The M2M / IoT market is far from mature, and many companies developing these systems use more “general” Cloud application hosting “PaaS” platforms like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and IBM’s Bluemix. Predix is focused on industrial automation, while ThingWorx appears to be pursuing more business-oriented areas like Retail and Customer Support. While a dominant player in the M2M / IoT platform space has yet to emerge, most would agree that two strong contenders are GE’s Predix, and PTC’s ThingWorx. While we tend not to think of it, the mobile device in our pocket or purse contains a surprising number of sensors that can include an accelerometer, gyroscope, GPS system, microphone, touchscreen, compass and many others-along with the communication technology required to convey this information to the Cloud or another device.
Sensor, communications and control systems technologies are central to industrial systems, but for more business-oriented applications like fleet management, everyday mobile devices and the Cloud are frequently all that’s necessary. In a true “IoT” system, the decisions are delegated to the software.Ī wide range of technologies are used to implement M2M and IoT systems.
Humans might monitor these decisions, but they would be “out of the loop”. Maintenance crews would automatically be prioritized, scheduled and dispatched by the system based on predicted parts failures, resource availability, geographic location and other factors. It would do this autonomously, based on its sensors providing current wind and other weather conditions, its monitoring of real-time as well as historic turbine performance data, theoretical models, and many other factors. For example, in an IoT system attached to a wind farm, the system itself would directly adjust the pitch and yaw of the turbine blades. The rich pool of data that complex IoT systems can draw on enables complex and automatic actions. More sophisticated IoT systems use “context aware decision-making” that takes into account not just sensor input, but also historical data and data “federated” from other sources. Simple IoT systems use direct logical rules like “If This, Then That” (IFTT) processing: when a certain condition is sensed, then a specific action is initiated like a switch turning on a light. An IoT system processes data from its environment, and uses it to drive some action. An IoT system is somewhat like a robot that is distributed over multiple devices and the Cloud. IoT systems use analytics against data harvested from “sensors” to drive “actuators” and cause some physical result. Once a system begins to become autonomous, we enter the domain of the “internet of things”, or IoT. M2M applications in general still involve a relatively high degree of human control-a human is “in the loop” to monitor results, and to take the appropriate actions. More sophisticated IoT systems use “context aware decision-making” that takes into account not just sensor input, but also historical data and data “federated” from other sources An operator can then use that information to schedule maintenance and optimize the output of their wind farm. Or the system might predict the failure of a certain turbine component based on its duty cycle, temperature in operation, and other complex factors.
For example, a wind energy system might monitor the effectiveness that a turbine blade’s pitch and yaw have on power generation in certain wind conditions, and produce an analysis showing how this can be optimized. More sophisticated M2M applications provide bi-direction information and control. These monitoring and control applications include what used to be referred to as “telematics”, which is now considered a special case of M2M.
The simplest of these are applications that push data or control signals in one direction: Connected vehicles that supply location and CAN bus data to the cloud Cloud-based systems that push software updates to distributed devices logistics tracking systems using remote GPS sensors and remote-control systems that fly drones or model cars. Whether you are an automotive company, an energy company or-in fact-a company that deals with any type of physical objects at all, M2M is either in your future, or you’re already using it.Īs the name implies, M2M applications involve the interaction of one device with another, mediated through software. Continuous connectivity is the new fact of life. M2M or “machine to machine” solutions have become relevant to companies that have never seen themselves as being in the software space.