Optimal Fog-Based Architecture For Internal Logistics in Industry 4.0 Production Floor

The deployment of Industry 4.0 is based on data collection and data treatment technologies. Sensors, Internet of Things, Fog computing and Cloud computing constitute the essential infrastructure for Industry 4.0. In fact, production resources, such as machines, tools, and mobile transportation systems need a permanent connection to the monitoring system
to ensure their control. Fog Computing represents an interesting solution to ensure that connection and, therefore, the possibility of a distributed control of smart devices. The installation of these facilities determines the cost of data collection and analysis and the quality of service of the whole information system. The challenge is thus to optimize the number and the location of fog computing devices, while making a compromise between thetotal cost and the quality of service. The problem is formulated with an Integer Linear Programming model and solved using a commercial solver. Results show the possibility to solve the problem and open interesting perspectives to this work.