The IoT environment and its applications

Open standards have long been a topic in the environment of IoT and its applications. What do you think about it and what are the advantages and disadvantages for hardware and software platforms that build on this approach?

Jash Bansidhar: Put simply, open platforms at all levels deliver greater interoperability, flexibility and agility. In fact, most developers welcome the freedom they provide. Our portfolio boasts more than 10,000 industrial-grade computing hardware and software products, so an increasing number of companies are turning to Advantech to create optimal solutions which leverage the latest technologies including 5G and AI.

We are unique in offering an open standard end-to-end solution which eliminates the problem of vendor lock-in for our clients. We make it our mission to overcome the complexities of IoT projects and ensure success for customers by bringing together the expertise they need to build innovative IoT solutions adapted to their respective environments and applications.

We have paradigm experts and products in every technical element of a solution stack. This, combined with open platforms, gives users the unprecedented freedom to select exactly what they need, benefitting from our whole stack expertise.

According to its own statements, Advantech repeatedly relies on so-called co-creation models. What do you understand by this and why did you decide to take this approach?

JB: With industries becoming ever more competitive, organisations need to innovate in order to meet increasingly demanding customer expectations and so maintain and grow market share – all within their existing infrastructure and the heavily regulated environments in which they operate. In simple terms, that is the situation we have to deal with – but it requires an innovation process which is not about radical invention, but instead focuses on business evolution, with technology as an enabler to strategic objectives.

We realised early on that the industrial IoT covers a plethora of sectors, each with a deep knowledge base, making it extremely difficult to promote universal industrial IoT applications. Our mission to enable an intelligent planet could only be achieved through the creation of an entire industrial IoT ecosystem, and for that, we needed to form and leverage strong partnerships. Our development of the industrial IoT cloud platform, WISE-PaaS, was our response to this, uniting technology vendors, platform providers and vertical domain experts into a single ecosystem to deliver tailored solutions, driving value for our customers and the entire partner community.

From time to time you speak of a fragmentation dilemma in companies. What exactly do you mean by this and what can affected organisations do about it?

JB: Fragmentation is a significant issue, especially in the area of smart machine management. There are two facets to it, both of which must be addressed if progress is to be made: fragmentation of business processes, and fragmentation of connectivity between equipment.

For many companies, fragmentation means they have to contend with a number of disparate legacy systems which work in isolation from one another. It can be a real challenge to gather data in such environments – yet a complete overhaul would be uneconomical. So, we need to need to show creativity and be resourceful.

In essence, overcoming the challenges posed by fragmentation requires a commitment to extensive collaboration between stakeholders. Our own approach to co-creation focuses on the provision of platform resources alongside investing in partnerships with system integrators and together realising the mission of enabling an intelligent planet.

For system integrators, the advantages of this approach go well beyond the ability to rapidly replicate applications through WISE-PaaS; it actually enables them to make the move from purely selling solutions to proactive development and management of innovative models for operation and maintenance services, tailored to precise customer needs and applications.

How do you think Human Machine Interfaces will develop? After all, there are various approaches here, from touch screens to voice control and eye tracking. Which approach will prevail?

JB: The implementation of Industry 4.0 requires people to play a key role, irrespective of the level of automation and autonomy adopted by production systems. This makes the selection and effectiveness of human machine interfaces (HMIs) absolutely crucial.

As industrial processes have developed, HMIs have themselves become very complex, but without necessarily being optimised for user experience. But poor design means increased risk, to both workers and assets – while the expectation from modern users is a simple interface, similar to what they are used to seeing on their smartphones.

Facial recognition technology is becoming more commonplace in mobile devices and we can expect to see that mirrored in the industrial setting. The same is true of voice control – the great benefit here is that it allows hands-free usage, with reduced risk of distraction.

However, perhaps the most important factor driving HMI development is artificial intelligence. Machine systems and their IoT sensors generate vast quantities of data, and the expectation will be for HMIs to house machine learning algorithms which can harness the power of this data while also adapting to operator behaviours.

In terms of specific hardware, one area which is currently growing significantly is intuitive control panels, with functions organised into discrete, simple-to-use applications along the lines of a smartphone screen. These enable the user to understand the options available to them and take the appropriate action.

Meanwhile, there is accompanying expansion in the use of on-machine HMIs, which can provide not only machine monitoring information but even operations apps, tool management and higher-level fleet performance data.

Another area where we can expect to see exponential growth is in mobile HMIs. Manufacturers desire the ability to monitor and control operations from anywhere. At the moment, tablets and mobile phones are the preferred means of achieving this, but it may well be that we will see these develop into wearable technology as well.