More intelligent communicating sensors set to take off

Next generation so-called ‘smart sensors’, hugely more intelligent than their forebears of the late ‘80s used in machine and process automation and management, are set to increase manufacturing productivity at ever reducing cost. So says Daniela Carrillo, senior researcher for the Sensors Group at analyst Frost & Sullivan. She notes that with the firm trend to integrate traditional sensor technologies with embedded intelligence in the form of micro-controllers, prices will continue to fall towards those of basic sensors while the devices get smarter and more autonomous. MEMS (micro-electromechanical systems) and the low cost, short range, wireless communications standard Bluetooth are by far the most important of the emerging technologies pushing the development of these sensors in the short run. The promise of MEMS – using semiconductors to create analogue instruments – is the total integration of measurement, computing and communication on a single chip. The result will be more intelligent smart sensors that are also more durable, accurate, flexible and reliable. The automotive industry is a major consumer of existing MEMS sensing devices for everything from engine management to comfort and safety monitoring and control systems – and this will be the single largest early market. Carrillo says next up here will be MEMS integration in sensors for everything from emission systems to tyre hubs. Meanwhile Bluetooth’s promise is of binding together different smart sensing devices in cheap (consumer mass market-driven) local area wireless networks. The cost savings from eliminating cables in connecting sensors and automation devices will open the floodgates for higher intelligence in all sorts of machines and processes. And with the technology making it possible to access smart sensors’ built-in user interfaces through portable devices without physical connection for operator interaction, the cost savings and opportunities increase even further. Frost & Sullivan concludes that this convergence of technologies will bring about a vast array of potential applications that will further accelerate growth, certainly in North America and way beyond the automotive industry – notably including electronics, HVAC, and process control sectors. As soon as the relevant IEEE 1451 standards are approved, allowing sensor manufacturers to use some of the digital features of that specification, while still allowing required analogue outputs for conventional connection (for those many running on older physical infrastructures that will continue to need it), more manufacturing users will convert. Then the momentum, understanding and acceptance will really start to kick in.