Design and Development of Portable LoRa-based Teleoperation Controller

Abstract

In Industry 4.0, the applicability of wireless communication is superior to that of wired communication because of the mobility, lower cost, and faster internet deployment. Wireless local area networks (WLANs), such as Bluetooth low energy (BLE) and Wi-Fi, have the advantages of a high bandwidth and transmission speed. However, they have drawbacks, such as their limited transmission distances and the high likelihood of interference from other floors. Therefore, the applicability of wireless teleoperated control in complex factory environments is limited when a WLAN is used. The objective of the present study was to develop a portable long range (LoRa)-based teleoperation controller (PLTC) to solve this problem. LoRa is a lowpower wide-area network (LPWAN) technology, which is a suitable approach to communication for PLTCs owing to its physical characteristics of long distance and low frequency. Accordingly, we designed an intuitive teleoperation controller with an inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensor and processed the attitude signal using a complementary filter to operate a robotic arm stably. The IMU is an effective and generally applicable sensor for measuring the attitude of devices. Finally, we integrated a LoRa module and a robotic arm to realize longdistance teleoperation control in a harsh factory environment. The results of this study provide a useful reference for controller development and sensor applications for Industry 4.0.