IEEE Electrification Magazine - March 2016 - 64

VIEWPOINT

Intelligent Systems:
A New Industrial Revolution
By George Arnold

NEW INDUSTRIAL REVOLUtion is underway, driven by
the integration of creative
digital technologies into large-scale
physical systems, creating intelligent
systems that can operate more efficiently and improve quality of life. The
best-known example of such an intelligent system is the smart grid. The
same technologies that enabled the
smart grid are being applied to many
other types of physical systems. Intelligent systems are rapidly emerging in
transportation, buildings, other energy
infrastructures (e.g., gas, oil, and water),
manufacturing, emergency response,
and health care. Of course, the smart
grid provides an essential foundation
since all types of intelligent systems
depend on reliable and high-quality
electricity to power their operation.
Various writers use terms such as
"cyberphysical systems," "industrial
Internet," and the "Internet of Things
(IOT)" to refer to what we are calling
"intelligent systems." While these terms
do not necessarily mean the same
thing, they all bring to mind a common
set of enabling technologies that are
making physical systems intelligent:
 Sensing and measurement devices
low enough in cost to be ubiquitously deployed.
 Data networking that enables local
and wide-area communications
among millions of devices and
servers the IoT that is secure,
highly reliable, and low cost.

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MELE.2015.2509904
Date of publication: 1 March 2016

I E E E E l e c t r i f i c ati o n M agaz ine / MARCH 2016

 Embedded computing, which

enables cost-effective local control and automated operation of
physical systems.
 Cloud computing, which provides
a scalable platform for software
that enables wide-area awareness, optimization, and control.
 Big data analytics, providing the
ability to discern useful information from massive amounts of
sensory and working data.
 Multi-physics and model-based
systems engineering, enabling the
cost-effective design, verification,
and validation of highly complex
large-scale systems.
 Adaptive and predictive control
algorithms to dynamically optimize system operation subject to
safety, performance, and other
constraints.
All of the enabling technologies
cited here have been undergoing
development for many years and are
in various stages of industrial application. What is revolutionary is the
coengineering and integration of
these technologies into very largescale infrastructure systems.

The Opportunity
Integration of these technologies into
large physical systems increases their
efficiency and performance by
enabling much more dynamic, adaptable, and optimized system operation.
Historically, efficiency improvements resulting from technological
advances have had revolutionary
impacts on the economy. What impact

will widespread deployment of intelligent systems have? A recent study
published by GE economists looked at
this question. The study posited that if
the industrial Internet were to increase
annual productivity growth by 1-1.5%
points-about the same productivity
improvement that was observed during the late 1990s/early 2000s as the
Internet became widely used commercially-it would add US$10-US$15 trillion to the global gross domestic
product. This figure is the equivalent of
the entire U.S. economy.
We know that significant efficiency
improvements are possible in today's
infrastructure systems. For example,
the electric grid has a utilization factor that is roughly half of peak capacity, even with the introduction of
smart grid improvements such as
demand response. Intelligent systems
that can dynamically adjust power
consumption in response to the cost
and availability of energy could delay
the need to add capacity to the electric grid and result in significant further improvements in system use.

Challenges
While much progress has been made,
there are significant issues that must
be addressed to fully realize the potential benefits that the intelligent systems industrial revolution promises:
 Interoperability and standards are
key to facilitate the interworking
of myriad devices and systems.

(continued on page 63)

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Electrification Magazine - March 2016