In the construction machinery, commercial vehicle and automation industries, commercially available smartphones and tablets have long been used to plan the working day, process an order and coordinate logistics. However, the use of smart devices is also becoming increasingly important for controlling machines. To date, special industrial tablets that comply with safety guidelines (in accordance with DIN standard DIN EN ISO 13489) have been used for these purposes. These tablets are equipped with enable or consent buttons and emergency stop switches, for example.

"Devices such as smartphones, tablets and PCs from the consumer market segment do not meet these requirements. As a result, they cannot be used to control machines directly, only to exchange data," says project manager Prof. Dr. Ulf Müller from the Faculty of Plant, Energy and Machine Systems at TH Köln. The 'SDeFS' project therefore aims to find a solution for adding the necessary safety functions to conventional smart devices.

Compared to industrial tablets, this could reduce the cost of equipping devices and make software development faster and cheaper. The two project partners see indications of the growing demand for wireless control elements that meet the high safety requirements for machine control, not least in the expansion of technical standards to include requirements for wireless controls and control systems for various construction machines and devices, such as lifting platforms and cranes.

The core of the 'SDeFS' project is the development of a cover that can accommodate consumer smart devices and is equipped with corresponding safety functions. The use of consumer smart devices offers companies a further benefit: Companies can provide their employees with technical applications via a familiar interface. "Apps can be installed and modified at any time, and functional safety is maintained through the use of SDeFS and the associated applications. Existing machines can be operated with relatively inexpensive smart devices with little effort and existing company applications from freight forwarders, construction machinery and commercial machinery manufacturers can continue to be used," says Moritz Schmidt from Brehmermechatronics.

The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWI) is funding the project with 167,000 euros over a period of three years.