Now, intelligent manufacturing represented by Industry 4.0 is changing the form of the future manufacturing industry. In this new manufacturing system, data is the soul element and occupies a central position. However, this does not mean that hardware will be marginalized in Industry 4.0, as data still needs to be transmitted through hardware as a carrier to present its value in the real world. Therefore, the rise of "data" in intelligent manufacturing will also bring many business opportunities to hardware. Next, from the direction of "data flow" in Industry 4.0, we can better understand and explore the hidden hardware "money streams" in each link.

Sensing

In industrial control systems, sensors are the data acquisition end, responsible for converting a large number of non electric physical and chemical parameters in the industrial field into electrical signals, and then the system interprets key data information from them as the basis for control decisions. The dependence of intelligent manufacturing on data will inevitably stimulate the demand for sensors. In the future, the demand for various sensors such as pressure, displacement, acceleration, angular velocity, temperature, humidity, gas, and photosensitive sensors in the industrial market will show an overall upward trend.

Another noteworthy aspect is the market for CMOS image sensors, which are core components of machine vision. According to IC Insights, the global industrial CMOS image sensor market is expected to grow from 6 million in 2015 to 2 million in 2020. In addition, the application of multi view 3D vision in industrial scenes can be enriched by the image data collected by image sensors, and its role will be more significant. Image sensors will also become a significant "cake" in the industrial sensor market.

interconnection

The data generated by intelligent manufacturing systems needs to be transmitted and shared through a fast and stable network. The German "Industry 4.0 R&D White Paper" considers wireless technology as a key project in the research of Industry 4.0 network communication technology. Compared with traditional wired industrial communication, wireless interconnection technology has significant advantages: firstly, the network construction and maintenance costs are low. According to testing, the installation and maintenance costs of wireless measurement and control systems can be reduced by 90%; 2、 Improve the flexibility of production line equipment configuration and better meet the "flexibility" requirements required for the "mass customization" vision of intelligent manufacturing; 3、 Adaptable to diverse networking application scenarios, deployment requirements for various networks such as Mesh and Star.

Therefore, whether it is the existing wireless protocols in the industrial field such as WIA-PA, Wireless HART, and ISA, or universal wireless protocols such as Wi Fi, Zigbee, NFC, Bluetooth, 2G/3G/4G network communication, they are all affecting and infiltrating the industrial field. How to integrate emerging LPWAN wireless communication technologies such as NB IoT into industrial applications has also been a key consideration for some companies. 5G is also within the scope of Industry 4.0, and according to the plan, the design and standards of public 5G network infrastructure will be implemented by 2018 to provide wide area network services for industry.

However, industrial applications have more specific requirements for wireless communication, especially in terms of reliability and low latency. Therefore, some common wireless technologies will still be used in non real time control scenarios such as device and product information collection, internal information exchange, etc. in the short term. In the future, they will form a composite communication system with real-time industrial control networks to establish efficient and reliable pipelines for data.

Wireless interconnection and sensing technology are also moving towards integration, and wireless sensors with wireless data communication capabilities will become a new market growth point. Wireless sensor networks can break free from the constraints of traditional sensor buses, making data aggregation more flexible and cost-effective. On this basis, sensor products can also incorporate other technologies such as energy harvesting to form more diversified products and expand their application scope.

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