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If you have ever ridden a bicycle, you will find this adoption of IoT interesting. Many people watch the world’s premier bicycle racing event in July, and take for granted all the information about the race being captured and displayed in real-time. A recent article in Readwrite.com discussed how “IoT disrupts the Tour de France” provided insights.
Until recently, the data about individual cyclists was gathered in rather primitive manual ways. The many motor bikes following groups of racers and race organizer’s personnel stationed along the course have been the key to communicating up-to-date information. These people with stop watches and radios observing individual and groups of cyclists then relaying their positions back to the base location. This information was then entered largely by hand into the computers that ran the Tour’s website, so that spectators and reporters will know what happened.
Last year in 2015, things change when GPS sensors were put on every bicycle and a sophisticated relay system was installed that transmitted data to central servers, and then to apps, Web sites and broadcasters. A relay communication system had to be created because a significant part of the race courses have little or no cell coverage, let alone Wi-Fi. To do this, Dimensional Data was contracted by the Tour’s owner company Amaury Sports Organization (ASO). They in turn utilize IBM’s Streams to analyze the data collected. Apache Quarks is also being used to develop IoT applications to analyze data on the edge of their networks. Now, spectators and reports know what is happening in real-time.
What they have today is only the beginning. There is a lot more information that could be collected, such as the individual racer’s power output (Watts), along with the pedal strokes and cadence, respiration and heart rates, and many more statistics that the individual team directors would love to have so that they can monitor and advise their riders. However, since the Tour is a team sport, other teams would like to know this also, so they would be able to launch an attack on a rival team just when the rival’s riders are most vulnerable.
So what does this all have to do with the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)?
There are many similarities to industry ranging from the difficulty of transmitting data from one location to another, to making the data secure and only available to targeted consumers. Also, while the bike racers follow a course, they don’t always get to the destination in a predictable way. In the Tour, analytics are needed to understand exactly what is going on at any time during the race. In manufacturing, similar unpredictable combinations of measurements are occurring at the same point in time. Not all the data is under the control of automation, but may be important to guide the process along. For example, the vibrations of an operating machine in a plant may not be part of a normal condition in the production, and the information associated with this machine may not be known without the aid of an IIoT-enabled device.
Replace Clipboards with IIoT
So if you have people with clipboards periodically making rounds in your manufacturing operations to gather data that is not connected via IIoT, then you are operating like the old Tour de France was. Maybe it’s time to catch up with the Peloton.
Until recently, the data about individual cyclists was gathered in rather primitive manual ways. The many motor bikes following groups of racers and race organizer’s personnel stationed along the course have been the key to communicating up-to-date information. These people with stop watches and radios observing individual and groups of cyclists then relaying their positions back to the base location. This information was then entered largely by hand into the computers that ran the Tour’s website, so that spectators and reporters will know what happened.
Last year in 2015, things change when GPS sensors were put on every bicycle and a sophisticated relay system was installed that transmitted data to central servers, and then to apps, Web sites and broadcasters. A relay communication system had to be created because a significant part of the race courses have little or no cell coverage, let alone Wi-Fi. To do this, Dimensional Data was contracted by the Tour’s owner company Amaury Sports Organization (ASO). They in turn utilize IBM’s Streams to analyze the data collected. Apache Quarks is also being used to develop IoT applications to analyze data on the edge of their networks. Now, spectators and reports know what is happening in real-time.
What they have today is only the beginning. There is a lot more information that could be collected, such as the individual racer’s power output (Watts), along with the pedal strokes and cadence, respiration and heart rates, and many more statistics that the individual team directors would love to have so that they can monitor and advise their riders. However, since the Tour is a team sport, other teams would like to know this also, so they would be able to launch an attack on a rival team just when the rival’s riders are most vulnerable.
So what does this all have to do with the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)?
There are many similarities to industry ranging from the difficulty of transmitting data from one location to another, to making the data secure and only available to targeted consumers. Also, while the bike racers follow a course, they don’t always get to the destination in a predictable way. In the Tour, analytics are needed to understand exactly what is going on at any time during the race. In manufacturing, similar unpredictable combinations of measurements are occurring at the same point in time. Not all the data is under the control of automation, but may be important to guide the process along. For example, the vibrations of an operating machine in a plant may not be part of a normal condition in the production, and the information associated with this machine may not be known without the aid of an IIoT-enabled device.
Replace Clipboards with IIoT
So if you have people with clipboards periodically making rounds in your manufacturing operations to gather data that is not connected via IIoT, then you are operating like the old Tour de France was. Maybe it’s time to catch up with the Peloton.