Data is the New Gold, Sensors are the Miners
Published on : Saturday 03-09-2022
Cost is a factor in making a choice between the basic sensor and smart sensor, says PV Sivaram
Sensors have become smart and intelligent, and together with IoT, are performing many different roles enabling more connectivity and analytics to industrial applications. From smart buildings to smart cities, smart factories and smart supply chains, collecting real-time data for real-time insights and decision-making, sensors are indeed revolutionising everything.
Expectations from sensors have evolved from a mere capability to convert a physical parameter to a current in range of 0-20 mA. And sensors have in turn developed from passive devices to units having capability to perform many functions independently. Day-by-day the topology of automation is changing, sometimes even getting inverted. Sensors are no longer at the periphery but right in the front-centre of the battlefield. Data is the new Gold, and sensors are the miners.
The pace of development in the field of sensors is very rapid. So there is always a need to disambiguate the terms. A smart sensor is a normal or basic sensor with capability to store a defined number of measurement samples, and transmit in digital format on request or at defined cycle. Some more capabilities are auto calibration, plausibility checks, periodic self-diagnosis, and annunciation of faults. There is a list of such features, and every sensor termed as a smart sensor will have some or other of these features. There is no clear-cut definition, but an intelligent sensor appears to be nearly the same as a smart sensor. In literature one can find that the intelligent sensor device is one with a capability to perform a self-check on its calibration. Smart device is the one which can communicate the results of its measurement to neighbouring devices.
One difficulty in R&D is that the pace of development in new age sensors is higher than the pace of development in corresponding smart sensor applications. This uneven pace leads to some other issues like use of ambiguous or confusing terminology between product developers and application developers. Development in mobile applications like robots or AGVs are leading to more and more motion sensors of different types, which need to be mounted in more difficult places.
Almost like a slogan is the call for Sensor to the cloud. It appears useful in the case of consumer space that appliances and devices might communicate to the cloud. One can think of personal wearables in this context communicating for example, health parameters to the cloud. But in Industrial Manufacturing, much data is obtained as a by-product of automation of processes and machines. So anyway the data would be needed at the local control level, before getting parked in the cloud.
Cost is a factor in making a choice between the basic sensor and smart sensor. It is almost a truism that more number of components leads to higher downtime. Sensors do their work in an aggressive atmosphere most of the time, and the concerns about failures are justified. The higher initial cost, more risk of failure must be weighed against the benefits from the better features that the devices provide.
PV Sivaram, Evangelist for Digital Transformation and Industrial Automation, is mentor and member of steering committee at C4i4. He retired as the Non-Executive Chairman of B&R Industrial Automation and earlier the Managing Director. He is a past President of the Automation Industries Association (AIA). After his graduation in Electronics Engineering from IIT-Madras in 1976, Sivaram began his career at BARC. He shifted to Siemens Ltd and has considerable experience in Distributed Systems, SCADA, DCS, and microcontroller applications.
Sivaram believes strongly that digitalisation and adoption of the technology and practices of Industry4.0 is essential for MSME of India. He works to bring these concepts clearer to the people for whom it is important. He believes SAMARTH UDYOG is nearer to the needs of India, and we must strike our own path to Digital Transformation. Foremost task ahead is to prepare people for living in a digital world. He is convinced that the new technologies need to be explored and driven into shop floor applications by young people. We need a set of people to work as Digital Champions in every organisation.
