Session: 18-01-03: AI Implementation in Industry - II

Paper Number: 149807

149807 - Efficient Strategies for Low Power Iiot Machine Monitoring: An Industrial Case Study 

The rapid expansion and development of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) devices have become crucial in reducing machine downtimes, predicting potential issues, and quickly diagnosing problems. A common application of IIoT sensor packages is temporary monitoring. Portable sensors that can be easily configured, placed, calibrated, used, removed, and reconfigured enable quick and temporary installation and rapid reuse. Sensors designed for these purposes need to be small, portable, energy-efficient, and easily integrated with both the sensor system and the systems being monitored. The motivation behind this research is to address the need for versatile and fast to develop sensors.

This research demonstrates the utilization of the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) ecosystem to create flexible and power-efficient sensors. The key work done is the reduction of development time of power-efficient sensors by using existing building blocks, such as pre-designed hardware modules, software libraries, and development frameworks. Utilizing these existing blocks allows developers to focus on customizing and optimizing for specific use cases rather than starting from scratch. 

The methodology in this research involves a detailed investigation into hardware selection and support, experimental testing of different microcontrollers, and comparison of data transmission rates and modes. The importance of how well the ecosystem is supported and how familiar the developer is with the ecosystem is emphasized, as learning a completely foreign system to implement one element can be time-consuming and challenging without a strong foundation of tutorials and supporting documentation. BLE is a system that has and maintains extensive support on all major platforms, while newer protocols designed more specifically for sensor networks typically require higher investments, time wise or capital, to implement and maintain. 

Once BLE was selected as the transmission technology, a decision was made between using both beacon and traditional connected transmission protocols. Bluetooth beacons can use significantly less power and be more robust in adverse signal conditions but have much lower data rates and higher implementation complexity. Direct connections allow for increased security, easier implementation, larger throughputs, and more complex data transmission while losing some power efficiency and the ability to transmit to many receivers.

Another consideration that must be made is the sensor type and sensing frequency. For example, if the sensor is significantly lower power than the Bluetooth radio, many samples could be taken over a period and aggregated, and then all sent at once. If the sensor takes a significant amount of power, duty cycling, or only turning on the sensor in small bursts can help lower power consumption significantly. 

The experimental technique used a high accuracy, high precision energy monitor to assess energy consumption with different microcontrollers, data transmission rates, beacon versus connected modes, and microcontroller development boards. Preliminary results indicate that using connected BLE with an nRF52 microcontroller at a 1 Hz update allows for months of battery life in real-world testing. These findings suggest that the BLE ecosystem can be easily leveraged to create long lasting, high precision sensor suites that can be easily adapted to specific use cases.

Presenting Author: Roan Kirwin The MK Morse Company

Presenting Author Biography: Has been an R&D Engineer for The MK Morse Company for 5 years

Authors:

Roan Kirwin The MK Morse Company
Seth Ramsey The MK Morse Company