Three Main Themes in the Industrial Internet of Things
As we are at the very first stage of this revolution, the biggest challenge we face is that the lack
of experience in how to build collaborative autonomous systems that are not only functional in
operation but are also secure, safe and resilient. We expect a hastening pace in advanced
research and development in both technologies and frameworks in comprehensive physical
modeling, Machine Learning, Cogitative Computing and Artificial Intelligence to meet this great
challenge. Technology advances in autonomous vehicles and other robotic systems have taken
great strides in this direction and what we learn in these areas will be of great value as we move
forward in other industrial areas.
Another key challenge is the long lifecycle of the industrial assets that last for decades during
which the cyber (computational) portion of the assets would likely evolve several generations
while its physical counterpart may remain relatively stable. Therefore, as we build new smart
assets (cyber-physical systems - CPS) or retrofit existing brown-field assets, we need to strive to
design CPSs with cyber components (computational hardware and software) not only seamlessly
integrated with their physical counterparts but at the same time ‘pluggable,’ allowing them to be
upgraded over time at a pace different from that of their physical counterparts.
The idea of distributing complexity and problem solving (involving decision-making) is one of the
many topics getting strong interest and attention within the IIC Technology Working Group. For
example, the topic of distributed analytics is under active discussion by the Industrial Analytics
Task Group. The topic of how to advance from integrability, to interoperability and finally to
composability is being explored. Dynamic Composition and Automated Interoperability, a
chapter in the recently published IIRA, outlines the concept of an agent-based design allowing
clear abstraction of models, capabilities and controls from the details of implementation and
infrastructure complexity, and then providing real-time binding between them. These topics will
be developed further within the IIC to address some of the challenges we are facing in this area.
5.
SUMMARY
To conclude this article, we outline Smart Maintenance and Operations, Global Optimization and
Local Autonomy as the three main themes in Industrial Internet system implementations.
Although with different focuses and emphases, all these themes aim to realize greater values
through achieving operational efficiency while enhancing safety and resilience. A given IIoT
deployment may emphasize some of these themes or some combination of them; it may even
evolve through them in a different order. As with any attempt to abstract systems with great
complexity and diversity, the analysis of these themes inevitably over-simplifies some aspects or
omits some others in specific systems. Nevertheless, they may still be useful as a starting
reference to evaluate specific IIoT deployments, to understand its values and objectives and to
anticipate its potential challenges. To have a clear understanding of these values is of foremost
importance since after all, it is the business values in IIoT systems that drive their development.
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December 2015