Page 18 - Industrial Technology September 2020 issue

Practical sensor integration:

Your questions answered

Charlie Walker, Smart Sensor

specialist with SICK UK, outlines
the tools needed for sensor
integration and how they can
used to enable rapid process

improvements.

here was a time when sensors were simple
switches, and their manufacturers just hardware
suppliers. All that has all changed. Realising the
Tfull potential of intelligent sensors in an
interconnected and data-rich world, means integrating
them with one another, and with wider machine, factory,
logistics and enterprise networks.
For most of us, Industry 4.0 is all about a step-by-step
growth in connectivity and data transparency at the
machine or plant level. By building smart sensor
applications, machine designers and users deliver
Industry 4.0 capability one process at a time. Users are
presented with new creative opportunities to rethink their
applications in configurations that would have been
inconceivable until relatively recently, while sensor
manufacturers have become software developers and need sensor integration to fuse together the gathered data systems. Firstly, that data can be monitored and trended
networking specialists. to make sense of the environment around you. Imagine on a PC, machine HMI or cloud-based dashboard.
Once you dip your toes in the developing world of trying to make a cup of tea without being able to see the It also has the potential be used in ERP (Enterprise
Smart Sensor integration, you will see how quickly kettle or feel when we have picked it up; integrated sight Resource Planning) and MES (Manufacturing Execution
process improvements can be made. You will be and pressure feedback together make the task possible. System) software; indeed this is seen as fundamental to
rewarded with better machine availability, and more Sensors are not just switches; they are the building bricks the future of Industry 4.0 manufacturing and logistics. So,
operational flexibility and responsiveness. of applications. In some cases, they can even process it’s wise to be ready and build up inventories of smart
But what exactly is sensor integration, and, with a applications, or ‘Smart Tasks’, all by themselves. devices that can deliver when the challenge is asked of
wealth of new language, terminology and concepts, where them, as well as immediately giving you more real-time
do you begin? How has IO-Link helped? IO-Link was certainly the operating feedback and aiding your planned maintenance.
breakthrough point-to-point open communications Data transparency enables trending and gives us the
What is sensor integration? If sensors are the “eyes and channel that ‘bridged the final metre’ between sensors or ability to understand so much more about a system.
ears” that tell us what’s around them, then sensor actuators and the control system. Enabled by IO-Link, From Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) to Deep
integration is the process of embedding that knowledge sensors cooperate at the coalface of automation. They Learning, it is the integration of the data that allows for a
into a system. Whether you are a car or a robot arm, you interpret, act upon and communicate the information they user to become more aware of what is happening within
collect to an IO-Link Master so it can be transmitted via a system.
Vision inspection using a SICK Sensor Integration Machine the factory ethernet network to a machine controller, such
as a PLC. What practical steps can I take towards greater
connectivity? SICK has been predicting for a long time
Are there different levels of sensor integration? Some that digitisation, intelligence and networking is going to
sensors just provide on/off signals – is the part present or increase until eventually manufacturing and logistics
not? Some use IO-link to give additional data to the systems will control and optimise themselves – all using
control system. Soon there will be multi-use sensors the data from our sensors.
which include multiple technologies, for example piston You could be forgiven for thinking this all seems a bit
position coupled with vibration and angular velocity for too much of a ‘big picture’ to be of practical value right
end of arm tooling. Some connect to the cloud, ensuring now. You may even wonder how all this exchange of data
accurate tracking of data to optimise operating efficiency doesn’t just become one huge Tower of Babel, thwarted
and uptime. by different proprietary protocols and bogged down, as
increased amounts of data are exchanged. The answer to
So, is all this integration most useful for the enterprise this lies in integration gateways and devices, starting with
level or the local level? Integration of hardware takes the IO-link Masters that act as the translators, and also
place at a local level within the systems and control sometimes as localised controllers, to aggregate and route
architecture - but the data that this generates can be the data efficiently. They deal with the data at a local
shared not just at the machine level, but via cloud-based level, while making it visible globally.

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