The Last Mile for the Digital Factory
Factories are increasingly automated, and a first wave of digital transformation has already occurred. However, many older devices are still not IoT capable, and many monitoring chores are still carried out by humans.
The Case for Digital Twins
Having a digital twin of your factory is a critical stage in the digitization process for any optimizations.
Costs
- Optimize machine use
- Eliminate human monitoring
Operations
- Gain insight into pattern of use
- Smoothen operation with accurate status reporting
Safety and Compliance
- Enforce no-go zones
- Enforce safety compliance
The Cost of IoT Conversion
Many existing systems are not IoT connected, but it is too costly or too difficult to retrofit them. For some older analog systems, it may require a full replacement of an otherwise perfectly working machine.
Eta-Compute Intelligent vision sensors don’t need any retrofit to digitize your equipment. They read the machine’s user interface and gauge as a human would do, and report it to the IoT service.
IoT Comes With a Baggage: Security
Connect a machine to the networks, and it opens a full set of new problems: how secure is the network? How to prevent anyone from tampering with the device? For critical infrastructures like energy distribution, the risks are very high and require extensive analysis.
Eta Compute intelligent vision sensors offer a natural security air-gap. There is no connection between the camera and the machine, so it cannot interfere. Moreover, Eta Compute uses state of the art security to mitigate any threat.
Some Concrete Use Cases
ANDON lights
Stack lights (LED Andon) are commonly employed in factories to indicate machine condition. The intelligent camera monitors and reports stack light status and alerts, eliminating human checks. In addition, the intelligent camera can track worker activity and machine utilization.
Display Digitization
Many older systems aren’t connected to the internet of things and use analog or older screens. The intelligent vision sensor reads the display and reports its value, removing the need for time-consuming and error-prone human monitoring.