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IIoT Sensor for Harsh Environment

Based on a 2015 market survey by the renowned McKinsey Global Institute, the global Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) market has the greatest development potential in the area of digitization of industry. Therein, a market potential of 1.2 to 3.7 trillion dollars in 2025 is predicted. These findings were confirmed in a follow-up analysis in 2021, forecasting annual cumulative growth rates of over 40% by 2030 in the field of IIoT installations.
Thus, Ottronic has developed a novel prototype of an IIoT-enabled wireless sensor for harsh environments. The presented prototype relies on a modular plattform concept, which is accompanied by an extraordinary robustness in harsh environments (e.g.: tunneling, heavy duty machines, etc.). The complete sensor is encapsulated using thermosetting polymers and entails no protruding antennas or parts. This design guarantees the highest media resistance combined with high reliability whilst enabling sufficient radiation power for the encapsulated wireless module. The sensor itself is design as a platform itself. Whereby, on the one hand an integrated multi-technology wireless module (LoRaWAN, Thread, BLE, etc.) as well as a multidue of physical sensing elements (accelerations, temperature, cadence, etc.) are combined. Due to the use of a multi-
Since in the target industries for this product the supply of energy is often problematic or simply impossible, the prototype is powered by means of an internal energy source which is also completely shielded by the encapsulation. To achieve an extensive runtime, different energy harvesting concepts adapted to the application can be included in the sensor platform and used as an additional energy source. Thus, the presented prototype can reach a runtime of at least 5 years.