Secure command transmission techniques for industrial remote control

Abstract

Abstract Operating a factory near a war zone or in a country with an unstable political environment poses significant risks. These risks can be mitigated by managing production lines remotely. To preserve technical knowledge and specific algorithms, it is essential to implement secure, precise, and efficient remote control in industrial applications, especially considering the risks associated with storing operational code on controllers. To address these challenges, we propose a novel technique where executable commands are dynamically transmitted from a Python script to an ESP32-WROOM-32 microcontroller. Unlike conventional methods that preload code onto the controller, this approach interprets, executes, and erases commands immediately after execution, thereby enhancing security and precision. The proposed system was evaluated through a comparative analysis of eleven distinct methods, which varied in command transmission strategies and employed dual-core processing for performance optimization. VPN technology was integrated to enable remote control from geographically distant locations, demonstrating the system’s adaptability for global industrial operations. The results indicate that this method significantly outperforms the traditional on-site approach, where operational code is preloaded onto the microcontroller. Specifically, bundled command transmission combined with dual-core processing proved particularly effective, reducing latency and improving reliability. These findings highlight the robustness of the proposed approach as a secure and flexible solution for modern smart factories.

Keywords

• Industry 4.0
• Remote control systems
• Secure code transmission
• Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)