What is holding us back from seeing a broader embrace of IoT, especially in pneumatics? We asked Mark Densley, head of product management for controls at Aventics Corp., to share his views.
What is holding us back from full implementation of the Internet of Things in pneumatics?
Densley: If you are an end-user responsible for maintaining the machine and keeping it running, the path is very clear. You can have an IoT system provide data from the machine, and ensure that the systems or the components on that machine are working within their normal range. In that regard, the end-users are the ones pushing for IoT implementation.
I think the disconnect is often with the machine builders. There are multiple customers pushing them for IoT solutions so the questions the OEMs are asking are, “How do you do implement that? Who has the product to do that? And what should we be monitoring?”
Pneumatics has had different diagnostic features for some time, so we can sense today whether the power is too low or too high, or whether there is a short circuit in an I/O system that caused some sort of failure. And now we are taking it a step further with our sensors and the ability to use our I/O system to look at the things that are driving the actuators. But I think the thing that people are struggling with is, “I have all this data, but what does it mean? How do we turn that data into useful information?” That is the big stumbling block today.