Impact of Internet of Things (IoT) on Industrial Automation

Introduction:

Internet of things (IoT) in automation industry is proving to be a game changer for automation companies. Industrial automation companies that use IoT solutions can reap new benefits. The Internet of Things (IoT) helps to create new technologies to solve problems, enhance operations, and increase productivity. The IoT can be explained as the connection of inimitably identifiable electronic devices using Internet ‘data plumbing’ including Internet Protocol (IP), cloud computing and web services. Internet of Things (IoT) Impact on Industrial Automation is very high and it makes us to use tablet computers, smart phones, virtualized systems, and cloud storage of data and so on.

Let us check the impact of Internet of Things (IoT) on Industrial Automation:

•    Internet of Things (IoT)
•    Internet of things products
•    Internet of things devices
•    IoT Gateway Devices
•    Industrial IoT Development Kits

Internet of Things (IoT):
The Internet of Things (IoT) plays a vital role in the industrial automation as it is starting to explore and implement IoT concepts and technology. IoT helps to streamline, collapse, and create system architectures that are effective, affordable and responsive. The major aim is to create frictionless communications and interaction from manufacturing field input/output including analyzers, actuators, robotics etc to enhance flexibility and increased manufacturing. Using IoT, the industrial automation has leveraged commercial technologies in major applications and these examples include PLCs displacing banks of relays.

Internet of things products
Internet of Things is the next big technology revolution and it is simply internet connected devices that are capable to gather data. Many Internet of Things products fit smoothly into the patterns of daily life by simplifying routine tasks.  IoT products come in various ways and they can be used in different verticals. Using IoT products, business and consumer lives can be more seamless than ever.

Internet of things devices
Internet of things devices can be used in various fields and they may vary from home automation and the functionality of your house. Devices such as smoke detectors, thermostats, smart music systems, smart light bulbs come under this category. On the other hand, IoT devices are also present in the interaction with the human body, where we can talk about fitness trackers, smart body scales or even baby monitors.

IoT Gateway Devices
IoT Gateway devices act as a communication bridge between IoT Sensor Network and Cloud Server.
IoT Gateway Devices are emerging as key elements in bring next-gen devices to the Internet of Things (IoT). They help to integrate protocols for networking, help manage storage and edge analytics on the data, and facilitate data flow securely between edge devices and the cloud.

Industrial IoT Development Kits
Industrial IoT Development Kits provide an entire, high quality design environment for engineers and solution architects to drastically accelerate the development and delivery of IoT applications. Using these kits, any development/industrial environment can be quickly turned into a production ready unit. The IoT Development Kit targets a variety of IoT application requirements by providing a range of different hardware platforms, spanning from very compact low-power ARM-based designs to powerful multi-core, latest generation Intel Atom gateways.

There are many companies that provide IoT related devices/products such as Advantech Co., LTD, Congatec Asia Ltd., ADLINK Technology, and Icop Technology.

Advantech Co., Ltd provides premium quality, innovative products, services and solutions. This company provides Internet of Things (IoT) products, devices and IoT Gateway devices and industrial IoT development kits. Advantech offers embedded systems, IoT Wireless I/O Modules, automation products, and global logistics support. This company works on development and manufacture of high-quality, high-performance computing platforms.

Congatec Asia Ltd is the leading supplier of IoT gateway Devices. The products of this company can be used in a variety of industries and applications such as industrial automation, telecommunication, transportation, test & measurement. The company’s products are made in accordance with modern quality standards. IoT Gateway Devices of Congatec Asia are easily customizable for rapid field deployment. OEMs benefit from an instantly available pre-configured, pre-certified IoT gateway that can easily connect a wide range of heterogeneous sensors, actors and systems to cloud-based services.

ADLINK Technology Inc, offers Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) platforms to serve the automation, medical, transportation and government/defense verticals. Our products include motherboards, blades, chassis, modules, gateways, systems, and end-to-end solutions based on industry standard form factors, as well as an extensive line of test & measurement products and smart touch computers, displays, and handhelds that support the global transition to always connected systems. ADLINK embedded IOT gateway (Industrial Internet of Things) platforms support Intel® Gateway Solutions for Internet of Things (IoT) by integrating Wind River Intelligent Device Platform* (IDP) XT and McAfee* Embedded Control to provide a complete, pre-validated communication and security solution.

ICOP Technology is the world’s leading manufacturer of industrial embedded computers, industrial embedded controllers, industrial IoT Development Kits, industrial panel PCs etc used in the automation of numerous control systems. This company provides Industrial IoT Development Kits that offers low power consumption; touch screen LCD, and stackable wireless connection in a package with sample code available. These Industrial IoT Development Kits are integrated with DMP’s Vortex86EX low-power consumption x86 400MHz processor (VEX-SOM) and DIGI’s XBee module. Furthermore, VEX-IOT-DEV kit provides balanced computing performance with 128MB DDR3 system memory and stable wireless connectivity for your devices.

Conclusion:
Overall, there is a huge impact of Internet of things (IoT) on industrial automation. IoT based solutions add value to industrial equipments.