Industrial IIoT: benefits, challenges and live demos

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has the potential to transform the industrial landscape. By connecting machines, software and sensors, it is possible to optimise and analyse processes in a fraction of the time it used to take. Devices operate more efficiently, maximising their potential and saving companies money. The benefits of IIoT are great, but there are also challenges in the areas of safety, management, product development and communication.    

Safety of man and machine

The safety of employees and machines is a basic requirement for a well-functioning company. This is where the challenge lies for IIoT, because the more devices and cloud platforms connected, the greater the chance that something will go wrong. IIoT devices can be attacked from outside by cybercriminals and hackers, but human error is also constantly lurking internally: for example, an employee forgets to connect a component or overlooks something, causing a machine to stop working and disrupting the entire chain. In order to prevent equipment failure and ensure the continuity of business processes, the security of network devices, machines and production facilities must be in order. This poses a major challenge for designers, because both the software and the hardware must meet strict requirements in this area. Rutronic provides in collaboration with Swissbit a reading and demonstration that specifically focus on IIoT security through embedded memory cards and USB sticks. 

Prevent failure

A second challenge surrounding IIoT is management. Gerard Fianen will here on behalf of INDES IDS about speaking, emphasizing trouble shooting embedded systems during normal use in the field. For technicians, it is convenient that IIoT enables remote management, so that they no longer have to come on site to solve problems. It is even possible to solve impending problems in advance and thus prevent failure. Unfortunately, in practice, not everything goes according to plan. Management is often complicated by limitations in bandwidth and memory, privacy issues, too many applications on one network or a flood of triggers. Fianen will provide practical examples and solutions for IIoT management in his presentation. On the trade fair floor, INDES-IDS will provide a demo of a system crash that live is being resolved.

Product development needs to be different

In addition to the internal challenges around management and security, there are also external elements that designers and developers of IIoT solutions have to deal with. For example, the government has the  legal requirements tightened around scalability, certification, standardization, time to market and security of IIoT. In addition, there are social aspects that affect production, such as the shortage of semiconductors, personnel and technical resources, which means that some IIoT solutions cannot (yet) be made. According to Jay Nagdeo by Acal BFI led to a new way of IIoT product development that he will explain during his lecture. At the Acal BFI stand, visitors can a demonstration attend a meeting where this theory is put into practice.   

Smartly organizing industrial communication

Finally, in IIoT deployments, it is essential to transmit data reliably and quickly. To achieve this goal, the communication infrastructure must meet strict requirements in terms of security, reliability and technical specifications. IIoT nodes in particular are notorious for being more vulnerable to attacks and technical problems. Kurt van Buul (HMS Networks) will share during his presentation how companies can implement industrial communication solutions in a smart way by using existing network knowledge. In addition, HMS Network will present an evaluation board on a Raspberry Pi on the exhibition floor where visitors can see with their own eyes how this works in practice.  

 Are you curious about the lectures and would you like to know more about IIoT and embedded systems? Then register for free the D&E event on April 19 in 's-Hertogenbosch.