2018 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (Big Data)
A Study on Big Data Cluster in Smart Factory
using Raspberry-Pi
Chae-Soo Kim
Dept. Of Industrial Engineering
Dong-A university
Busan, Korea
cskim@dau.ac.kr
Abstract—In smart factory, the IoT (Internet of things) is
applied to capture the data generated by the production
facility, store and analyze data generated in real time using Big
Data technology. A parallel distributed processing system for
big data analysis and processing requires a large-capacity
server and a high cost to build infrastructure. In acquisition of
shop floor data, Raspberry-Pi which is a low cost single board
computer is very efficient device for big data clustering. In this
paper, we show an case study on the feasibility of Raspberry-Pi
as a big data cluster in smart factory.
Keywords—big data cluster, smart factory, Raspberry-Pi
I. INTRODUCTION
Smart factory refers to an intelligent production plant that
improves productivity, quality and customer satisfaction by
applying information and communication technology (ICT)
combined with digital automation solution to design,
development, manufacturing, distribution and logistics. It is
also characterized by the coordination and control of
machinery and personnel including engineer and
operators. Thanks to smart factory, an idea to create a
remotely controllable work center is not new, but the
challenges with interaction scenarios between machines and
humans became more and more complex as shown in Figure
1. Usually industrial automation is mainly organized by
microcontroller systems and the main disadvantages of such
systems is focusing on specific tasks, needs of external
specialist and advanced level of user's programming skills.
With the advent of various mobile devices, the development
of SNS(Social Network Service), the demand and supply of
various multimedia contents, interest in big data processing
is continuously increasing and its importance is also
emphasized [1]. In smart factory, it collects the data
generated from shop floor using DCS(Data Collection
System), and communicate through IoT technology, and
stores the collected data in repository. Eventually we
analyze the data gathered in repository using big data
technology, and generate appropriate alternatives to
determine the optimal solution based on AI(Artificial
Intelligence) technology [2]. In order to take advantage of
those technologies and feedback system, we need to
configure a big data cluster, and the information gathered in
it will be stored on the server computer for big data analysis
via low power wireless network standards which have
enabled supervisors to manage and control wide ranges of
sensor networks and system [3]. In order to facilitate the
interaction between sensor network and server computer for
analysis of big data in smart factory, IWN(Industrial
Wireless Network) could be suitable in reality by
implementing IoT and services [4]. By this means, the smart
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Seung-Beom Son
R&D Center
SDS Ltd
Busan, Korea
seungbeom.son@gmail.com
artifacts can communicate and negotiate with each other
through the IWN to implement self-organization, and the
massive data could be uploaded. This enables the system-
wide feedback and coordination based on big data analytics
to optimize system performance. Wang proposed a brief
framework that incorporates industrial wireless networks,
cloud, and fixed or mobile terminals with smart artifacts
such as machines, products, and conveyors [5]. Almada
insisted that Industry 4.0 dictates the end of traditional
centralized applications for production control. Its vision of
ecosystems of smart factories with intelligent and
autonomous shop floor entities is inherently decentralized
[6].
By the way, it is not easy to collect the status data from the
individual facilities in shop floor stably and effectively.
Because there are so many old facilities which do not equip
any communication port in themselves. To overcome this
difficulty, we may need to utilize an additional data
collection device which should be robust in function and
efficient in operation.
Big data is so large and diverse that it needs to build a
cluster that collects, filters, and transmits large amounts of
structured or unstructured data in a timely manner, and a
large parallel distributed processing system. In spite of
smart factory benefit, small manufacturing companies are
hesitating to the elemental technologies on account of the
amount of financial investment for those systems.
Consequently this study introduces the use of raspberry pie
to enable small and medium enterprises or organizations to
handle big data processing at low cost, and introduces the
developed software and hardware architecture.
And the rest of this article is organized as follows. In
chapter 2, we describe the big data cluster based on
Raspberry-Pi, the characteristics of Raspberry-Pi, system
configuration, and the casing unit for the cluster in the view
of hardware. Finally concluding remarks are summarized in
chapter 4, and references are followed in a row.
II. BIG DATA CLUSTER USING RASPBERRY-PI
The big data processing technology to utilize large
amount of data has a wide range of applications such as
research, user analysis and trend analysis, and it has great
potential value. In order to solve the difficulties and
disadvantages of high cost and large scale server systems in
domestic and foreign countries, researches have been
conducted on a small data cluster with a small size using
SBC(Single Board Computer) [7] [8] and [9].
In reality, most of the shop floor control system in small
business deals with much more simple information in
comparison with large scaled business, even though they
make the same products in the same process. And the basic function of the big data cluster could be
MES(manufacturing execution system) have been pivotal in described as follows.
the performance, quality and agility needed for the 1) Time and place of data generation
challenges created by globalized manufacturing business and 2) Saving and editing collected information
will most likely continue to be. However, a completely new 3) Automatic conversion of communication channel
generation is required to cope with the new challenges 4) Confirm communication, and resend
created by Industry 4.0. Though a very simple model of MES, 5) Real-time inquiry and storage of work instruction
we need to test operation for feasibility check and check the 6) Manual input such as work accomplishment report
effectiveness of big data cluster in advance. Since the
number of data collection terminal could be increased
2.2 Hardware
according to the manufacturing capability and process, we
need to configure a big data cluster. In this study, we try to In the view of robustness of Raspberry-Pi devices as a big
take advantage of Raspberry-Pies as a big data collection data cluster, we developed hardware case as an individual
cluster. protection gear. As an example for the Raspberry-Pi case,
we can show the image and specification as shown in Figure
The Raspberry-Pi is a series of credit card sized single- 2. The case includes some spaces for multiple Raspberry-
board computers developed in the United Kingdom by the Pies with GPIO. Ethernet, power supply, USB, and so on.
Raspberry-Pi Foundation to promote the teaching of basic
computer science in schools and in developing countries.
Accessories including keyboards, mice and cases are not
included with the Raspberry-Pi. There are a number of
developers and applications that are leveraging the
Raspberry-Pi for home automation. These programmers are
making an effort to modify the Raspberry-Pi into a cost
affordable solution in energy monitoring and power
consumption. Because of the relatively low cost of the
Raspberry-Pi, this has become a popular and economical Fig. 2. A big data cluster included multiple Raspberry-Pies
solution to the more expensive commercial alternatives. This
trend has been extended to the manufacturing environment in
the virtue of cost effectiveness in comparison with other
devices. Raspberry-Pi has been evolved in 2018, in the name
III. EXPERIMENT PLANNING
of 3B+ which equips the additional function of networking.
The cluster will be composed of more than three
Raspberry-Pi (nodes) and connected to each other by using
2.1 Software network cable. One node is a master node and the remaining
In order to develop big data cluster using Raspberry-Pi, nodes are slave (data) nodes. Since most of SBC based big
we utilize Raspbian as an operating system, which has been data clusters have been implemented using Hadoop, which
authenticated by Raspberry-Pi foundation. Raspbian makes supports HDFS(Hadoop Distributed File System), we will
analysis and control system more effective in the terms of install Hadoop and use it to share data between nodes in a
economic value. For instance, the system measures cluster. Though an experiment to evaluate the performance
dimensions of a WIP(work in process), and it will keep the of big data cluster using Raspberry-Pi has not been
measurement data in the memory of Raspberry-Pi. The data performed yet, we plan to proceed in the order shown in
will be transferred to the server computer through the Figure 3 in the near future.
transmission module inside of Raspberry-Pi. Raspberry-Pi
serves wired and unwired communication module, and
could be switched by itself. We developed software for the
big data cluster including successful Wi-Fi communication
in shop floor. Figure 1 shows the system configuration for
the Raspberry-Pi based big data cluster.

Fig. 3. Experiment planning for performance evaluation

Fig. 1. System configuration for big data cluster
IV. CONCLUSION
In recent years, smart factories have been actively
introduced in advanced countries including Korea, and the
development of the elemental technologies for smart factory
is also progressing very rapidly. The facility status data and

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Real-time working situation in shop floor should be
collected and analyzed for diagnosis, prediction, and
decision making for the smart factory. To do this, we
configured a big data cluster using Raspberry-Pi on account
of its usability and economical feature. In order to evaluate
the performance of the Raspberry-Pi based cluster, we need
to conduct an experiment for speed and accuracy in the near
future.
As another further study, we will compare the
performance of using Arduino as a big data cluster instead of
using Raspberry-Pi..

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This research was financially supported by the
DAURP(Dong-A University Research Park) in Korea.

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