IoT Sensors

How will Smart Farming decide the Future of Agriculture
admin
March 13, 2023
IoT, Technology

How will Smart Farming decide the Future of Agriculture?

Today, farmers are facing more pressure than ever before. Demand for food is growing as the population increases, whereas agricultural land is used for urbanization. Not just this, the challenges caused by climate change are also decreasing the yield. Sometimes drought, sometimes flood, and unseasonal rain impact the total yearly yield, ultimately causing a shortage of food. 

In the coming years, agricultural enterprises must operate in new and adapted ways to achieve sustainability and the capability to survive. The latest and most advanced technologies, falling under the roof of  Smart Farming, provide opportunities for farmers to overcome unprecedented challenges while passing the agricultural way of life to future generations. This has led to a boost in the yield along with the profit. 

Unfortunately, local farms, including some in the world’s most fertile lands, are also declining today. Therefore, creating a viable business is becoming challenging, and farmers must find ways to work more smartly instead of shedding sweat in the field. 

Historically, agricultural structures demand immense amounts of time, money, and effort to order, unload, store, plant, monitor, cultivate, and harvest crops. 

Advanced smart farming technologies provide new methods to simplify the workflow and enhance operations, leading to robust businesses.

IoT’s Shining Agricultural Future

The Internet of Things (IoT) is the soul of this transformation process. Intelligent sensors are implanted throughout a farm that behaves like the eyes and ears of the farmers. It collects information about crops, the equipment’s condition, and performance. One of IoT technology’s most crucial characteristics is its ability to expand visibility to new endpoints. IoT empowers farmers with real-time monitoring and analytics systems through which they gain more insights into their operations and the capability to handle them more efficiently.

Let’s know some of the ways through which smart farming improves agricultural enterprises and will continue to do so in coming years:

1: Monitoring Crop Growth

IoT in the agriculture industry acts like a superhero; it assists farmers in improving the crop’s quality and the land’s fertility. Sensors integrated with IoT systems collect nutrient density information, allowing farmers to adjust the amount of fertilizer to be used. If any symptoms of infestation are observed, using pesticides can eliminate the invasion. In actuality, data-driven agriculture always empowers farmers because the information received permits adjusting activities imaging the current conditions, handling the crop cycle more effectively, achieving efficiency, and enhancing crop growth.

2: Improving Greenhouse Operations

Greenhouse IoT sensors improve visibility and automate traditional manual functions, making the entire process more efficient and automated. They gather and transfer real-time data, like air pressure, humidity, temperature, soil conditions, and light levels. In fact, water consumption can be managed with SMS or email alerts if any defects occur. In modified systems, adjustments are made automatically. The processes turn out to be more cost-effective and accurate, and operational performance improves.

3: Tracking Water consumption

Agricultural IoT supports farmers in monitoring water tank levels in real time by tracking the amount of water being used and the amount of water left in the tank. Smartphones provide intuitive reports that analyze trends and make recommendations in many cases. Farmers can alter water usage as needed, making irrigation more efficient and economical.

Predictive Equipment Maintenance

Farmers can monitor their land, vehicles, and other assets through IoT. Farmers wish to reduce downtime as the equipment is essential to daily operations. It offers a clear view of the device’s performance, which updates as the equipment operates. Advanced data analytics provides them with the required management insights. Artificial Intelligence and machine learning measure an asset’s typical efficiency and wear and tear based on metrics like vibration analysis, oil analysis, and thermal imaging.  

Predictive maintenance models depend on complicated algorithms to determine when an asset must be serviced, fixed, or retired. These insights come before the device stops performing. This assures that operations and processes at farms are continuous and seamless. The other advantages include lengthened machinery lifecycles, reduced downtime, and productive outcomes.

Smart Livestock Management

We all know that livestock management and monitoring demand good quality of time, effort, and money. Traditionally, employees are hired on farms to look after the health or injury of the cattle. The process is undoubtedly costly, highly unreliable, and inefficient.

IoT solutions terminate speculation when diagnosing an animal’s health by monitoring temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, etc. The information is sent through the wireless network to an application in real time.

Farmers can then access the mentioned information using mobile devices:

  • Each animal’s health condition and location in its herds can be checked from anywhere at any time.
  • Farmers can also check the peak mating time and season of the cattle.
  • Farmers receive alerts if a metric falls outside of the normal range.
  • Most suitable gazing spots can be easily determined.

Benefits to Agriculture and Personalized Services

By embracing smart farming technology, farmers can develop more suitable approaches, and this proficiency changes the relationship between customers and retailers. The farmers can emphasize consumers’ interest in sustainability and eco-friendly food while focusing on creating new strands of their products. They can then charge a premium for their products, enhance revenue and create a more substantial business.

Smart sensors automatically observe every facet of everyday agricultural work. This advanced technology allows farmers to automate real-time data collection, boost production volumes, cut down costs, reduce waste, and much more things that increase productivity. These many advantages are compelling farmers to spend on technology.

According to the worldwide smart farming review, investment in this field will increase from $3.715 billion in 2022 to $7.040 billion in 2026, a CAGR of 13.65 percent. It means farmers will have added hundreds of millions of IoT sensors to improve their everyday operations.

Steering Efficiency

Smart farming technology provides businesses with new ways to increase agricultural efficiency, reducing costs and boosting revenue. In other words, smart farming technology is most significant for the growth of modern farming, increasing the yield to meet growing demand and will keep agricultural industries viable in the future.

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How IoT Boosts the Micro Mobility Market
admin
December 8, 2022
IoT

How IoT Boosts the Micro Mobility Market?

The Internet of Things is no new thing in the tech market. Just look around, and you’ll find that most of the gadgets and comfort offering solutions are connected to IoT. One of the most popular and known solutions is your virtual assistant,” Alexa.” The way that device handles other internet-connected devices in our homes is incalculable. But limiting the character and usefulness to just these things would be unfair. IoT is also immensely used in logistics, manufacturing, industrial automation, and many others. Not just this, IoT is also being used in the micro-mobility sector.

Any idea about micro-mobility?

The word micro-mobility directs to lightweight transportation for individuals. It shields different transportation options that weigh less than 500kg (1200 lbs). 

Some examples are electric scooters, bicycles, e-bikes, segways, electric skateboards, etc. Micro-mobility is very different from vehicles that are used for long distances. It focuses on short distances and generally for less than five miles. There are considerable advantages to the micro-mobility market, which is the reason behind the huge investment made by tech giants. In 2020 investment in the micro-mobility market was $800 million. This scenario rocketed after the lockdown restrictions were removed. The micro-mobility brands drew around $2.9 billion in 2021.

Advantages of the Micro-mobility Market: 

Let us know three specific benefits of the micro-mobility market that support these high investments:

1: Convenience

One of the most popular and justified benefits is convenience. Transportation options can help customers reach their destination early and with comfort.

2: No Parking Issues:

Parking is one of the major issues in big cities, but micro-mobility can solve this problem. You will never again face parking issues by using micro-mobility transportation choices like segways and hoverboards.

3: Cost-Effective:

As micro-mobility involves ride-sharing, it will automatically become cost-effective; you can rent without requiring any license for hoverboards or e-bikes.

Challenges Faced by the Micro Mobility Sector

The idea of micro-mobility appears appealing, but some challenges hinder the growth of businesses. However, there is zero to be upset about as long as IoT exists, as it has the potential to advance the micro-mobility market.

Data Sharing:

Suppose your own a firm that has 100 ebikes throughout the city. People take your ebikes but pay less attention to the charging levels, and why would they? They are your service bikes, and it’s your responsibility to take care of them. Well, not just this, there are many other issues like ending the ride midway, navigation issues, leaving the vehicle anywhere, and overriding the ebike that can cause damage and revenue loss.

Therefore, there is a need for a solution to collect all the necessary data about the vehicle from time to time. With IoT-connected devices like highly sensitive sensors, one can quickly get all the data related to the vehicle for analysis and make informative decisions. Moreover, adding IoT sensors will also make it manageable for you to transfer data with the traffic authorities to watch vehicle activity in a good way.

Riding Behavior:

It is pretty noticeable to see people riding aggressively on the road. This can be inspired because of different reasons like road rage or time-saving. However, no reason justifies the purpose as it can distract or put other’s life at risk. With IoT sensors installed on the vehicles, businesses can check the vehicle status and warn the rider by sending messages.

For instance, if a person is riding at high speed or cutting the lane often, sensors can record the data and share it with the related authorities for further action. This can protect vehicles from damage and save companies from getting banned due to abnormal riding behavior.

Safety:

Whether a car or a scooter, safety remains the top priority for micro-mobility service provider companies. It is essential to integrate features that protect the riders. These added features are not just limited to safety but also allow businesses to meet government requirements to secure their business.

Theft and Vandalism:

A micro-mobility company’s worst loss is when a vehicle is damaged or lost. Therefore, it is necessary to install proper security measures to prevent this from happening, and yes, IoT can help with this. By implanting a few IoT sensors, companies can stop stealing ebikes. Additionally, these sensors can also be connected to other systems to initiate warning messages.

If it is a genuine user, they can use their phone to get an OTP and use the ebike. Further, the vehicle can have environment-mapping sensors to prevent vandalism.

Scaling Service:

IoT can help in business scaling, but the critical challenge with IoT is that one needs to modify the complete system to upscale instead of a single one. The most feasible option is to get the most suitable IoT service providers. A single service provider will promise smooth and seamless scaling as the operator would have knowledge of your business operations.

Compliance:

Compliance with government standards and norms can hinder growth as they may change and be difficult to follow. However, if state-of-the-art IoT solutions back you, they can become more accessible. IoT sensors can be employed to keep riders stay within speed limits. It can guarantee that vehicle is parked at the right spot. In fact, smart sensors can also guide the riders to the nearest charging station. These criteria also guarantee that riders do the right thing and that government norms are obeyed.

IoT and Micro-mobility

IoT can support the upheaving micro-mobility market, but the only condition is that this will demand colossal investment. Once an investment is made, all other systems are managed, and only timely maintenance and upgrade is left. Investment in IoT for the micro-mobility sector promises a better future and benefits, and various tech giants like Uber and many others are forwarding toward it. This shows that micro-mobility holds a great scope in the coming years. It not just brings transportation at ease but also promises its contribution towards the environment by reducing the dependency on crude oils. The integration of micro-mobility with IoT makes it safe and futuristic.

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How can IoT Sensors Improve Productivity in Manufacturing
admin
April 18, 2022
IoT

How can IoT Sensors Improve Productivity in Manufacturing?

Internet of Things has been reaching out to almost every sector, and as a result, it is expected that the global IIoT market will reach $103.38 billion by 2026. Today IoT devices are more affordable, and many manufacturers invest in smart factory technology. One of the significant parts of smart factory technology is IoT sensors. It is essential to gather the necessary information and send data to the cloud for analysis in manufacturing. Businesses analyze data collected from the sensors to produce the most fitting solution to enhance productivity, avoid unplanned downtime, and cut manufacturing expenses.

IoT Sensors

In the Industrial Internet of Things, sensors are able to detect different types of external information and change it into data or signals that humans and machines can comprehend. Data is stored in a database which is managed either on the cloud or within the building for processing and analysis. 

IoT sensors employ different types of technology like optics, infrared and thermal to catch the required information. Sensors can also collect one or many kinds of data. Sensors include measuring distance, levels, pressure, environment changes, or anomalies in production line batches.

Types of IoT Sensors

Vision Sensors:

Images are caught by a camera and processed using software to know parts’ presence, orientation, and accuracy. Adoption of vision sensors ensures product quality and consistency throughout batches. It is used chiefly on automotive, food and beverage, and general manufacturing production lines.

Proximity Sensors:

This sensor is used to calculate the distance between two objects. It is used primarily in manufacturing, where machines must know distances between products or measurements for assembly robots.

Pressure Sensors:

This sensor is used to measure the pressure of fluids or gases in an industrial environment. It is vital to maintain the correct pressure for the product quality or safety of the crew.

Temperature Sensors:

The temperature of the component indicates if they are failing or overheating. This can allow the maintenance crew to replace the fault before it results in expensive mechanical failure. Temperature sensors also monitor the ambient temperature to assure the quality of the product or food safety. Instant alert of a cooler going over-regulated temperature helps in saving the unplanned cost of food waste.

Humidity Sensors:

Balanced moisture can be an essential factor contributing to the final product quality. Monitoring the moisture guarantees that quality standards are always fulfilled. 

Humidity also degrades equipment, so this sensor can inform the team if the humidity level gets disturbed. It is crucial to maintain the required moisture to enhance sensitive equipment’s life. 

Level Sensors:

Level sensors alert the team if the fluid or solids level goes down. In this way, it ensures that hoppers are filled before they run out, and production time is not lost.

Acceleration and Vibration Sensors:

It is crucial to monitor the movement of equipment to know the accuracy or need for machinery maintenance—excessive vibration in the machine indicates loose bolts or worn-out bearings or motors that are about to fail.

Sound Sensors:

The pitch of some machinery also indicates whether it is operating correctly or not. By observing the machine’s pitch, the maintenance crew can be informed if the machine is running too high or low and needs repair or replacement.

With the evolvement of IIoT technology, major industrial sensor manufacturers are designing “smart” sensors. These sensors are easy to implement than analogue ones (as it requires PLCs to process and interpret data protocol). A smart sensor is able to process data within the sensor and transmit it directly back to the managing platform. This causes data transmission to be more versatile and saves bandwidth by just sending helpful information.

IoT Sensor Connectivity

IIoT deployment may involve a few or thousands of sensors monitoring and controlling a single machine or an entire production line. Sensors need to be connected to send back the data to the network and cloud software. This connection can be wireless or wired, and each of them comes with some form of pros and cons. 

Many manufacturing plants opt to hardwire their IoT devices using industrial Ethernet cables. Hardwiring can guarantee a reliable connection, but the distance between sensors, I/O blocks and PLCs can limit its function. There is also the risk of damage to the cable, which comes with the cost of replacing it. 

Nowadays, wireless IoT sensors are in trend as wireless are more powerful and reliable. It can cover a much larger area and distance. It is more scalable as many sensors can be deployed through this. 

For instance, a single private LTE network can wirelessly connect many devices on a factory floor and provide seamless functioning.

How Are Manufacturers Improving Productivity?

Here are some examples that prove that IoT sensors play an essential role in helping manufacturers save costs and improve productivity.

Enhanced Product Quality:

In machines already connected to the cloud platforms, it is easy to store data such as temperature and pressure to track in production batches digitally. Machine vision via high-resolution cameras is another way of tracking products through a production line. Vision sensors with software can monitor product quality. Hence, this technology can reduce poor-quality products from reaching consumers who can imperil the company.

Minimize Unplanned Downtime with Predictive Maintenance:

The accessibility to real-time data and cloud-based analytics allows engineers and maintenance crew to spot inefficiencies in machinery. It is more valuable than scheduled maintenance, in which programs can analyze data collected from sensors to predict if an unplanned breakdown will occur or not. This ultimately helps technicians replace components before they fail, dodging any accident or expensive repair.

Warehouse Management and Asset Tracking:

In a smart warehouse, the IoT sensors can help track the flow of assets throughout the factory. Autonomous robots can pick or move or pack orders without human interference. Automating these tasks can allow employees to focus on other priority tasks.

Improve Procurement and Forecasting:

Sensors can also be helpful for procurement managers. Sensors installed on the production line can watch the assembly of products, help control raw materials usage, and reduce waste. It also alerts the crew when the supply goes down. Thus monitoring these essential items using sensors can reduce waste and enhance forecasting.

Product Development:

We all know that product development is one of the most critical and costly processes in manufacturing. Manufacturers can reduce the sum and make a better decision before concluding on total production.
One of the best ways is to gather data through sensors on the production floor and advanced manufacturing analytics to reduce the time consumed in the R&D process.

In fact, sensors on products can be implemented to collect data in real-life scenarios. Collecting data in real-time allows engineers to make rapid changes to get a more efficient product.

Summary

It is apparent that sensors plan a crucial role in daily operations throughout factories. Data collected using sensors can help develop a more efficient production line, machine operation, and safety.

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