Internet of Things is one of the backbones of thefourthwave of the industrial revolution (also known as Industry 4.0). Withprice of IoT sensorsdropping to a historic low (by 200% since 2004) and off-the-shelf solutions available, it’s now easier than ever to increase the digitalisation rate in an Industry 4.0 organisation of any size.
In2020,Deloitte surveyedCXOsworking in theIndustry4.0 to understandwhat their challenges are and what type of projects they focus on. 72% of themagree that IoT will be the technology with the biggest impact over their organisation over the next few years, even thoughall ofthe‘bigfour’ technologies in the sector (Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Cloud infrastructure andBig Data) are becoming gradually more and more intertwined.
AsRamJambunathan, SVP andManaging Director at SAP states in the report:
There is a strong correlation and dependenciesbetween several Industry 4.0 technologies.IoT sensors will generate a ton of data that will be relevant for machine learning-based automation.Many of these technologies will be delivered and consumed in the cloud even as we see the emergence of edge computing. Next-gen robotics willsee the convergence of IoT, machine learning, and cloud computing as robots start getting better all the time through cloud-basedmachine learning from data from IoT sensors in the robots.
With the dominant role of IoT and data collection in the sector, there’s one element of theIoTsystem thatwill be crucial forthe further development of this area:theIoThub. In today’s article,I’ll explain in detail whatit is, whatoff-the-shelfIoTsolutionsarecurrently available and what’s the process for introducing IoThubson theorganisationallevel. The blog post was written incollaborationwith theSpyrosoft’sLead Embedded Architect, Krzysztof Maciejewski.
But beforewedig in,let’sonce again specify what Internet of Thingsmeansin terms ofindustrialdevelopment.
Internet of Things and the Industry 4.0
Internet of Things allows for connecting device to the Internet. These devices need to be autonomous and they can use this connectivity to provide different services to the end users, e.g., remote vehicle monitoring including the vehicle location and its route. Another use case is a smart building with multiple devices or industrial machines managed using steering algorithms. IoT can be also used for data collection and that’s its most common use.
The term ‘Internet of Things’ is often used for a subset of small household appliances that are connected, but it can be used in the Industry 4.0 context where instead of these small devices, we have industrial machines and a plant. Regardless of how it’s used, the term refers to a case where the devices can gain additional functionalities thanks to the fact that they are connected to each other and to the Internet.
By placing IoT sensorson the devices,youcancollect the data,i.e.about the temperature, air quality,etc., and itisthen transferred to the cloud whereit’smadeavailable to different applicationsthat can use the dataand processit.Please note that the communicationbetween thedevices and the applicationscan bebi-directional: devices can be managed via external applications,i.e.for access management purposes.
What is an IoT hub
The main goal of an IoT hub is to store the collected data so it can later be used in data processing and management. This solution can be developed independently, but there are ready-made products that are available on the market – I’ve included a full list below.
IoThubis a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) managed service and can be usedas a focal point that allows devices to be connected to the Internet.On one side, there are the devices that send their data from the sensors to the huband/or receive the information from the hub. On the other side, thereare applications that may or may not be cloud-basedand that can manage the devices and process the datai.e.to visualise it.
In short, IoT hub serves as a mediator between these devices and applications that are used to manage the former and to collect data.
Recommended reading: IoT hub: what it is and how to incorporate it in your IoT system
What are the benefits of using IoT hubs
Security
Most of the solutions available on the market have at leasta few ways to manage who and what devices can access them, with the ability to build a device registry into the hub, distribute shared access signatures using access keys and security tokensand API integrations aimed at increasing the security of these solutions.
Full control over the process
Once you’ve completed the IoT hubimplementationprocessI’llmention below, you can precisely control what devices are interconnected, what data they collect and share (be it with each other or external applications) and where the data are stored and processed.
Scalability
Regardless of howlargeor small your IoT networks are right now,by using an IoT hub, you can easily add new devices or even set of devices or limit their number.Again, with most of the ready-to-use IoT hubs available on the market, you can do it in a matter of minutes.
IoT hubs available on the market
- Azure IoT Hub,
- Google Cloud IoT Core,
- IBM Watson IoT Platform,
- AWS IoT DeviceManagement,
- ThingsBoard,
- AWS IoT Device Defender,
- Trend Micro Deep Security,
- Cumulocity IoT,
- ScalewayIoT Hub.
What is the process ofbuilding an IoTsystem
The first thing to do it connecting all devices to the internet.If the device already has a connectivity setup installed; all you need to do is to bring it online.When you plan for data collection, you need to think about what data you may need to collect and then decide where to place the sensors,what type they should be and what software would be best to data aggregation and receiving requests. This stage of the process requires not only thinking about the electronics (sensors) part, but also about the mechanics behind the data collection and device steering process.The sensors can be also used to expand the functionalities of a device.
The next step is buildingacloud-based application that will be able to storethe data and can be used for steering and communicating with the devices.
Completing this process can be the foundational level for introducing Predictive Maintenance for the devices that are connected via the IoT hub.The latter can play a crucial rule in collecting functional data about the status of the devicesand any failures that occur in their performance.It can help diagnose these failures and send the information necessary to fix those to a ticketing systemor directly contacting people responsible for maintenance of the devices.It can be used for changing the setting for any of the devicesandupdating/replacing their software– all completed remotely.
Recommended reading: IoT hub use cases
What are the best practicesformanaging IoTsystems
Once the IoT hub is implemented and readyto use, the next thing to do is to start managing your fleet of devices.Here’sa list of actions to take ifyou’redoing sofromour Lead Embedded Architect, Krzysztof Maciejewski:
– Use automation as much as possible.
– Automatically discover any Internet access problems from the devices and improve the connection if needed.
– Automatically monitor the devices health and replace/fix them in case of any failures.
– Use device firmware updates over the air if needed.
– Easily scale up your solution – adding new devices, new functionalities, introducing usage of AI or/and extending cloud computing.
Over to you
At Spyrosoft, we’ve worked with multiple customers from the Industry 4.0 sector and we have a hands-on experience in building and scaling industrial solutions. If you’d like to know about our updated Industry 4.0 offering and/or you need a team of experts to support your IoT project, check more information on our Industry 4.0 website and book a no-obligation call.
