TECHNICAL PAPER An alternative of low-cost automation based on a minicomputer for edge computing Felipe J. Torres 1 • Fabrizio Lo ´ pez 1 • Diego A. Nu ´n ˜ ez 1 • Antonio J. Balvantı ´n 1 • Oscar J. Ramos 2 • Fabio A. Aguirre 3 Received: 17 January 2020 / Accepted: 29 May 2020 Ó Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020 Abstract This paper presents the design and development of a strategy of low-cost automation by the use of a minicomputer Raspberry Pi, to implement web technology in hydraulic processes for edge computing, close to where data is produced. A web page was built to be an user interface, besides, the Ethernet standard has been used to establish the internet connection with the Raspberry board to manipulate the general purpose input/output pins. A program was coded in Python language to both receive signals from the limit switch sensors and control the servo valves through a relay module, because they are actuated by solenoids which require 24 V DC to be excited. The user may start, stop, and home-return the hydraulic process from any device with internet connectivity, thus it can be understood like an implementation of Industry 4.0. The logic sequence for the automation was proved in a simulation software to set a reference performance, then the experi- mentation, with Raspberry Pi plus the relay module in the manufacturing laboratory, shows successful results of the proposed strategy. 1 Introduction The internet worldwide access has growth quickly during the last two decades going hand in hand with the tech- nology advances. In the industrial sector, the use of the internet has been focused on the manufacturing systems to automate processes and exchange large volume of data. When data is collected from different sensors, actuators, and machines within an industrial environment and the access and control of the data and the devices generating it is enabled through the internet, then such a scenario is called Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). Similar to the concept of IIoT, Industry 4.0 refers to the current fourth generation of industry targeting on the manufacturing industry scenario only which is a subset of IIoT (Aazam et al. 2018). Thus, some open challenges on data man- agement in Industry 4.0 are about novel data management layers have to be engineered over the device and the exploitation of emerging networking, communication and computation paradigms, such as edge/fog computing, in order to move computation close to where data is produced (Raptis et al. 2019). The industrial manufacturing systems required to be automated, commonly make use of devices employing hydraulic or pneumatic energy by means of actuators called cylinders, which are governed by servo valves, sensors and a control instrument. The entire circuit is supplied by a hydraulic power source through a pump-motor system, that basically is equipped with a pressure relief valve, filter, tank, and pressure gauge. The automation control of the hydraulic systems, usu- ally, is achieved by a Programmable Logic Controller & Felipe J. Torres fdj.torres@ugto.mx Fabrizio Lo ´pez f.lopezolmos@ugto.mx Diego A. Nu ´n ˜ez da.nunez@ugto.mx Antonio J. Balvantı ´n antonio.balvantin@ugto.mx 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Guanajuato, Guanajuato 36885, Mexico 2 Department of Electronics, The National Technological of Mexico/Superior Technological Institute of Las Choapas, Veracruz 96980, Mexico 3 The National Technological of Mexico/Technological Institute of Lazaro Cardenas, Av. Melchor Ocampo No. 2555, Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacan, Mexico 123 Microsystem Technologies https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-020-04905-7