HODRIAN: Highly-Robust, Wireless Communication Components for Industrial Applications

The goal of HODRIAN is to develop reliable, wireless communication systems for industrial real-time applications. In this context reliable data delivery with real-time guarantees in the area of milliseconds is essential. The developed concepts shall be applied on a monorail that is used in factories to transport tools and material. Reliable real-time communication is essential to allow the monorail cars to communicate. If data delivery fails, the highly expensive cars might crash into each other. However, cable connections are not a viable alternative due to the mobility of the monorail cars.

At i2 we formally model the protocols for media access control during design time. The protocols are checked for performance, i.e. we verify that each station retrieves reliable communication slots within given time constraints. This gives valuable feedback for the designers on how good the protocol performs, as well as important insights how verification can improve the design process.