ChineseIndustrial Internet "new infrastructure", the opportunity for sensors is here!
At the just-concluded National People's Congress, the Industrial Internet was once again written into the government work report, and upgraded from "building an industrial Internet platform" to a more comprehensive "developing the industrial Internet". As the "eyes, ears, nose and tongue" of industrial equipment, sensors are considered to be the foundation and core of the Industrial Internet. What role do sensors play in the Industrial Internet? What new demands does the Industrial Internet put forward for sensors? What opportunities does the construction of the new infrastructure Industrial Internet bring to the sensor industry?
Sensors and the Industrial Internet complement each other and promote each other
The Industrial Internet is the product of the deep integration of the new generation of information technology and manufacturing. Through the comprehensive interconnection of people, machines and objects, a new production and service system with full factors, full industrial chain, full value chain and full connection is built. The Industrial Internet is the interaction of data flow, hardware, software and intelligence.
Li Weiping, chairman of Nanjing Gaohua Technology Co., Ltd., told the reporter of China Electronics News that sensors are key components of automated intelligent equipment, and they perceive various status information of products, equipment and industrial environments through "looking, smelling, listening and cutting". "Look" includes various visual sensors, infrared sensors, and ray sensors, "smell" includes various gas sensors, "listen" includes various sound sensors, and "cut" includes various pressure, temperature and humidity, vibration, displacement and other sensors. He said that one of the cores of industrial interconnection is the intelligent monitoring of industrial processes and industrial environments. Applying sensors and wireless sensor network technology to intelligent monitoring will help optimize the process of industrial production. At the same time, it can improve the ability and level of production line process detection, real-time parameter collection, production equipment monitoring, and material consumption monitoring, so that the level of intelligent monitoring, intelligent control, intelligent diagnosis, intelligent decision-making, and intelligent maintenance of the production process will continue to improve.
Since the 1980s, a wave of "sensor fever" has gradually been set off worldwide. Advanced industrial countries have attached great importance to the research, development and production of sensing technology and sensors. Sensors and their system production have become an important emerging industry. Zhang Jianqi, deputy general manager of Xi'an Aerospace Automation Co., Ltd., said in an interview with China Electronics News that in the development of the industrial Internet, in order to realize industrial interconnection, a complete industrial sensor networking system must be built, because the industrial Internet era is to connect machines, equipment, personnel, materials, etc. through cloud computing, big data and other new generation information technologies, while gathering, processing and analyzing data, and providing decision-making basis for industrial production, and ultimately improving the level of intelligence of manufacturing and industrial enterprises.
Therefore, in the era of industrial Internet, sensors are the source of network interconnected data and the nerve endings of the industrial Internet, providing the most basic data support for the construction of the entire industrial Internet ecosystem. "If we describe the closed-loop process of data flow in a system or a slightly intelligent system CYBER space as 'state perception-real-time analysis-autonomous decision-making-precise execution-learning and improvement', then sensors provide the most front-end and initial source of data, providing data support for the system."
"Industrial Internet and sensors complement each other and promote each other." Xu Jing, Industrial Internet Research Office of the Institute of Information and Software Industry of China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, proposed that "Sensors are the entry point for collecting data on the Industrial Internet and are the foundation and key components of the Industrial Internet. The Industrial Internet platform provides a platform for data cleaning, storage, exchange and value mining for the data collected by sensors, promoting the application of data in a larger range, wider fields and deeper levels."
Industrial Internet poses new challenges to sensors
The vigorous development of the Industrial Internet has brought huge opportunities to sensors while also putting forward new requirements for sensors.
Li Weiping believes that the development of the Industrial Internet has obvious stages from low to high levels. No matter which stage it develops to, it is inseparable from the widespread application of sensors. "The requirements for sensors at different stages of the development of the industrial Internet are not the same. In terms of current applications, sensors are mainly used by enterprises for data collection and analysis based on the industrial Internet. As the development stage of the industrial Internet continues to deepen, the requirements for sensor accuracy and related technologies will become higher and higher in the future, mainly reflected in the requirements for sensitivity, stability, reliability, etc." Li Weiping said.
Zhang Jianqi further analyzed the development direction of sensors in the industrial Internet era. He pointed out that sensors will develop in the direction of intelligence, miniaturization, multi-function, low power consumption, and high precision. First, the industrial Internet era requires the interconnection of all things, which requires that the cost of sensors as data aggregation perception should be low. Only low-cost sensors can truly realize the interconnection of all things. Kong Hanning, the father of German Industry 4.0, also pointed out that low-cost sensors are a necessary condition for realizing Industry 4.0. Secondly, under the requirement of low-cost sensors, it is also necessary to ensure that the sensor perception accuracy meets the requirements of industrial scenarios and ensure the accuracy of perception data. Thirdly, the industrial Internet era has put forward higher requirements for sensor power consumption. Only by ensuring that the power consumption of perception components is low enough can the goal of energy saving and consumption reduction of perception terminals under the Internet of Everything be achieved. At present, sensing terminals powered by bioenergy, solar energy, etc. are constantly emerging, providing new technical support points for the development of sensors in the era of industrial Internet. Finally, in order to ensure the data security and reliability of the industrial Internet, more and more industrial scenarios are currently putting forward high requirements for the data security and reliability of sensor equipment. High reliability of sensors is a major challenge facing the development of sensors in the era of industrial Internet, especially the recent frequent network security issues have raised new issues for the security characteristics of sensors.
In addition, traditional sensors are accelerating their upgrade to smart terminals, laying the foundation for building a new "end-edge-cloud" architecture. Zhang Jianqi told reporters that with the large-scale access of low-cost sensors, massive amounts of data are generated. If these data are sent directly to the cloud without processing, it will have disastrous consequences for the cloud. Therefore, traditional sensors are accelerating their upgrade to smart terminals, and after optimization and processing on the edge side, reliable and trustworthy data are uploaded to the cloud.
Xu Jing believes that the industrial Internet has higher requirements for the acquisition density, operating conditions, and autonomous control of sensors. In terms of acquisition density, industrial production requires high-frequency, high-throughput, lossless, full-time and stable data acquisition capabilities. In terms of operating conditions, unlike sensors in the consumer field, sensors in the industrial field need to be resistant to high temperature and extreme cold, salt corrosion and acid-base corrosion, moisture resistance, flying sand and dust resistance, severe vibration and impact resistance, and noise resistance. In terms of autonomy and controllability, my country's sensor industry is currently seriously hollowed out. 90% of high-end industrial sensors are monopolized by foreign manufacturers, and most Chinese manufacturers are in the mid-to-low-end field, which poses data security risks. In the past, data leakage was limited to a factory or an enterprise, but in the context of the full interconnection of the industrial Internet, data leakage may extend to the entire industrial chain, causing economic losses to the entire industry.
The construction of the new infrastructure industrial Internet further drives the development of sensors
As an important part of the new infrastructure, the construction of the industrial Internet will have an all-round, deep and revolutionary impact on the sensor industry, and my country's sensor industry will usher in unprecedented development opportunities. Data show that the domestic industrial Internet market is expected to grow by 7% this year.
Zhang Jianqi told the China Electronics News reporter that in the construction of the new infrastructure industrial Internet, the focus will be on enhancing the Internet perception capabilities of industrial field equipment, strengthening the collection of key data information of underlying equipment, and improving the perception sensitivity of the underlying nerve endings of the industrial Internet. This will promote the deep integration of the industrial chain at various stages such as sensor manufacturing, design and development, and optimization and iteration, and promote the rapid growth of the sensor industry ecosystem, so that the sensor industry will continue to grow and develop, so as to better promote the high-quality development of the industrial Internet industry.
The development of the industrial Internet has brought a huge market to my country's sensor industry and driven the increase in sensor demand. Xu Jing told the China Electronics News reporter: "my country's sensor industry has the problems of 'small, scattered, chaotic, and weak'. my country's sensor companies can take this opportunity to seize market opportunities, enhance corporate strength, and expand the scale of the industry."
The sensor industry chain includes upstream components, chips, circuits, microcontrollers, coating materials and other companies, midstream packaging and manufacturing companies, and downstream application companies. Xu Jing believes that the industrial Internet, as a hub connecting all factors, the entire industry chain, and the entire value chain, plays a very important role in promoting the coordination of upstream and downstream sensor industry chains and forming industrial synergy.