A WSN and IoT-Based Wire Consumption Monitoring System for Mobile Welding Machines

The convergence of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) and the Internet of Things (IoT) technology in industrial applications brings remarkable innovations in the Industry 4.0 domain, resulting in improved industrial processes with better efficiency and productivity. This technological integration enables the remote monitoring and controlling of mobile industrial assets, and the welding machine is one asset that benefits from this technology. In the contemporary world, the Metal Inert Gas (MIG) welding process is one of the standard techniques employed to join metal pieces in industries by utilizing consumable wire, resulting in satisfactory welding outcomes. However, modern industrial systems using this technique lack the ability to monitor wire consumption, which can help track machines’ operational activities and manage the supply chain process. In this project, we design, develop, and implement a WSN and IoT-based system to monitor the wire consumption of a mobile welding machine on an indoor factory floor using edge and cloud user interfaces. In this article, we first discuss each component’s hardware and software development in the proposed layered architecture, followed by the results obtained from our research during the evaluation and implementation phases. Finally, we conclude our research by identifying limitations and possible directions for future work.