Development of a web based monitoring system for a distributed and modern production

Web technologies have experienced a rapid development in recent years. In particular web browsers enhanced their abilities because of the improvement of JavaScript, CSS3 and HTML5. Hence, richer web-based software solutions with an increasing range of functions are available. By using responsive web design (RWD), a technology to display content without resizing on different screens, developers are able to support a diverse range of devices with small effort. In order to enable a monitoring of the current status of a production system, signals of many different sensors, machine and production data are required. Combining microcontrollers with sensors to embedded sensors enables an efficient way to communicate with web services. Due to the strong decline of prices for semiconductor technologies, companies are able to set up production machines with these technologies at low costs. This paper presents a way to set up a distributed manufacturing control system by using common web technologies like RWD and embedded systems. We discuss advantages and drawbacks of web-based software solutions and show a methodical approach for the use in a modern production system. Finally, the functionality of the method is proven within an application example.