Throughout 2023, it feels like AI has taken a central role in many discussions, touching upon, shifting our acceptance and attitude, and although AI has not yet significantly impacted industrial automation, there is a mass market around the corner.
IoT Meets AI
IoT is a collection of technical solutions within digitalization. Within IoT, there are, for example, sensors, sensors that can measure and collect data. Data we can use to create insights, insights that can change behavior. These changed behaviors can move companies to a new position. A strong driving force is that it should lead to saved resources and smarter use of the resources that exist.
Analysis Meets Data: AI Meets IoT
There is much to digitize and optimize in the world. Both AI and IoT are superpowers within digitalization, so what happens when they meet? AI and IoT are natural allies, and in combination, there is the potential to solve complex problems with simplicity and speed.
A Leap Towards Predictive Analysis
In a test with a partner, we at Induo wanted to see what would happen if AI and IoT were brought together. We let IoT sensors collect data and create a digital representation of the physical world. Then we let AI interpret the data, analyze the situation, and present data in an understandable way. The result? An interface that summarizes data and provides recommendations for improvements and adjustments to the responsible person. Here the focus is no longer on presenting values as diagrams or bars, which far from everyone can interpret, but on presenting easily understandable data that everyone can understand.
With the help of AI, future changes can also be predicted, and AI can suggest preventive measures. Imagine a system that not only tells you that a temperature in a hydraulic system is too high but also suggests actions to solve the problem. Moreover, AI can predict when the same deviation will occur next time, by analyzing, for example, sensor data from other components in the system. With these data, AI can provide understandable recommendations, summarized as text, which is clear and easy for everyone to understand.
Smart Sensors – The Solution of the Future
This is a first step towards using AI for predictive maintenance, to increase efficiency. AI needs data to act on, and the market for smart sensors or “edge devices” means that more and more data is becoming available. IoT devices are also becoming smarter with ever higher processing power in the devices. This enables local data processing and analysis.
My vision for smart sensors is devices that can adapt to the world around them by predicting the situation they are in. AI analyzes and programs the sensor with the right settings depending on the situation. In case of deviations, data from the device is sent more frequently and densely.
In the context of the hydraulic system above, AI can predict risk parameters and ask devices in the system to collaborate for more frequent updates during deviations (while “normal data” is not forwarded) when increased risk is predicted.
Soon we will see AIoT solutions flourish where data from connected objects are collected, processed, and improved by artificial intelligence to enhance processes and optimize operations. The superpowers IoT and AI are like a happy marriage that never ends.
This article has been published in Automation issue 1 ยท 2024