The potential for remote monitoring to reduce costs and enhance productivity is enormous in industrial markets. The ability to “see what you cannot see” while reducing the need for personnel to travel to remote sites or enter hazardous areas is an enormous allure for industrial plants. Now, as the cost of hardware has come down, more computing power can be deployed closer to the field and remote monitoring becomes a very real possibility, but how can plants make it happen? What is the best way to take advantage of computing power close to the machine?
Edge controllers combine classic control with cutting-edge analytics and other capabilities. They include a real-time operating system with a general-purpose operating system, all housed in one package industrialized for installation in the field right next to operating equipment. In this article by Emerson in Control Engineering discusses how plants can “take remote monitoring to the edge” and realize the advantages rapidly, cost-effectively and securely. Check out this interesting article here.
Are you currently using remote monitoring in your application? What technologies are you employing to do it?