributed approach for modeling WSN for applications of intelligent manufacturing automation and control. The proposed approach uses IEC 61499 function blocks, which is a new industry standard in the context of manufacturing automation. The distributed modeling of WSN through the function blocks provides flexibility and scalability to the low-level monitoring and control of the manufacturing systems, which are two important challenges in today’s conventional manufacturing control systems. The proposed model is a replacement of the conventional centralized control architecture, where local processing is performed rather than having a central control unit.

Index Terms—IEC 61499 Function Blocks, Intelligent Manufacturing, Wireless Sensor Networks.

Reza Abrishambaf is with the Automation Research Group of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Eastern Mediterranean University, Famagusta, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (phone:0090-392-630-2765; fax: 0090-392-365-0240; e-mail: reza.abrishambaf@emu. edu.tr).
Mert Bal is with the Department of Engineering Technology, Miami University, Hamilton, OH, USA.
Majid Hashemipour is with the Department of Mechanical Engineering Eastern Mediterranean University, Famagusta, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

Cite: Reza Abrishambaf, Mert Bal, and Majid Hashemipour, "Distributed Control Architecture for Wireless Sensor Networks Using IEC 61499 Function Blocks for Industrial Automation," International Journal of Computer and Electrical Engineering vol. 3, no. 5, pp. 640-644, 2011.