A Graph Database Approach to Wireless IIoT Workcell Performance Evaluation

The workcell is considered a main building block of various industrial settings. Hence, it is examined as a primary testing environment for studying wireless communication techniques in factory automation processes. A new testbed was recently designed and developed to facilitate such studies in workcells by replicating various data flows in an emulated production environment. In this paper, an approach to storing and analyzing network performance data from a manufacturing factory workcell is introduced. A robotic testbed was constructed using two collaborative grade robot arms, machine emulators, and wireless communication devices. A graph database approach was implemented to capture network and operational event data among the components within the testbed. A schema is proposed, developed, and elaborated; a database is then populated with events from the testbed, and the resulting graph is presented. Query commands are then presented as a means to examine and analyze network performance and relationships within the components of the network. Additionally, we demonstrate how to extract correlations between receive signal power and network delay within the testbed using the graph database query language. Finally, using the inherently interconnected nature of the graph database, we discuss applying the graph database approach toward examining more complex relationships between the wireless communications network and the operational system.