Getting started with Embedded Systems and IoT

PART-3

I hope you all have made the right choices and are now ready to know more about the future potential of IoT and how it can be a viable career option. If there were questions in your mind surrounding how IoT offers huge potential as we move towards the era of artificially intelligent devices being used in day to day life, you are at the right place.

Machine Learning plus IoT

Machine learning has experienced a boost in popularity among industrial companies thanks to the hype surrounding the Internet of Things (IoT). Many companies are already designating IoT as a strategically significant area, while others have kicked off pilot projects to map the potential of IoT in
business operations.
As a result, nearly every IT vendor is suddenly announcing IoT platforms and consulting services. But achieving financial benefits through IoT is not easy. The lack of concrete objectives is disconcerting. The advancement of digitization and IoT places new prerequisites on both buyers and sellers. Many businesses have failed to clearly determine what areas will change with the
implementation of an IoT strategy.
In other words, clearly defined, concrete intermediary objectives are missing. For example, industrial companies produce a massive amount of data on a daily basis. However, by and large, companies fail to systematically collect, store, analyse and use such data to improve process efficiency or meet other goals.
Furthermore, not many vendors are able to establish, in concrete terms, to the client how to prudently create positive impact on business operations with IoT solutions. Simply the promise of a cloud-based IoT platform is not enough.
According to Gartner, Finland is headed toward a trap where discussion about IoT revolves around technical terminology instead of business goals. Clients need to adopt innovative ideas and have the courage to embrace change. Conversely, vendors need to improve their skills in describing, in more concrete terms, what companies can realize through the use of IoT, and be willing to help identify business opportunities and develop realistic plans.
If a vendor offers a solution based on a single analytical method for basically all problems, alarm bells should be ringing.

Finding answers in IoT

People are hired to assist companies in various sectors. Consider the example of a company’s new facility experiencing severe production difficulties resulting from a critical turbine failure. A third party may be hired to solve the matter. After around six months of work, a team of consultants using only path analysis may make a little progress.
The facility however produces plenty of machine, maintenance and process data, as well as time- stamped weather information. Despite all of this available data, no one is able to refine it into useful information.
To get past this standstill, companies need skilled people/groups of people to add an analytical component. Once all of the data is refined via analytics, the underlying problems are found and related optimizations are made to the production process. The facility can then carry out production much more efficiently.
This is a prime example of how machine learning can be used to achieve even higher levels of efficiency. With the right algorithms, the system can be gradually taught to recognize any internal and external production-related factors, optimize the use of consumables, and improve the efficiency of the entire production process.
This is just one of many great examples of IoT and machine learning in practice together. The data collected by the machinery on various grounds was utilised through machine learning algorithms to improve efficiency.

If a facility with only a very little number of machines as compared to the 30 billion devices currently connected over the internet can create such an impact, then we can’t even imagine what potential IoT has to completely revolutionise how businesses work today. Many organizations have started to
address this up and coming combination of two of the most talked about technologies today, IoT and machine learning. Without the shadow of a doubt, it makes IoT a promising technology to pursue.

Written by: RITESH SOUN (General Secretary), BOOLEAN(Tech Society of SVC)