Can the promise of industry's Internet of Things (IIoT) be realized without wireless power? With the global IoT market predicted to grow from $157B in 2016 to $457B by 2020,[1] the need to continuous energy without running wires or fitting larger batteries for more energy, the answer is a simple No. Real Wireless Power is required for the future of IIoT to thrive.
What’s more, the expense of managing the lifecycle of traditional batteries -- from purchase to replacement to recycling -- within IoT is not only a tremendous limitation to growth, it’s a dead-end for design growth. IoT needs more and more power to fit into more and more tiny, inaccessible spaces. Wireless power solves for that.
So how will wireless power impact the world of industry — manufacturers, power plants, warehouses, factories — in the not-so-far future? The business areas that we predict as having the biggest influence on the adoption of wireless power for IIoT are:
- Security
- Environmental Safety and Flexibility
- Data Gathering Potential and Communication
- AI Development
- Data Delivery Increase
1. Wireless Power Supports the Demand for More Security
Let’s start with security. With every increase in IoT, there’s an uptick in hacking and consumer concern about privacy. In IIoT, security issues are more than personal; they can mean the life of the business. As more and more IoT is developed and interconnected, more security measures are also needed, which require more reliable power: wireless power.
The Internet of Things Security Foundation notes that “IIoT provides manufacturers in all industries with greater connectivity […] However, this expanded network also opens up these newly connected devices to significant threats of cyber-attack.”
Businesses must leverage a continuous energy source like CotaⓇ Real Wireless Power, with its own set of security precautions, to fully support additional security technology within IIoT in the future. Get all the details about how Cota Wireless Power works securely, even while in motion.
2. Wireless Power Offers Environmental Safety, Flexibility, and Decreased Infrastructure Expense
When designing a new factory or warehouse, planning for electrical outlets takes vision. User convenience and work flexibility are top of mind, as is safety, especially in environments that require moisture. Wireless power eliminates the need for running cables or strategically placing outlets, which saves money and keeps your workers safer from electrical accidents.
In the construction industry alone, electrocution is listed as one of the top “Fatal Four,” reasons for death on the job in 2017, according to the United States Department of Labor. Wireless power could save many lives in many different industrial environments.
3. Wireless Power Provides a New Way of Gathering Pertinent Information
When the operations of warehouses and factories are interconnected, data abounds. Devices and sensors are collecting a diverse range of information, from when, where, and how a device is used to the temperature, moisture levels, or air pressure within a space.
This information gathering requires power packed into tiny, often inaccessible spaces in thousands of locations. Wireless power provides the low level, continuous energy that IIoT needs to stay connected 24/7, without ongoing user maintenance or intervention.
We’re not the only ones who foresee this trend. In 2018, “IoT projects [will penetrate] further into all markets from municipalities to agricultural to industrial equipment […] as businesses understand the transformative value of their data,” says Philippe Guillemette, CTO of Sierra Wireless.
4. Additional Data Gathering Means More AI Development, Which Will Depend on Wireless Power
More data brings more business insight, if you can spot the trends and connections in a quickly and efficiently. Whenever industry has the opportunity to gather more data, artificial intelligence development increases to help analyze and organize that data into something valuable, such as additional layers of security and safety, device efficiency, environmental workflow, and business strategy.
As insights increase, so do ideas for additional sensors for new data, and the need for more powerful processors. This will lead to more power needs that wireless power can support.
5. Increase in Data Leads to an Increase in Power Needs
The more sensors gathering data, the more information that needs to be delivered through the pipeline as close to real-time as possible. When you consider fast moving machines or environments that depend on certain conditions, this data transfer requires continuous wireless power delivered simultaneously to all the right places at the right times.
Cota Real Wireless Power technology delivers power without cables, plugs, or charging pads. The Cota Receiver is tiny like a microchip and can be built into virtually any IIoT, and Cota Transmitters can be linked to deliver power throughout a large industrial space.
As an example, when two Cota Transmitters are linked — let’s say they are built right into a dropped ceiling — they will deliver four times the power to your IIoT at the same distance when compared to a single transmitter tile. These tiles can be spread out and linked across an entire factory.
You can see how the demand for wireless power will become an avalanche, with one energy need causing another, and another. And how industry will be one of the largest competitive playgrounds. Bain Insights predicts that the most competitive areas of IoT will be in the enterprise and industrial, generating about $85B in the industrial sector alone by 2020.[2] Planning for your IIoT wireless power needs now will prevent a lot of growing pains later.
Want to see this kind of wireless power in action? Contact Ossia for a demonstration.
Cota technology is currently available for IIoT license.
[1] https://growthenabler.com/flipbook/pdf/IOT%20Report.pdf
[2] http://www.bain.com/publications/articles/choosing-the-right-platform-for-the-industrial-iot.aspx
