Tech Briefs Magazine - June 2021 - ST-10

TECHNOLOGY LEADERS Sensors
Common and Seemingly Uncommon
Remote Monitoring Applications Using Sensors
Pest Control and
Extermination
Food Production
and Services
HVAC and
Plumbing
Maintenance
Agriculture
Irrigation
Infrared Motion
Detection and
Counting
Laboratory and
Pharmaceutical
Freezers
Data Center and
Server Room
Cooling
Manufacturing
Machine
Performance
Walk-in
Refrigerators
Facility
Management and
Security
Landfills and
Recycling Centers
Offshore Oil Rig
Pipe-Tilt
Detection
Water Leak
Detection
Greenhouses and
Grow Houses
Property
Management
Shipping and
Receiving
Pet, Livestock,
and Animal Care
Aquaculture or
Fish Farming
the IoT work, you need to sense something.
Yes,
you need the multiplying effect of
connectivity from a sensor to a gateway
to the cloud for data analytics. But it's
the sensing, the measuring, the monitoring
that makes industry applications
intelligent and innovative. Sensors make
the IoT come alive for business.
Gas Detection
Wood Flooring
Installation
Cold Chain
Monitoring
Marine Bilge and
Sump Pumps
Construction and
Mining
Energy
Exploration
Hospitality and
Lodging
Hospitals and
Clinics
Morgues and
Tissue Storage
Facilities
Green, Clean,
and Renewable
Energy
Grocery and
Convenience
Stores
Flesh-Eating
Insect Labs
Before we used the term - IoT - in
everyday conversation, we talked about
embedded systems or machine-tomachine
(M2M) communications and
put them to work in many industries. It's
now the era of Industry 4.0, where we
see amazing automation using ongoing
IoT advancements for rapid data processing
and analytics.
This promising revolution supports
many new IoT sensor applications for businesses
ready to reap the combined benefits
of both the ubiquitous IoT and the
Industrial IoT (IIoT). The increasing popularity
of Industry 4.0 and IIoT applications
and the rising demand for automation
and robotics are driving exponential
growth in the sensors marketplace.
But Not Just Any Sensor Will Do
The sensors making the most significant
impact are built on agile platforms
and are effective in multiple environments
- enterprise, commercial, and
industrial. When you have a versatile
sensor platform, you have global interoperability.
With a long-range, multi-frequency
radio and a flexible microcontroller,
you can quickly deploy a sensor
for virtually any industry application.
As digital control systems advance and
increase overall proficiency, users
demand advancements in sensor reliability,
reach, response time, power, survivability,
ease of integration, and communication
capabilities. Ultimately, an
ideal sensor's main features are:
* Ease of installation and use
* Low power
* Versatile form and function
* Inexpensive
Sensors must be easy to install and use
in a wide variety of environments and situations.
It's ideal for sensor setup to take
about 15 minutes and be as simple as:
* Attach it to or near what you wish to
control or monitor.
* Connect it to a power source and turn
it on.
Figure 2. Sensors mounted on machines provide useful feedback. (Photo courtesy of Monnit Corporation)
10
Cov
www.techbriefs.com
ToC
* Quickly configure it using a smartphone
or computer.
A sensor that's only running when it
must communicate requires the least
power. This is how sensors can achieve
10+ years of battery life. Other ways to
extend battery life - even for the most
power-hungry sensors - is to use the latest
battery technology or ambient energy
harvesting technologies like solar and
piezoelectricity, or even a combination
of the two.
Far-reaching wireless range and the
Frequency-Hopping Spread Spectrum
(FHSS) can significantly amplify a sensor's
reliability. It'll have stronger
impairment immunity from physical
obstructions, external wireless radio freSensor
Technology, June 2021

http://www.techbriefs.com http://www.abpi.net/ntbpdfclicks/l.php?202106TBNAV

Tech Briefs Magazine - June 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Tech Briefs Magazine - June 2021