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Libelium, the company specializing in IoT technology, has designed a unique device to connect different applications for the smart industry. The latest developed product integrates the most popular industrial protocols in a single device: Modbus, RS-485, 4-20 mA, SDI-12 and RS-232.
This release opens the IoT door to the industrial environments, allowing connectivity between any sensor of the market to any cloud where the information can be analyzed and used to make decisions and actuate accordingly. The extreme flexibility allows easy integration by accessing the open-source API and the IDE.
The new industrial device, called Plug & Sense! Industry 4.0, can operate in three types of situations:
Connect any sensor to an existing industrial bus
Plug & Sense! Industry 4.0 can be set to read the information coming from sensors and send it wirelessly directly to the Cloud using WiFi, GPRS, GPRS+GPS, 3G and 4G radio interfaces.
Add wireless connectivity to wired buses
Plug & Sense! Industry 4.0 can be configured to read the information and send it wirelessly using any of the network modules available in the platform to a base station or to another node connected to another bus. The available wireless technologies are: 802.15.4, ZigBee, DigiMesh, 868 MHz, 900 MHz, LoRa, WiFi, GPRS, GPRS+GPS, 3G, 4G, Sigfox, LoRaWAN, Bluetooth Pro, Bluetooth Low Energy and RFID/NFC.
Connect industrial devices to the cloud
Plug & Sense! Industry 4.0 can be configured to read the information coming from the bus and send it via wireless directly to the Cloud using WiFi or cellular radios.
In any case, the aim is to offer extraordinary flexibility and interoperability to any industry that needs to send data from the production process to the Internet with any wireless connectivity.
“The most important improvement that this device provides is the capability of having the most popular industrial protocols in a single device with fewer cables to connect any sensor of the market that will be powered from the node”, explains Javier Solobera, Product Manager of Libelium.
The new Plug & Sense! Industry 4.0 is the perfect tool for the digitization of industrial environments to enter fully into the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
There are hundreds of sensors that can be connected in a smart factory to improve and digitize its productive process to make it more competitive. The top ten applications of smart sensors that are useful for the industry to be switched into the new Plug & Sense! Industry 4.0 are the following:
- Water, electricity, oil & gas meters.
- Liquid level sensors.
- Liquid or gas flow sensors.
- Temperature sensors.
- Distance, presence and proximity sensors (“laser”, ultrasonic, photo-electric).
- Weight sensors.
- Pressure sensors.
- Chemical sensors (CO2, O2, pH, etc).
- Biological sensors (bacteria, etc).
- Actuators (motors, pumps, PLCs, variable-frequency drives, relays, etc).
Libelium offers different sensors already integrated with its IoT platform Plug & Sense! With the new industrial device, the compatibility is opened to any other sensor of the market. Libelium includes a specific guide and code examples to ease the integration using the open-source API and IDE.