As Industry 4.0 trends evolve, predictive maintenance, asset monitoring, and building automation continue to be at the forefront of discussions about increasing efficiency and precise control of processes on the factory floor. Having the ability to transmit information to the cloud in an IIoT application could confirm production continues uninterrupted.
Staying knowledgeable about the latest developments can help accelerate reductions in production downtime and potential loss across the supply chain. In this article, we will share three top IIoT trends to consider in 2019:
1. Ecosystems and consortiums will evolve and drive interoperability across software and hardware solutions.
With the evolution of technology, there is a need for flexibility across different hardware and software platforms to achieve a more connected solution. It is important for the customer to be able to easily move across multiple applications, solutions, and suppliers (hardware, cloud, and software) to unlock the savings when implementing an IOT solution.
2. There will be a focus on the sensor component.
There will be an emphasis on the sensor earlier in the IoT system design process. As companies begin to comprehend the type of sensors needed and how they will connect to the complete system, customized sensors will be developed to satisfy the specific needs required to deploy a fully connected system. Industrial sensors that are packaged to support harsh environments, low current consumption, and a variety of measurement types to enable the growth of Industry 4.0 will be needed. The sensors used in these applications are critical for accurate and reliable data.
3. 5G will expand the proliferation of IoT.
The rollout of 5G will enable βreal timeβ response to the network which allows many more connections at lower cost and power. TE Connectivity (TE) designed a survey for engineers on a variety of topics related to IoT design and received responses from 180 engineers. The survey showed that with the ability to connect to thousands of devices at once at exceptionally fast speeds and low end-to-end latency, engineers anticipate 5G will have a significant impact on IIoT applications. Nearly 60 percent of respondents believe the advent of 5G will mean getting data faster and that, in turn, will result in new applications for IoT.