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The “Internet of Things” (IoT) is nothing new. It is simply a term that has quite recently been adopted in the embedded and automation industry, to describe the increasing number of sensor networks, all linked via the “Cloud”, which create a more efficient way of life for those who are both directly and indirectly affected by them. The IoT is becoming more prevalent now due to the increasing availability of its core requirement – a critical mass of devices and a dedicated and reliable cloud structure.
Perhaps a simple way of describing the IoT, otherwise known as Intelligent Systems, is to touch on the way in which more and more wireless and network enabled products are now being integrated with non-computing objects in order to intelligently communicate and provide a more efficient and cost effective application. These kinds of applications have been around for decades, in large retail chains and factories, but now due to the continued development of wireless enabled products and online or offline applications, they are becoming more accessible to a much wider range of companies in the industrial sector. The need for dedicated control rooms costing hundreds of thousands of pounds has been replaced by software which can be run on a small hand-held tablet at the fraction of the price.
One of the most important uses of the IoT is hardware monitoring. Be it the temperature of a boiler, a drop in power for a mission critical piece of hardware, or even the movement and degradation of a 1bn tonne glacier in the Antarctic.
Traditional methods of monitoring these systems (SCADA systems aside) would be a simple manual process. In the case of a boiler temperature, there would be a thermometer located on the outside of the boiler that would be checked at regular intervals by an operative. The IoT automates this process and wirelessly alerts the operative, remotely if required, of any temperature fluctuations. Software applications analyse and interpret data signals from wireless sensor points, namely ADAM modules, and provide an alert should an issue arise. The software can even then communicate back to the ADAM module which in turn could have an effect on the hardware (ie: turning off the element inside the boiler).
Instantly the financial investment in the hardware required for this system could potentially be offset by the eradication of the manual means of monitoring these processes. It is in this area that Impulse is helping educate and support its customers to help them better understand the benefits of integrating an Intelligent System into their existing applications.
An example of the Internet of Things – Logistics, factories and retail
In this article we will use a real-world example to describe the implementation of the Internet of Things. In order to give a good understanding, this example will discuss the processes before and after implementation, and an example of the products used throughout the application.
Logistics, factories and retail before the Internet of Things
The traditional processes involved in tracking stock traversing the supply chain were that of paper check-lists and documents. Manifests, printed stock-lists and printed order forms would be physically carried with delivery drivers, signed on receipt and then stored at each relevant location of the supply chain. There were sometimes examples where documents had sections ripped off the further down the supply chain the products travelled, each being stored at the local depot or store. Documents transferred between stores, warehouses and logistics were also prone to being lost or destroyed accidentally.
Once the stock arrives at the retail store from the manufacturer or supplier, a stock list was used by one or two stockroom workers, who would manually check each product in the delivery against the stock-list provided by the delivery driver.
Since the 1980s computers have been used in the retail environment. Becoming more prevalent in the 90s among larger retail outlets, scanners, network enabled tills and picking machines meant that stock records could be kept up-to-date automatically when transactions were processed. Records of stock movements, deliveries and sales were also stored and could be referenced by a central GUI, local to the store’s network. This locality, or isolation, of information is one of the key areas in which the IoT evolved the retail sector.
In the case of a zero stock level in a retail outlet with multiple national stores, the sales staff would have the option of calling one or more of these stores to check stock levels. The time this could potentially take could cost the sale, especially if availability is very limited.
Moving towards the Internet of Things
Around the mid-nineties, large retail stores implemented hardware and software which had some internet capability. In many cases, transactions and stock levels would be transmitted via the Internet to the distribution centre at the end of the day, which would in turn affect the stock being sent in the next delivery. As these systems progressed, it also became possible for stores to communicate with databases located in other stores in order to check stock levels.
Although these systems were now communicating with each other, the schematic was still flawed. Each store, distribution centre and supplier had their own local database which was updated by a push from nodes further down the supply chain. This essentially diminished the reliability and integrity of the data, and also severely limited the ability to access the data from outside the firewalls of the individual stores and distribution centres.
On a similar point, it was also technically difficult to push data down to the stores, and similarly access the central data from an external source. Due to the manual recording processes involved it was difficult for stores to gain a true measurement of ROI during sales and promotions. With an ever expanding product line it was also difficult to efficiently track where stock came from, how old the stock was and other important information points such as shelf life and warranties.
The push of data up the supply chain
The final step to implementing the Internet of Things
The processes described above are not a million miles away from where the Internet of Things has taken us over the past few years. The major changes have come about with the development of wireless devices that are attached to computing and non-computing objects, along with the introduction of cloud based storage.
What do we mean by “attached to non-computing objects”?
Describing this concept is actually very simple. Wireless (or wired of course) devices can be connected to an object which has little or no computing or communicative power, via a sensor of some description, which instantly gives that object an IP address.
An example could be the cables running through an electricity substation. A sensor connected to an IP enabled device could monitor the cables and report any spikes in frequency to a central cloud, which would then tell human or electronic data analysers that there is degradation in the cabling system. An engineer can even call on an individual cable for information, or a picture of health for the whole system could be manifested from data being sent from all relevant connected devices.
What is Cloud storage?
Cloud based storage has been around, really, since the advent of the internet. It is simply IP based storage accessible from the Internet, which has been common to website hosting since websites first came online. The difference now is that it is more accessible.
Hosting companies, even mobile phone companies, are embracing the need and benefits of offering cloud storage. Mobile phone users can upload images and videos to their cloud storage and download them on any device anywhere in the world. Editors of magazines and books can liaise and work on pieces directly with their client via the cloud, rather than sending back and forth via email.
Where the technology hasn't changed a great deal, the perception of it has. 10, or even 5 years ago the general feeling in the industrial industry was that of wariness to transmitting and storing sensitive data in the cloud. Some areas of security have been improved, but above all users have become more accustomed to the idea of storing data on remote servers via the Internet.
In the distribution and manufacturing worlds the cloud becomes even more beneficial. What can be more efficient than members of the head office for a large retail chain having the ability to sit anywhere in the world and analyse stock movement, sales, stock checks by customers, returns, essentially anything about the operations of the national or international company?
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