In the future, sensors will only become smarter and measure more accurately. Sensor technology is the foundation within machine applications. For an (R&D) Engineer, without the right sensor knowledge, a successful implementation of new sensor technologies becomes a real challenge! What can you expect from sensors in the future? Our list of 21 technological trends in sensor applications will give you a complete picture.
For your problem, it is becoming increasingly unclear which type of sensor is suitable for your specific situation. You are encountering challenges and issues at the component level, where you could use some help. This article discusses, among other things, where smart sensors are heading, sensor data fusion, and the most important development goals.
Why is the demand for smart sensors growing?
Our need for new insights is growing, and with these insights comes greater ability to steer. By being more proactive, processes can become more effective and efficient. Thus, you achieve more with less effort. In essence, everyone always strives for efficiency.
Previously, we didn't focus on measuring things and saving costs. This became possible because we transitioned from a world primarily using mechanical measurement principles to a digital era with sensor technology. As a result, more is also directly expected of us and our machines.
Digitalization has a positive effect on, among other things, the cost aspect, quality, and lead time of production. We want to produce more in less time. This leaves us with more time to do other things. And that's why the demand for intelligent sensors is growing.
The demand for smart sensors is growing as we measure more and more.
Key Development Goals for Sensor Technology
As a development party, supplier, or customer of sensor technology, you weigh different interests. Think about costs, quality, and lead time. This influences the choice to, for example, opt for lower quality because it is cheaper and perhaps available tomorrow.
Kobus: “When it comes to innovation, we realize that we’re depleting the Earth and its resources. The balance of interests is different for everyone, especially when you know that your choice will lead to complete depletion within two or a hundred years. Sustainability is already a key goal in sensor development and innovation, but in the future, 100% will be a central theme.”
Lely helps farmers with smart machines in agriculture to make food production more efficient.
Efficiency and sustainability
The balance between sustainability and economic gain is always present in an innovation process. You can choose to make a large agricultural machine heavy and incredibly durable. However, this would require more fuel (and thus more money) to move it across land than a lighter machine.
If you make the same agricultural machine ‘of lesser quality,’ it burdens the environment more but may cost less to produce. At the same time, a shorter lifespan creates more room for faster innovation. With a very durable machine, long-term innovation is not possible or necessary.
The consideration mentioned naturally always involves costs versus benefits. Sustainability is therefore, in multiple facets, an advantage in the development of a new machine with smart sensors.
Expertise lies with the expert
Everyone knows about the existence of sensors in the future, but the awareness of which quantity they measure is becoming smaller and smaller. A company like Sentech adds value at this point because the underlying knowledge resides with the sensor experts.
The customer is assisted in choosing the right sensor technology for them and how to integrate it properly. Because knowledge will soon be scarce, a situation could arise, for example, where someone tries to measure length with a pressure sensor.
This might seem like a strange example, but the deeper know-how is missing, and this changes the added value of a sensor expert.
Balluff IP69K sensor
The basis for new applications for sensors
The drive to improve a customer's machine is the foundation for developing new sensor applications. What is important to the customer, what specifically can help them further, and do they see this themselves, or does a sensor expert add value to it? This requires continuous learning and innovation with new technologies. Are you already aware of the sensor trends for the coming years?
Innovation is accelerating, partly due to the arrival of‘sensor fusion’. Here, you integrate various sensors into one compact sensor application. The combination of two sensor techniques yields more new information to make applications smarter and more efficient. You are performing ‘sensor data fusion.’.
Sensor fusion as a person
The most suitable example of sensor data fusion is you as a person. You bring together different quantities and are then able to predict and anticipate in an efficient way. For that, you need all the senses in your body. In the future, sensors will also be able to work independently in this way. A machine will then be self-learning. Artificial intelligence with deep learning algorithms is the outcome of this.
Sensor fusion makes applications more compact and smarter. Prediction based on sensor data and algorithms is taking off.
Making large amounts of data available via sensors, analyzing it quickly, and establishing connections (between application areas) is the strength of modern applications. Smart devices discover many more possibilities and models in this process than humans can.
If sensors can function together as a brain, then people and job roles will be quickly replaced in the future. This is also about efficiency and cost savings. New developments are implemented at high speed out of our human needs, and sometimes also necessity. Thus, the circle is complete again through sensor fusion.
Hesitant to share data
Making large amounts of data available is key to future sensor developments. This data is not just for yourself, but you share it (after consultation) with partners, each with their own specialization. Only through collaboration can you enable new revenue models and improve your machine.
The biggest hurdle is right at the point of disclosing (sensor fusion) data. Data is power, your money, your trade secret. By sharing data with a partner, you are giving away value. So the question of what you get in return will be a daily concern. Sensor innovation and the data released with it therefore create not only new opportunities but also collaboration challenges.
Such a sensor that measures light reflections can work wirelessly in the future.
The development process of wireless systems will continue until battery capacity becomes sufficiently powerful and chips are truly small enough to use less power. Battery usage efficiency will therefore improve. All of this combined will make wireless sensors a success.
The innovation wheel is only spinning faster
You see that in the future, there won't be one specific benefit coming from sensors, but a combination of benefits, focused on an application area. The realization of ‘this gain’ is growing for everyone, and at the same time, it's squeezing the margin on products and services.
So we're not only becoming more aware of the possibilities of technological advancement, but also of the associated costs and lead times. As we've started measuring everything and will do even more in the future, this ‘innovation wheel’ will spin even faster and our needs will grow. Sensors will replace our own senses in this process.
Active sensor innovation from a Research and Development driven department makes new sensor technologies for machines available faster.
21 sensor trends in future applications
Slimmer, more accurate, faster, wireless, more secure, self-learning, smaller, standardized… There are many sensor developments underway that all revolve around these points.
As an R&D Engineer, you can expect the task of keeping up with all developments and possibilities to become more challenging in the coming years. This list of 21 intelligent sensor applications will help you align your expectations with your projects.
Door sensor innovation, but also by increasingly rapid development of sensor fusion at the chip level:
- Predictive maintenance on machines and devices is becoming increasingly efficient, easier, cheaper, and improves uptime. The maintenance of the future with sensors will be performed on demand instead of according to schedules.
- Is safety also increased here, because unsafe situations are easy to predict?.
- Becomes autonomous sensor technology Possible. Wireless connection over long distances with integrated power supply.
- Can sensors work self-learning, lifelong, without maintenance, adjustments, or calibration?.
- The possibilities and application areas of robotic technology are increasing rapidly.
- New and old chip-level techniques are emerging. As transmitters, receivers, and printed circuit boards become smaller, more is possible with sensor fusion.
- Are more complex detections possible: compensation of techniques.
- Sensors will increasingly offer insights that change our behavior. As a result, we will place different demands on air quality, travel, car maintenance, lifestyle, insurance, energy consumption, etc.
- Is fully automated herd management possible? Precision agriculture would then also be within reach.
- Improve farmers' yields so that they can compete effectively on high quality and outputs. Sensors are increasingly being used to investigate soil quality, climate, crops, diseases, pests, and weeds.
- Will the (production) costs for farmers decrease and will working conditions in the fields and stables improve?.
- Do new lidar systems really give autonomous vehicles ‘eyesight.’.
- Are soccer balls equipped with sensor technology.
- Are we dealing with synthetic sensors?.
- Are cities becoming smarter, and can we complete the ecosystem? Consider addressing waterlogging, air quality, blue-green algae, parking, safe playgrounds, ensuring monumental trees survive, and improving soil conditions.
- Components take over the role of human senses. Data is collected more reliably and continuously. Smart software and algorithms convert the data into useful information.
- We are increasingly making decisions ourselves based on self-collected sensor information. We leave nothing to chance anymore.
- We encounter sensor technology in every aspect of our lives.
- Shall we deploy more sensors for a better environment, better energy management, and green office buildings?.
- Sensors are well-integrated measurement modules that are easy to use and quick to adapt to the respective application.
- Are sensors becoming true ‘smart sensors’: intelligent measuring units that monitor themselves, send status diagnoses to the operating system, and create a reliable network of measurement and calibration data.
Were you aware of all these developments? Is anything missing from the list, from your experience? Let us know!
The added value of a sensor expert lies, among other things, in selecting the sensor technology that best suits you. They produce sensor solutions specifically for integration, which will improve your machine.
On to the successful implementation of sensor technology!
A successful implementation of new sensor technologies can be a real challenge. You want to make your machines smarter. So how do you use data to improve efficiency? And what awaits you as an engineer of the future?
In our free e-book, you'll find the answers to these questions, including practical examples of common sensor challenges and solutions.
Challenge yourself and take the time for it this download.
