Wireless Sensor Network-Based Industrial Automation and Monitoring Framework

Abstract

Industrial automation increasingly depends on continuous observation of machine condition, process variables, safety parameters, and production status. Conventional wired sensing is reliable but may become expensive and inflexible when sensors are installed on rotating equipment, moving assets, distributed production lines, or locations where cabling is difficult. This paper develops a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN)-based industrial automation and monitoring methodology that combines multi-parameter sensor nodes, an industrial wireless mesh, an edge gateway, and a supervisory monitoring layer. The proposed framework uses link-quality-aware forwarding, priority-based traffic handling, local filtering, time-stamped data aggregation, and event-driven alarm transmission so that critical measurements receive faster and more reliable delivery than routine monitoring data. A representative simulation methodology is defined using packet delivery ratio, end-to-end delay, energy consumption, network lifetime, and alarm-delivery success as evaluation measures. The illustrative evaluation shows how a priority-aware and link-adaptive design can improve communication reliability and reduce unnecessary transmissions compared with a simple periodic WSN baseline. The study also discusses practical deployment issues such as interference, multipath fading, security, gateway integration, maintenance, and coexistence with industrial communication standards. The framework is intended as a reproducible methodology for designing low-cost monitoring systems for factories, process plants, warehouses, utilities, and other industrial environments.