Articles and News

By Tony Armstrong, Linear Technology Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) can be powered via energy harvesting. Here’s how to design a nanopower device that works with very low levels of power and current.

Immediate access to secure, end-to-end networking service now widely available.

By Bill Lydon, Editor The Internet of Things (IoT) definition as promoted by major industrial automation suppliers and computer industry suppliers is “IP to the edge.” IP to the edge means using Internet Protocol over wired or wireless Ethernet to communicate with end devices. This concept may not be common sense engineering and sound design for industrial automation systems.

Wireless Control Foundation: Continuous and Discrete Control for the Process Industry, aims to improve wireless control planning, commissioning and troubleshooting.

MEDUSA development platform for battery-free wireless sensors and actuators allows developers to design components driven by RF energy harvesting

Wireless technology for process instrumentation has the potential to bridge key gaps in a variety of industrial applications, including asset management solutions, monitoring, and noncritical alarming

Up to 2014, there was only limited interest in thermoelectric energy harvesting in general and its use in automotive applications in particular. IDTech predicts thermoelectric energy harvesting will be on production hybrid electric on-road vehicles from 2018.

By Bill Lydon, Editor The goal of the Internet of Things (IoT) is to massively instrument the world with intelligent sensors and actuators (analog/digital) that communicate over both wired and wireless networks and leverage the Internet Protocol (IP). .

Skkynet's Secure Cloud Service allows industrial and embedded systems to securely network live data in real time from anywhere across five continents that has an Internet connection.

By Bill Lydon, Editor The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) in many respects is the progression of distributed computing. The fundamental components of an automation (or other) system are sensors; they are the “eyes, ears, and fingers” of any system. If the concepts of IIoT are to succeed, we need more effective, powerful sensors.

By Bill Lydon, Editor There is a growing frenzy over the application of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to industrial automation. The question is, “Why do we want to do this?” The high level goal is to improve manufacturing processes in a number of dimensions, including efficiency, responsiveness, and the ability to meet individual customer needs in a timely manner.

Centero will distribute and support the ISA100 Wireless Device Test Kit and ISA100 Wireless Stack Test Kit.

By Julia Santogatta, Belden Wireless can actually be extremely secure, shared medium or not, if you follow the “wireless Golden Rule” and ask yourself some typical security questions when planning a wireless local area network (WLAN).

By Bill Lydon, Editor By recently joining the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC), MOXA emphasized their strong focus on the Industrial Internet of Things (IoT). Another example of this commitment is their increased rugged industrial communications product scope, including security offerings.

By David Gustafson, Emerson Process Management It took only two weeks to install the first system, and already it’s saved $100,000 in maintenance costs and increased production by 5,000 tons per year.

By Jonathan Wilkins A new industrial wireless European standard (EN300328 V1.8.1) threatens to make essential plant control sensors useless. It introduces the “listen before talk” (LBT) protocol as a solution for preserving bandwidth in industrial environments.

Yokogawa will license its ISA100 Wireless technology to Murata and Murata will develop communication modules.

By Julia Arneri Borghese, Paradox Engineering When considering a wireless network, the critical decision is how to invest in future proof infrastructures that can provide adequate flexibility and scalability over time. Industrial organizations are not likely to install technologies which bind them to legacy protocols, or force them to replace existing equipment.

HIKOB is a provider of wireless autonomous multipoint data acquisition systems.

The company introduced an IP-based remote maintenance system for their products that ensures a high degree of IT security by using encrypted VPN connections and cellular radio routers.