Smart sensors in the IOT Era



In recent years, China's IOT industry has developed rapidly. According to relevant statistics and forecasts, the industry scale reached 632 billion yuan in 2014, an increase of 22.6% year-on-year; in 2015, the industry scale reached 750 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 29.3%; 2017 The annual industrial scale exceeded 930 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.31%. It is estimated that the overall scale of China's IOT will exceed one trillion yuan in 2018. Click here to view Soway LVDT displacement sensor | Load sensors | fuel consumption meter | Hall switch | Magnetostrictive liquid level sensor.

The role of sensors in the IOT industry

The IOT is a huge network formed by combining various information sensing devices and the Internet. It is an upgrade of the Internet and the core of the information age. The development of the IOT requires technical support such as intelligent perception, identification and communication. The key to perception is sensors and related technologies. It is no exaggeration to say that without the advancement of sensors, there will be no prosperity of the IOT. With the development of the IOT, the sensor industry will also usher in an explosion. Sensors are an essential component of the IoT data collection and play an indispensable role.

As the world begins to enter the fast-growing 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 means to obtain information. For example, in the era of Industry 4.0, sensors are used to monitor and control the parameters in the production process to keep the equipment in a normal working state. In the smart home field, sensors are used to implement users and household items (lights, TVs, refrigerators, stereos, etc.). The basis of interaction; in unmanned driving, it is necessary to collect and process traffic and environmental data through sensors, so as to ensure the safe driving of cars on the road... It is no exaggeration to say how big the market is in the future IOT. How big can the sensor be.

In the era of the IOT, smart sensors will be promising

China's sensor industry is relatively backward, but with the increase in demand for IOT, domestic sensors are now showing a high-speed growth trend. According to statistics, the size of China's sensor market in 2017 is 207 billion yuan, and it is expected to increase to 593.7 billion yuan by 2021. In the next five years, the average annual growth rate of China's sensor industry will be about 30%, far higher than the global average. China's sensor development is roughly divided into three stages, a structural sensor that utilizes structural change sensing signals; a solid-state sensor composed of semiconductors and materials; and a smart sensor with information exchange and processing capabilities, which is also the most in the IOT era. The type of sensor in the foreground.

The intelligent sensor has the characteristics of high precision, low cost, diversified functions and strong automation. It is a sensor with information processing function and is a combination of sensor integration and microprocessor. In many IoT scenarios, sensors have the characteristics of smart sensors. In the future, the smart sensor will be the mainstream of the market.

There are tens of thousands of types of sensors, as well as smart sensors. A good smart sensor is composed of a microprocessor-driven sensor and instrument kit. The smart sensor can store the detected information and process the data to create New data. Intelligent sensors realize one of the key technologies of the IOT. It will play a huge role in the fields of industry, agriculture, medical care, transportation, etc. In the future sensor market, the proportion of smart sensors will become larger and larger.

Intelligent industrial sensors are the foundation for implementing Industry 4.0

As we all know, Industry 4.0 has become a part of the national strategy, intelligent manufacturing is the key to the national industrial transformation, and the role of smart industrial sensors in manufacturing is becoming more and more important. Industrial sensors are characterized by high performance specifications and high accuracy, and do not allow data acquisition and processing errors. Unlike traditional industrial sensors, smart industrial sensors will be used in smart manufacturing, which imposes more stringent requirements on accuracy, stability, and impact resistance.

In the future, the demand for smart industrial sensors based on Industry 4.0 will increase significantly, and this is the biggest opportunity for industrial sensor manufacturers.

Smart homes bring growth to these sensors

A major feature of smart home is the realization of the control of household items. With the development of the IOT, more and more sensors will be used in home appliances, such as washing machines, televisions, refrigerators, lights, air conditioners, range hoods, etc. The products will become the main battlefield of sensors due to the popularity of smart homes.

The sensor will be standard for smart home products. For example, the pressure sensor can be used to monitor the amount of foam in the washing machine; the photoelectric sensor is used to control the light of the light bulb; the electromagnetic sensor is used in the dishwasher to realize the movement of the spray arm. There are also flow sensors, smart gas sensors, etc., which are very useful.

Smart healthcare requires a wide range of smart sensors

Smart healthcare is the use of IoT technology to enable interaction between patients and medical staff and medical devices. The core of its work is the collection, storage, transmission and processing of patient information. In the process of image transmission and massive data calculation processing, sensors with intelligent processing functions, such as MEMS pressure sensors for measuring patient blood pressure, thermoelectric sensors for studying sleep apnea, for monitoring and measurement are required. Temperature sensor for body temperature, etc.

With the development of the IOT technology, wireless medical sensors are gradually becoming more intelligent, miniaturized, and low-power consumption. The application of sensors in the field of smart medical technology will become more and more extensive. According to foreign media reports, scientists have studied a new type of sensor that can be used to diagnose ocular trauma. It determines the severity of ocular trauma based on the determination of the concentration of vitamin C contained in human tears. Recently, scientists have also studied a capsule-sized swallowable heart rate sensor. After swallowing, patients can measure data such as vital signs and transmit the information to the receiver for remote monitoring by doctors.

With the advancement of technology, there will be more and more types of sensors for smart medical treatment, but their commonality is characterized by intelligent sensors.


Intelligent sensors help the car's intelligence

Although many domestic cars have achieved some basic networking functions, they are not really smart cars. With the development of AI and IoT technology, smart cars will become the mainstream of the future. Smart car is a comprehensive system integrating environment sensing and multi-level assisted driving. Its main feature is that it can realize networked control. The key to control and operation is inseparable from intelligent sensors. The popularity of smart cars will bring The increase in smart sensors.

In smart cars, the most widely used smart sensors in the future will be air flow sensors, odometer sensors, oil sensor sensors, brake pressure sensors, position sensors and collision sensors.