Control Flow Errors in an Industry 4.0 Setup: a Preliminary Study

Jens Vankeirsbilck, Jonas Van Waes, Hans Hallez, Davy Pissoort, Jeroen Boydens

Abstract: Today's industry is rapidly evolving towards Industry 4.0 in which the Internet of Things is transforming machines into highly-interactive cyber-physical systems. At its core, these cyber-physical systems are driven by industrial embedded systems. However, the trend of many interacting systems creates a harsher working environment for these embedded systems to operate in, considering among other things electromagnetic interference. This working environment can introduce bit flips in the embedded system's hardware which cause control flow and data flow errors in its control software. This paper analyzes the effects of such control flow errors on an Industry 4.0 setup. We also apply a software implemented control flow error detection method to determine its gain in reliability. Finally, this paper demonstrates a basic but effective automated recovery method for our Industry 4.0 setup.