There has been a boom in technological developments across critical sectors where IoT growth is prominent including heavy industry, power system management, transportation, agriculture, and health care.
What are these systems and why are they important?
The role of sensing and monitoring systems is to make sure that an asset and its inbuilt technology is performing to the optimum capability.
Benefits of remote monitoring include the identification and forewarning of potential risks, the reduction of expenditure based on the interrogation of operating data, and the avoidance of unnecessary risk to an employee’s safety.
So how are these systems changing the world we live in today?
The increased pressure on commodities and rocketing lead times have forced businesses to find creative and often ingenious ways to continue operating efficiently.
As a result, there is now an emerging need for systems that can support remote condition monitoring and increase data visibility.
Farmers taking a byte
Agricultural businesses are revolutionising their operational approach to increasingly rely on digital infrastructure.
Sensors that accurately measure lighting, temperature, moisture, acidity, and CO2 levels are being used to create artificially controlled ‘weather’ systems that replicate near-perfect climate conditions for optimum growth.
As such, seasonal crops can be grown all year-round, at higher density, with far greater yield whilst using less energy.
Smarter load bearing
We’re beginning to see sensors embedded into common industrial components used across rail freight-like bearings.
Embedding microelectronic sensing technology allows data from a wide variety of asset parameters to be assessed – including vibration, temperature, lubrication state and load.
The insight these sensors provides can be translated into real-time operational benefits and, ultimately, financial return by reducing the need for manual and time-consuming checks and accelerating the process of actionable insights.
The future application of sensing
The economic, operational and safety benefits gleaned by remote sensing will only increase in importance.
Areas far beyond farming and freight transport have much to gain including life sciences, our decarbonising industries and the UK’s push to join Europe’s latest ‘space race’.
Read the full article, written by Graeme Robertson, and published in Automate Pro Europe, here.