Sensors are like the eyes, ears, mouth, and nose of humans, but they are not just about human senses. They can even collect more useful information. In that case, it can be said that these sensors are the foundation of the entire IoT system, and it is precisely because of sensors that the IoT system has content transmitted to the "brain".
In the past, sensors were more commonly used in industry. But over time, it has slowly entered our lives.
Sensors are the cornerstone of the development of the Internet of Things
With the official commercial license for 5G issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on June 6th last year, the arrival of 5G seems to have pushed the Internet of Things to a new stage. What are the small wings of the Internet of Things? Perhaps different people have different answers, and sensors are undoubtedly one of the important options.
From the hierarchical structure diagram of the Internet of Things, it can be seen that the Internet of Things is mainly composed of four parts: perception layer, network layer, support layer, and application layer. There is a saying that goes: the lower foundation determines the upper structure. As one of the important components of the perception layer in the Internet of Things and the foundation of the entire Internet of Things, the importance of sensors is self-evident.
The massive data information in the Internet of Things system comes from terminal devices, and the data source of terminal devices can be traced back to sensors. Sensors endow all things with "sensory" functions, such as humans relying on vision, hearing, smell, and touch to perceive the surrounding environment. Similarly, objects can also perceive the surrounding environment through various sensors. And it is more accurate and has a wider range of perception than human perception. For example, humans cannot accurately perceive the specific temperature value of an object through touch, nor can they perceive thousands of high temperatures, nor can they distinguish subtle temperature changes, but sensors can. It can be said that sensors are the "language" of communication between objects in the era of "Internet of Things".
The role of sensors in the Internet of Things industry
The Internet of Things is a huge network formed by combining various information sensing devices and the Internet. It is the upgrade of the Internet and the core of the information age. The development of the Internet of Things requires technological support such as intelligent perception, recognition, and communication, and the key to perception is sensors and related technologies. It can be said without the advancement of sensors, there would be no prosperity of the Internet of Things. With the development of the Internet of Things, the sensor industry will also experience an explosion. Sensors are key components for collecting data in the Internet of Things and play an indispensable role.
As the world enters the rapidly developing information age, the first thing to solve in the process of acquiring and processing information is to obtain reliable and accurate information, and sensors are the main means and ways to obtain information. For example, in the era of Industry 4.0, sensors are used to monitor and control parameters in the production process to keep equipment in normal working condition; In the field of smart homes, sensors are the foundation for achieving interaction between users and household items such as lights, televisions, refrigerators, and speakers; In autonomous driving, it is necessary to collect and process traffic and environmental data through sensors in order to ensure the safe driving of cars on the road... It can be said without exaggeration that the future market of the Internet of Things will be as big as the role of sensors.
With the increasing demand for the Internet of Things, sensors in China are currently showing a high-speed growth trend. According to statistics, it is expected to increase to 593.7 billion yuan by 2021, with an average annual compound growth rate of about 30% for China's sensor industry in the next five years, far higher than the global average.
The Development Requirements of Sensors in the Internet of Things Era
Since its birth in the 1960s, the history of sensors has been more than 150 years. In the era of mobile Internet, the popularity of mobile phones has promoted the great development of sensors, but it also determines that many types of sensors are designed specifically for mobile phones. In the era of the Internet of Things, there is a significant difference in the demand for sensing and connectivity between "things" and mobile phones, which also puts forward more and higher requirements for sensing technology. In summary, sensors are evolving towards high precision, miniaturization, low power consumption, and intelligence.
1. High precision, high quality
If the data information collected by sensors is incorrect, it is equivalent to an error at the source, and all subsequent data transmission, analysis, and application will be meaningless. Therefore, the accuracy and quality of sensors are important baselines to ensure the vision of the Internet of Things. Imagine if the accuracy and quality of the sensors in an intelligent connected car do not meet the standards, it means that the system cannot make correct decisions within a few milliseconds of unexpected situations, posing a serious threat to the safety of the driver.
2. Miniaturization
With the development of mobile devices centered around smartphones towards multifunctionality and high performance, there is a demand for more components and smaller sizes within circuit boards. Therefore, sensors are gradually adopting integrated technology to achieve high performance and miniaturization. Integrated temperature sensors, integrated pressure sensors, etc. have already been widely used, and more integrated sensors will be developed in the future.
3. Low power consumption
Weibo, WeChat, videos, and games on mobile phones are all major consumers of electricity, and we have long been accustomed to charging and using power banks every day when we travel far away. But can you imagine what a terrible situation it would be if connected devices such as smoke alarms and smart cameras also needed to exchange batteries every day? Unlike mobile phones, many IoT devices are located in areas that people do not often come into contact with, so they have extreme requirements for power consumption, which determines that the power consumption of sensors must also be very low, otherwise the operating costs will be too high.
4. Intelligentization
With the rapid increase of interconnected devices and explosive growth of data, centralized cloud computing is already "overwhelmed". More importantly, for application scenarios such as intelligent manufacturing or smart transportation, the delay in cloud analysis will cause the value of data to plummet, leading to the rise of edge intelligence.
Sensors are excellent edge nodes. By integrating sensors with microprocessors using embedded technology, they become intelligent data terminal devices with environmental perception, data processing, intelligent control, and data communication functions. This is what is known as intelligent sensors. This type of sensor has self-learning, self diagnosis and self compensation capabilities, composite sensing capabilities, and flexible communication capabilities. In this way, when sensors perceive the physical world, the data fed back to the IoT system will be more accurate and comprehensive, achieving the goal of precise perception.
The demand for intelligent sensors has skyrocketed in five major fields
Intelligent sensors have the characteristics of high precision, low cost, diverse functions, and strong automation. They are a type of sensor with information processing capabilities and are the product of sensor integration and microprocessor combination. In many IoT scenarios, sensors have the characteristics of intelligent sensors, and in the future IoT era, intelligent sensors will be the mainstream in the market.
Among the most promising IoT scenarios in the future, smart industry, smart home, smart healthcare, smart cars, smart agriculture, and others are the most likely IoT fields to be popularized in the future.
1. Intelligent industrial sensors are the foundation for achieving Industry 4.0
As is well known, Industry 4.0 has become a part of the national strategy, and intelligent manufacturing is the key to the country's industrial transformation. The role of intelligent industrial sensors in manufacturing is becoming increasingly important. The characteristics of industrial sensors are high performance indicators and accuracy requirements, and do not allow errors in data acquisition and processing. Unlike traditional industrial sensors, smart industrial sensors will be used for intelligent manufacturing, which puts forward more stringent requirements in terms of accuracy, stability, and impact resistance.
In the future, the demand for intelligent industrial sensors based on Industry 4.0 will significantly increase, which is also the biggest opportunity for industrial sensor manufacturers.
2. Smart homes bring growth potential to these sensors
A major feature of smart homes is the ability to control household items. With the development of the Internet of Things, more and more sensors will be used in home appliances such as washing machines, televisions, refrigerators, lighting, air conditioners, range hoods, etc. Products that previously did not have sensors will become the main battlefield for sensors due to the popularity of smart homes.
Sensors will be the standard configuration of smart home products, for example, pressure sensors can be used to monitor the amount of foam in washing machines; Photoelectric sensors are used to control the light of light bulbs; Electromagnetic sensors can be used in dishwashers to move the spray arm, as well as flow sensors, intelligent gas sensors, and other applications.
3. Smart healthcare requires a variety of intelligent sensors
Smart healthcare is the use of Internet of Things technology to achieve interaction between patients, medical personnel, and medical devices. The core part of its work is the collection, storage, transmission, and processing of patient information. In the process of image transmission and massive data processing, sensors with intelligent processing capabilities are required, such as MEMS pressure sensors for measuring patient blood pressure, thermoelectric sensors for studying sleep apnea, and temperature sensors for monitoring and measuring body temperature.
With the development of IoT technology, wireless medical sensors are gradually moving towards intelligence, miniaturization, low power consumption, and other directions. The application of sensors in the field of smart healthcare will also become increasingly widespread. According to foreign media reports, scientists have developed a new type of sensor that can be used to diagnose eye injuries. It determines the severity of eye injuries by measuring the concentration of vitamin C in human tears. Recently, scientists have developed a capsule sized heart rate sensor that can be swallowed. After swallowing, patients can measure their vital signs and other data, and transmit the information to a receiver for remote monitoring by doctors.
With the advancement of technology, there will be more and more types of sensors applied to smart healthcare, but a major commonality among them is that they possess the characteristics of intelligent sensors.
4. Intelligent sensors assist in the intelligentization of automobiles
Although many domestic cars have implemented some basic networking functions, they are not truly intelligent cars. With the development of AI and IoT technology, smart cars will become the mainstream of the future. Smart cars are comprehensive systems that integrate environmental perception, multi-level assisted driving, and other functions. One of their major features is the ability to achieve networked control, and the key to control and operation cannot be separated from smart sensors. The popularization of smart cars will bring about an increase in smart sensors.
In smart cars, the most widely used smart sensors in the future will be air flow sensors, odometer sensors, oil sensing sensors, brake pressure sensors, position sensors, and collision sensors.
5. The market prospect of intelligent agricultural sensors is broad
Intelligent agriculture is the key to building China into an agricultural powerhouse, and in future agricultural production, many types of IoT sensors and related technologies are needed. The composition of agricultural Internet of Things includes intelligent water quality sensors, wireless sensor networks, wireless communication, etc. Together, they form a complete intelligent agricultural system, and sensors are the first step to achieve these.
The characteristic of IoT agriculture is based on information technology, which collects data through sensors in the agricultural production process and conducts quantitative analysis and intelligent decision-making. The environment of agricultural production is very complex, and different scenarios require different sensors, such as air temperature, humidity, light intensity, carbon dioxide concentration, etc. The collection of these data requires the use of corresponding intelligent agricultural sensors.
Sensors are playing an increasingly important role in the fields of science and technology, industrial and agricultural production, and daily life. The increasing demand for sensors in human society is a powerful driving force for the development of sensor technology, and the rapid advancement of modern technology provides a strong backing for its development.
Under the IoT strategy, there is an urgent need for localization of sensors, and domestic leaders in the sensor industry are more supported by the government; As a key component of the Internet of Things, sensors have become an advantageous link in the entire industry chain and represent the core competitiveness of enterprises.
Wuxi Huilian Information Technology Co., Ltd. is a high-tech enterprise dedicated to the research, development, production, and sales of various types of tilt sensors, fiber optic gyroscopes, MEMS gyroscopes, inclinometers, leveling instruments, electronic compasses, GPS, Beidou navigation, as well as AHRS, IMU, and integrated navigation systems. Especially in the field of fiber optic gyroscopes, the company adopts a unique digital closed-loop solution and has multiple patented technologies, making it one of the competitive fiber optic gyroscope suppliers in China.
The multi-faceted cooperation with Peking University Regional Fiber Optic Communication Network and National Laboratory of New Optical Communication Systems has established the company's rich technical reserves and strong research and development capabilities, and created an inertial navigation service platform with independent intellectual property rights. The company currently has various precision products applied in multiple fields such as oil well inclinometer, inertial north finding, navigation, guidance, platform stability, attitude control, etc., and has the ability to develop customized products according to customer needs. Welcome to inquire by phone.
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(Editor: Huilian Technology)
