IoT Evolution, the leading media brand for the Internet of Things (IoT), has published a book outlining more than 150 of the leading trends in the IoT industry, entitled “IoT Time: Evolving Trends in the Internet of Things.” The book, written by IoT Evolution Editorial Director, Ken Briodagh, seeks to explore the factors that have shaped the recent past of the developing industry and use those to predict the trends that will drive the next period of growth. Each of the trends is explicated and illustrated with a case study or product review that supports each position.
In this weekly series, we’ll be previewing chapters for you to read in the hopes that you’ll like enough to read the whole thing. To do just that, for free, click here. Alternatively, there’s a paperback version available on Amazon for $14.99.
Chapter 7: Automation
Trend: AI for IoT
Socionext and SOINN Announce Joint Trial to Integrate Sensors and AI for IoT
The IoT needs AI to handle its vast computations and statistical analysis. To get that need filled, Socionext and SOINN have teamed up on a trial for integrating SoC-based data sensing technology and AI to develop solutions and new businesses. The first step of the trial is to have the “Artificial Brain SOINN” learn data collected by Socionext’s viewphii, and then verify the result with the goal of providing better monitoring and predictions of future risks. The objective of the trial, the companies said, is to add the functions and performance of AI to the IoT.
Artificial Brain SOINN is a self-learning, general-purpose artificial intelligence built by SOINN with a learning algorithm. Socionext leverages its data sensing technology based on its SoC expertise to enable the extraction of useful information out of sensor signals, while SOINN carries out fine-tuning of its self-learning algorithm.
As the first step of the trial, various biometric data obtained by viewphii was provided to conduct learning studies on Artificial Brain SOINN. Based on the outcome of that trial, SOINN was able to boost the improvement of its self-learning algorithm and accuracy for further evolution of Artificial Brain SOINN. Socionext will continue to establish new businesses, and promote new products and services through utilization of SoC-based sensing technology.
Trend: Automation equals industry acceleration
IT Automation Will Ultimately Determine IoT Success
The IoT evolution is constantly accelerating, growing to approach the predicted 30 billion autonomous devices that will be connected via the Internet by 2020. Research firm IDC forecasts the installed base of IoT devices will extend to 212 billion things—phones, sensors, various devices, and systems—by that same year.
Something is going to have to be in charge of all that activity, and people will certainly not be doing it. No, instead, it will be IT automation. The volume of IoT data constantly being generated is incredible, and manual data processing is rarely sufficient to handle the millions of tasks involved. Moreover, in order for connected devices to do what they must do, instant decision-making is critical – another job for IT automation.
Automation solutions collect data from devices, then pass that data to other devices that analyze it on-the-fly. When results are ready, the automation platform automatically alerts the proper individuals and devices. Automation also ensures that downstream processing continues without interruption. In the event of a slowdown or blockage, automation directs IT staff to the problem location, ensuring the issues is resolved quickly and efficiently while minimizing time to resolution.
IT automation serves as the central hub for data processing, enabling reliable, end-to-end workflow execution across many different applications, operating systems and computing systems. Most valuable are the analytical functions make sense of the raw data and produce actionable intelligence. This ability to connect the dots in IoT data is the real secret of IT automation.
Rules-based, policy-driven IT automation interprets the processes, understands the dependencies, and monitors the execution of tasks to ensure that the right things are done in the right order, at the appropriate time, and by the correct people and devices. With IoT at the forefront of the next era in computing, it’s important to think about how this technology will be coordinated to fulfill its promise. Intelligent automation is the key—and the time to start planning is now.
Trend: The rise of the Industrial Operator
What Today's Industrial Operator Needs to Know about Adopting IIoT
Industrial Internet of Things enables the data captured by operational systems to be combined with analytics to optimize operations, streamline efficiency and increase profitability. Every day, more industrial operators are introducing IIoT systems into their operations to tap into these advantages.
In the past, some industrial operators have thought they were too small to use automation effectively, but no more. Be it insight gleaned from access to a larger set of behavioral data, or access to more resources for responding quickly to problems on-site, there are benefits of IIoT for operations of any size.
When considering something as new and broad as IIoT, it is getting easier with time and better information to understand what is involved in putting these systems in place and what the payback timeline can be. IIoT is improving industrial plant operations already. That much is undeniable, as we see the results from early adopters.
Trend: Automated factories
PointGrab Joins Cisco Digital Ceiling Initiative for Smarter Buildings
PointGrab joined the Cisco Digital Ceiling framework as a partner for developing building automation solutions over one IP network. The Cisco Digital Ceiling is an IoT-based solution that connects building services in a single, converged IP network through an extensive ecosystem of technologies. PointGrab’s edge analytics smart sensor, CogniPoint, provides occupancy analytics and connectivity with the aim of ensuring that organizations are able to make better, more informed decisions affecting building management.
As a member of the Cisco Digital Ceiling framework, PointGrab will collaborate with leading organizations to drive toward smarter, connected, and more secure buildings and factories. PointGrab joins Cisco Digital Ceiling partners such as Philips and Cree for lighting, Johnson Controls for building automation, and Relayr for ISVs, among others.
“The quality and breadth of information available for digital building management is determined by the smart sensor’s data capture and analysis, making sensors a critical technology for smart buildings,” said Itamar Roth, Chief Business Officer, PointGrab. “PointGrab’s inclusion in the Cisco Digital Ceiling partnership is a welcome recognition of the CogniPoint sensor’s unique contribution to next generation building automation.”
By embedding deep learning technology into optical sensing devices, PointGrab’s CogniPoint sensor provides analytics precision in the detection of occupants’ locations, count, and movements, thus enabling effective office space management and enhancing buildings’ operations efficiency. The sensor is a miniature network-connected device, running state-of–the-art deep learning algorithms on a low-cost embedded ARM-based processor.
Trend: Manufacturing gets smarter
Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric, and Intel Propose IoT Manufacturing Testbed
Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric, and Intel Japan have launched a Factory Automation Platform as a Service (FA PaaS) testbed in the field of next-generation factories at the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC). The goal as stated of the testbed is to test open IoT platforms that integrate Factory Automation in manufacturing and IT. The findings will be incorporated into Hitachi’s Lumada IoT Platform in order to help users create new solutions.
IoT platforms are built to include IoT data processing platforms that use Big Data, IoT head end systems, and IoT gateways to securely connect service platforms with factory environments. The advantage of IoT platforms tested in this testbed will be that the process will accelerate application development for next-generation factories.
Hitachi is in charge of IT related products, software which connects each device in this testbed, and system integration of the testbed. Mitsubishi Electric is in charge of factory automation environment, and Intel is in charge of IoT gateways and supportive coordination with IIC. Under collaboration with Mitsubishi Electric and Intel, Hitachi will complete tests of secure connections between environments and service platform layers, and test the effectiveness of testbed functions and the flow of operational data from the perspective of the front lines of manufacturing, by June 2017. After that, it will conduct use case tests with IIC member companies and customers.
Trend: Remote control
Honeywell Controls North Sea Platform Remotely From On Shore
Automated offshore drilling is here, thanks to a project from Honeywell off the shore of Norway. Honeywell Process Solutions (HPS) is providing advanced automation and safety solutions to enable remote onshore operation for an unmanned offshore platform in the North Sea, reducing overall production costs and improving safety.
When drilling operations are completed, Statoil’s Valemon platform, located on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, will become a periodically-manned installation and Statoil’s first platform that will be operated remotely from shore. Control operations will be located in Bergen, about 100 miles away from the platform itself. Moving personnel off the facility will improve the safety of operations while boosting efficiency by centralizing the controls.
“This project is a great example of how Honeywell is able to use its technology and experience to help Statoil remotely control operations at an important gas production facility,” said Pieter Krynauw, VP and GM, Projects and Automation Solutions, HPS. “As companies move oil platforms farther offshore and into other remote, challenging locations to find oil and gas, managing those operations efficiently while reducing risk to workers will become increasingly important.”
Honeywell serves as the engineering, procurement and construction automation contractor for the project and provides a range of control and safety technologies for the project including new operator stations and critical alarm panels at the Bergen operations center that will communicate with the systems on Valemon.
The Valemon platform sits in about 440 feet of water and will produce natural gas and condensate from one of the biggest undeveloped natural gas fields in the North Sea with an estimated 192 million barrels of oil equivalent. Once drilling is complete in 2017, the platform will have 10 production wells.
Among the technologies Honeywell will provide are its Experion Process Knowledge System, integrated protective solutions, Critical Alarm Panel with Safety Manager, integrated fire and gas and emergency shutdown solutions, and closed circuit TV software.
Trend: Gateways enable IIoT
SMC Touts IoT as Another Automation Evolution
As the world waits for the IoT to reach maturity and amass the type of presence projection after projection predicts, there are some in the industry that say the IoT is nothing new – just a fancy term for automation. That group includes Varun Nagaraj, President and CEO, Sierra Monitor Corporation (SMC), who called this industry business as usual for him and his team, having been enabling automation in the industrial setting for 10 years. Over the years, Nagaraj explained, SMC has shipped millions of its IoT gateways to customers – primarily in the industrial segment.
The journey began with connecting things inside buildings to other things inside buildings, with all of these components being brought together in a central management system. Initially, SMC’s gateways were for protocol translation – so the fire panel could speak with the sprinkler system, for example. The next step was the ability to connect to the cloud. Nagaraj noted that for many companies this was the starting point, a secure cloud connection, and he continued to note that in order to make the promise of security it is mission critical to manage both ends of the data pipeline.
Next comes the somewhat controversial topic of fog, or edge computing, which offers distributed control. Nagaraj stated, “…certain things are done better locally…on a facility premise, it makes perfect sense to add logic, nature, history and even doing analytics.”
Trend: Industry 4.0
What's Behind IoT's Supply and Demand?
Industry 4.0 and smart factories have caught the imagination of manufacturers. The promise of the Internet of Things (IoT) and digitizing internal processes gives hope to companies that spent the last few decades cutting labor costs and increasing efficiencies throughout their organizations. When manufacturers see analyst forecasts predict increases in revenues by 23 percent and productivity by 26 percent, IoT is impossible to ignore.
Kaeser Compressors, a manufacturer of air system products, is using the IoT to transition its business from one of making things to one that sells products as services. When Kaeser began automating its systems to reduce maintenance costs and equipment downtime, it began using the reams of data collected to make smarter strategic decisions. The company uses predictive maintenance to help determine when equipment needed to be replaced or was not working properly. Kaeser service personnel rely on predictive analysis to recognize usage patterns and monitor machine health.
At Harley-Davidson’s manufacturing plants, the motorcycle company began modernizing its shop floor and digitizing operations in 2009, and now, ERP, supply chain, profit-loss management, and manufacturing are integrated directly to the company’s different plants and provide a clear picture of the business to managers located locally at headquarters and remotely. On the shop floor, motorcycle parts have RFID chips that identify their work requirements for the bill of materials. As the parts move along the assembly line, a manufacturing engine reads the chips, which store information such as the bike’s vehicle identification number (VIN). The engine matches the VIN to the build requirements, and the parts move steadily along the assembly line completing each step of the build.
Mohawk Manufacturing, a Georgia-based flooring manufacturer, uses sensors in its equipment tied to an analytics engine to track the dying process of its carpets. When carpet rolls come off the manufacturing lines, Mohawk needs to make sure the dyes set correctly, so it added sensors and tags to every piece of equipment, and the sensors detect data and transfer it for analysis.
Trend: Job market effects
Examining the IoT's Potential Impact on the Jobs Market
The Internet of Things is a technological revolution with unlimited and largely untapped potential. IoT systems will only get better with time, as they learn to better address the needs of users. But, what about the unintended consequences, particularly when it comes to jobs?
An article at Value Walk painted a grim picture of this, saying that the IoT could lead to many job losses.
Many people don’t realize that the IoT has been integrating into the manufacturing industry for years, and many of the physical processes in production plants have been automated for some time. Almost everything in the modern factory can be automated now, including analytics and cost estimates, plant load optimization, monitoring equipment, managing the supply chain, and maintaining healthy and safe environments, and if all of them get linked to the IoT very little human involvement will be needed.
As systems continue to become smarter and spread into more areas of industry, it raises an interesting question: where will displaced workers go when technology comes for their jobs?
Right now, there is no clear answer to this question, which explains why the IoT is something of a source of anxiety for some economic forecasters. A discussion in The Guardian theorized that “new fields and expertise will emerge” along with IoT systems. That seems like a likely case.
Trend: Robots
Improving SQUEAKS with IGear, Komatsu and Genesis Systems
IGear, a smart manufacturing and supply chain solutions provider, has teamed up with industrial machinery company Komatsu America Industries and robotics systems integrator Genesis Systems Group, to improve its SQUEAKS mobile-first industrial messaging app.
The app is designed to facilitate quicker, better decision-making, and closed-loop collaboration, with machines as part of the conversation. It integrates messaging across machines and personnel; and it enables algorithms, rules and analysis to be applied across multiple data environments to formulate insights and prescriptive actions. This allows front-line workers and management to be updated on events driven by both simple conditional alerts, and complex event triggers. SQUEAKS makes it possible for workers to respond quickly to understand an event’s root cause and validate ownership and closure, with timestamps.
“We believe the true power of IIoT messaging comes from a combination of generating insightful data from industrial equipment, and its ability to share this data among selected individuals, via mobile technology, to ensure clarity, ownership, accountability, and interaction,” said Don Korfhage, president and CEO, IGear.
When people and machines communicate well, manufacturers benefit. Some of those benefits include improved uptime and overall equipment effectiveness, resulting in less scrap and rework, lower operating costs (personnel, material management and flow, floor space utilization), continuous improvement and heightened workforce engagement.
“The Industrial Internet of Things has the potential to usher in a new wave of innovation and reinvention of manufacturing as we know it,” said Korfhage. “But it’s also creating a data explosion, with some 20 billion connected devices expected by 2020.”
According to the International Federation of Robotics, there were about 1.6 million operational industrial robots worldwide at the end of 2015. Getting machines and robots to be “team players” and communicate effectively with their human manufacturing floor stewards is of the utmost importance as the demand for industrial robots has accelerated considerably due to the ongoing trend toward automation and the continued innovative technical improvements in industrial robots.
Trend: The money rolls in
Foghorn Systems Secures $12 Million in Series A Funding
The money keeps rolling into the IoT from every side, and the folks at FogHorn Systems, based in Mountain View, CA, raised $12 million in its recently closed Series A to develop more IIoT solutions. FogHorn builds software for industrial and commercial IoT applications. The funding round was lead by March Capital and GE Ventures, with additional funding was provided by Robert Bosch Venture Capital GmbH, Yokogawa Electric Corporation and Darling Ventures. The company also converted $2.5 million of initial seed capital provided by March Capital and The Hive, the Palo Alto-based AI and big data studio that co-created FogHorn.
FogHorn is at the forefront of edge tech for industrial and commercial IoT applications. “This is the largest initial round of funding raised by a Silicon Valley startup focused on IoT edge analytics and fog computing,” said David C. King, CEO, FogHorn. “Our investors include major strategic players in the Industrial IoT sector with participation from global leaders based in North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region. In addition to welcoming these companies as strategic investment partners, we will work with each of them to develop breakthrough IoT solutions for their industrial and commercial customers.”
FogHorn says its technology enables high-performance edge processing, real-time analytics and heterogeneous machine learning applications, designed to be hosted as closely as possible to the source of operations technology (OT) machine data.
“The Industrial Internet enables organizations to leverage and act on analytic insights from their machines, equipment, and operations. Realizing this vision requires distributed edge-to-cloud computing and machine learning, and we are excited to have leading technology innovators like FogHorn as part of our Predix ecosystem,” said Michael Dolbec, head of ventures and business development, GE Digital.
Industry sectors where this high-performance, real-time edge analytics technology can unlock billions of dollars in economic value include manufacturing, power and water utilities, oil and gas production, mining, renewable energy, transportation and health care, as well as smart grids, smart cities, smart buildings and connected vehicles. The vast amount of data produced every day by the machines in these settings dictates the use of an edge-centric computing paradigm that not only minimizes bandwidth costs but also addresses latency, reliability, security and privacy issues.
Trends: Government buy-in
U.S. Department of State Awards IoT Contract
The U.S. government is slowly acting to catch up with much of the world in terms of IoT implementation, and the Department of State took a big step in the right direction when it awarded C3 IoT a multi-year contract worth up to $25 million to provide its IoT enterprise application development platform for energy management and predictive analytics. This is the U.S. federal government’s first enterprise-wide contract of this type, which is designed to help achieve and maintain statutory, executive order, and department energy and sustainability goals.
Under the agreement, C3 IoT will enable the U.S. State Department to gain dynamic, real-time operational insights and efficiencies by analyzing all data from enterprise and systems and sensors across the more than 22,000 department facilities in more than 190 countries. The machine learning-based platform and software application suite will monitor, analyze, and support energy management across all of the department’s international assets, predict impending failures of critical facility equipment, and monitor the health of the sensor and device infrastructure.
“With C3 IoT as its strategic technology partner, the Department of State will enhance operational efficiencies by analyzing hundreds of thousands of its facility data points in real time, making our data lakes a rich source of actionable items,” said Landon Van Dyke, Senior Advisor, Energy, Environment, and Sustainability, U.S. Department of State. “Leveraging the C3 IoT Platform’s extremely powerful machine learning capabilities and scalable infrastructure, we will be able to identify and address outliers across our global buildings portfolio, learn how to improve upon previous embassy designs and operations, and, overall, lower utility and maintenance costs while greatly reducing our energy and environmental footprint.”
Using Amazon Web Services (AWS), C3 IoT will deploy and operate the C3 IoT Platform and software applications in the AWS GovCloud, an isolated AWS region designed to host sensitive data and regulated workloads in the cloud, ensuring compliance with U.S. government requirements, including International Traffic in Arms Regulations and Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program.
“Today, world-leading organizations are using IoT technologies to enable better, data-driven offerings, and that includes government agencies. Enterprise-wide contracts like this one will allow the State Department to develop smarter programs by taking advantage of energy management and predictive analytics on a global scale,” said Teresa Carlson, VP, Worldwide Public Sector, Amazon Web Services, Inc.
Trend: Manufacturing as a service
Arkessa Offers Remote Monitoring Solution with Siemens
The IIoT seems to be following the rest of the world into becoming a service industry instead of a product or production industry. This Industry 4.0 and the digital networking of manufacturing processes will make it possible to manufacture products at lower costs and in a manner that is more flexible, energy-efficient, resource-saving and customizable.
For machine builders and vendors, remote Internet access will allow them to better implement the maintenance plan sold with their products to deliver superior customer service and a higher level of equipment availability or up time. And of course, avoiding downtime is a central goal for any manufacturing enterprise.
“Arkessa services are connecting Industry 4.0 on a global scale and we are proud to power the Siemens solution,” said Andrew Orrock, CEO, Arkessa. “In the near future Industry 4.0 will enable Manufacturing as a Service where it will be the output of the machine which is purchased, not the machine itself.”
The Siemens SINEMA Remote Connect promotional package comprises a LTE-enabled SCALANCE M876-4 Industrial Router, a SINEMA RC KEY-PLUG for auto-configuration of the secure connection and the SINEMA Remote Connect basic software. Arkessa provides an M2M SIM and connection management services to complete the solution bundle.
Arkessa's optimized global roaming M2M SIM card enables rapid deployment of the solution by simplifying the network planning, product deployment and installation processes. Arkessa managed services will handle the global scaling, secure connectivity and flexibility.
This will enable even more serviceification of the manufacturing industry for OEMs and their customers. This is a development that seems like it is inevitable, so companies need to get on the stick and start getting customers ready for this new economy. Because the pains of change are poised to cause huge upheaval if folks aren’t prepared.
Trend: Regulations drive innovations
Manufacturers are Feeling the FSMA Heat
Food manufacturers are focusing on quality big-time thanks to tougher industry standards like the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), according to a survey commissioned by Aptean, an enterprise software provider. The survey, designed to gauge the sentiment of Aptean customers with respect to FSMA, found that more than 80 percent of respondents are reporting already experiencing the effects of FSMA and other food chain regulations. The manufacturers affected by the weight of the FSMA listed the following five areas of their operations as having been impacted the most: traceability, supplier & facility audits, HACCP/preventative programs, corrective actions, and product recalls.
“While I think most manufacturers support FSMA’s mission to put prevention at the forefront, many aren’t equipped to handle growing consumer concerns and compliance demands,” said Jack Payne, VP, Product Management and Solution Consulting, Aptean. “Our customers are taking the right steps by implementing advanced technology to transform their strategies from reactive to proactive.”
In addition, about 70 percent of the surveyed manufacturers said that they will need to expend “moderate to considerable effort” to comply with FSMA, even if they already meet Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) guidance and credentials. Some of that effort can be relieved through the application of connected technologies and tracking solutions, especially in terms of meeting reporting, traceability and auditing standards under FSMA. Although the additional requirements are all designed to create a safer food supply chain, the fact that there will be additional costs and challenges associated with FSMA compliance is inevitable.
In this weekly series, we’ll be previewing chapters for you to read in the hopes that you’ll like enough to read the whole thing. To do just that, for free, click here. Alternatively, there’s a paperback version available on Amazon for $14.99.
