The term 'Internet of Things' was coined by Kevin Ashton in 1999, to refer to connecting the Internet to the physical world via sensors.
Since then, the term has been used to describe any device that interacts with the physical world around it, either by gathering data from sensors, or providing real-world interactions via actuators (devices that do something like turn on a switch or light an LED), generally connected to other devices or the Internet.
The IoT is thus an ecosystem of devices that:
1. Gather data using sensors
2. Interact using actuators 3. Connect with other devices and the Internet
2 Introduction
What are sensors?
Sensors are devices that measure a physical process and convert it to an
• Video camera • Audio signal • GPS position 3 Introduction
Example of an accelerometer:
4 Introduction
Example of an accelerometer:
5 Introduction
What are actuators?
Actuators are devices that convert an electrical signal into a real-world
interaction.
Example of actuators:
• Switches • Motors • LEDs • Relays • Buzzers • …
But there are also actuators that can receive complex signals: • Displays • Speakers • Antennas • … 6 Introduction
Example of a servomotor:
7 Introduction
IoT is more than just the devices
It also includes:
Cloud services: 1. To process the data coming from the IoT devices
2. Make decisions that are dispatched to the devices to command actuators
Need Internet connectivity
Edge devices: Can respond to the IoT data and process it without needing and Internet connection.
Example: run AI models that process the IoT device data. The AI model can be trained on the cloud on historical data, and run on the edge to speed up the processing. 8 Introduction
The IoT gateway
9 Introduction
What is an IoT gateway?
As the Internet of Things (IoT) expands, businesses find themselves faced with the challenge of integrating a multitude of devices and protocols, many with varying power and connectivity requirements. This mix may also include legacy technologies.
IoT Gateways are emerging as an essential component in building a robust IoT
and for delivering computational power in edge computing scenarios. Edge computing distributes the load on a system by performing data processing at the data source, or “edge”, rather than relying on a central server for the bulk of the work.
=> IoT gateways are usually the main edge devices in an IoT network
10 Introduction
What is an IoT gateway?
An IoT Gateway is a solution for enabling IoT communication, usually device -
to-device communications or device-to-cloud communications. The gateway is typically a hardware device housing application software that performs essential tasks. At its most basic level, the gateway facilitates the connections between different data sources and destinations.
=> Example: a gateway allows IoT devices using different connectivity
technologies (e.g., Bluetooth, Wifi, Zigbee, …) to communicate with each other as well as send data to the cloud.
A simple way to conceive of an IoT Gateway is to compare it to your home or
office network router or gateway. Such a gateway facilitates communication between your devices, maintains security and provides an admin interface where you can perform basic functions. An IoT Gateway does this and much more.
11 Introduction
Example of functions an IoT gateway can perform
• Facilitating communication with legacy or non-internet connected devices
• Data caching, buffering and streaming • Data pre-processing, cleansing, filtering and optimization • Some data aggregation • Device to Device communications/M2M • Networking features and hosting live data • Data visualization and basic data analytics via IoT Gateway applications • Short term data historian features • Security – manage user access and network security features • Device configuration management • System diagnostics
12 Introduction
Example of an IoT gateway: Amazon Alexa
13 Introduction
Your smartphone can also be an IoT gateway!
14 Introduction
Your smartphone can also be a normal IoT device!
15 Introduction
IoT MGC architecture:
A Gateway is not necessary but is very useful in many applications
Some devices can be gateways or normal IoT devices (e.g., smartphone) 16 Introduction
IoT is a fast growing technology
It is estimated that by the end of 2020, 30 billion IoT devices
were deployed and connected to the Internet.
17 Introduction
The data is the key to IoT's success
Looking to the future, it is estimated that by 2025, IoT devices will be gathering almost 80 zettabytes of data or 80 trillion gigabytes.
18 Introduction
IoT applications
19 Introduction
IoT applications
Can be classified into 4 main areas:
1. Consumer IoT
2. Commercial IoT
3. Industrial IoT
4. Infrastructure IoT
20 Introduction Consumer IoT Consumer IoT refers to IoT devices that consumers will buy and use around the home. Some of these devices are incredibly useful, such as smart speakers, smart heating systems and robotic vacuum cleaners.
Consumer IoT devices are empowering people to achieve more in their
surroundings, especially the 1 billion who have a disability. Robotic vacuum cleaners can provide clean floors to people with mobility issues who cannot vacuum themselves, voice-controlled ovens allow people with limited vision or motor control to heat their ovens with only their voice, health monitors can allow patients to monitor chronic conditions themselves with more regular and more detailed updates on their conditions.
These devices are becoming so ubiquitous that even young children are using them as part of their daily lives, for example, students doing virtual schooling during the COVID pandemic setting timers on smart home devices to track their schoolwork or alarms to remind them of upcoming class meetings. 21 => Includes Smart Home, Wearables, Connected Healthcare Introduction Commercial IoT Commercial IoT covers the use of IoT in the workplace.
In an office setting, there may be occupancy sensors and motion detectors
to manage lighting and heating to only keep the lights and heat off when not needed, reducing cost and carbon emissions. In a factory, IoT devices can monitor for safety hazards such as workers not wearing hard hats or noise that has reached dangerous levels.
In retail, IoT devices can measure the temperature of cold storage, alerting the shop owner if a fridge or freezer is outside the required temperature range, or they can monitor items on shelves to direct employees to refill produce that has been sold.
The transport industry is relying more and more on IoT to monitor vehicle locations, track on-road mileage for road user charging, track driver hours and break compliance, or notify staff when a vehicle is approaching a depot to prepare for loading or unloading. 22 => Includes Smart Retail, Connected Cars Introduction Industrial IoT Industrial IoT, or IIoT, is the use of IoT devices to control and manage machinery on a large scale. This covers a wide range of use cases, from factories to digital agriculture.
Factories use IoT devices in many different ways. Machinery can be
monitored with multiple sensors to track things like temperature, vibration and rotation speed. This data can then be monitored to allow the machine to be stopped if it goes outside of certain tolerances - it runs too hot and gets shut down for example. This data can also be gathered and analyzed over time to do predictive maintenance, where AI models will look at the data leading up to a failure, and use that to predict other failures before they happen.
23 Introduction Industrial IoT
Digital agriculture is important if the planet is to feed the growing
population, especially for the 2 billion people in 500 million households that survive on subsistence farming. Digital agriculture can range from a few single digit dollar sensors to massive commercial setups. A farmer can start by monitoring temperatures and using growing degree days to predict when a crop will be ready for harvest. They can connect soil moisture monitoring to automated watering systems to give their plants as much water as is needed, but no more to ensure their crops don't dry out without wasting water. Farmers are even taking it further and using drones, satellite data and AI to monitor crop growth, disease and soil quality over huge areas of farmland.
24 Introduction Infrastructure IoT Infrastructure IoT is monitoring and controlling the local and global infrastructure that people use every day.
Smart Cities are urban areas that use IoT devices to gather data about the city and use that to improve how the city runs. These cities are usually run with collaborations between local governments, academia and local businesses, tracking and managing things varying from transport to parking and pollution. For example, in Copenhagen, Denmark, air pollution is important to the local residents, so it is measured and the data is used to provide information on the cleanest cycling and jogging routes.
Smart power grids allow better analytics of power demand by gathering
usage data at the level of individual homes. This data can guide decisions at a country level including where to build new power stations, and at a personal level by giving users insights into how much power they are using, when they are using it, and even suggestions on how to reduce costs, such as charging electric cars at night. 25 Introduction Examples of IoT applications
26 Introduction Examples of IoT applications
27 Introduction Examples of IoT applications
28 Introduction Examples of IoT applications
29 Introduction Examples of IoT applications
30 Introduction How to create new IoT devices? The T in IoT stands for Things - devices that interact with the physical world around them either by gathering data from sensors or providing real-world interactions via actuators.
Devices for production or commercial use, such as consumer fitness
trackers, or industrial machine controllers, are usually custom-made. They use custom circuit boards, maybe even custom processors, designed to meet the needs of a particular task, whether that's being small enough to fit on a wrist, or rugged enough to work in a high temperature, high stress or high vibration factory environment.
As a developer either learning about IoT or creating a device prototype,
you'll need to start with a developer kit. These are general-purpose IoT devices designed for developers to use, often with features that you wouldn't have on a production device, such as a set of external pins to connect sensors or actuators to, hardware to support debugging, or additional resources that would add unnecessary cost when doing a large manufacturing run. 31 Introduction How to create new IoT devices?
The developer kits usually fall into 3 categories:
• Microcontrollers (MCU)
• Single-board computers
• Smartphones: a smartphone can also be considered to be a general-
purpose IoT device, with sensors and actuators built-in, with different apps using the sensors and actuators in different ways with different cloud services.
32 Introduction Microcontrollers
A microcontroller (also referred to as an MCU, short for microcontroller unit)
is a small computer consisting of:
🧠 One or more central processing units (CPUs) - the 'brain' of the
microcontroller that runs your program
💾 Memory (RAM and program memory) - where your program, data and variables are stored
🔌 Programmable input/output (I/O) connections - to talk to external
peripherals (connected devices) such as sensors and actuators
Microcontrollers are typically low cost computing devices, with average
prices for the ones used in custom hardware dropping to around US$0.50, and some devices as cheap as US$0.03. Developer kits can start as low as US$4, with costs rising as you add more features.
33 Introduction Microcontrollers
Microcontrollers are designed to be programmed to do a limited number of
very specific tasks, rather than being general-purpose computers like PCs or Macs. Except for very specific scenarios, you can't connect a monitor, keyboard and mouse and use them for general purpose tasks.
Microcontroller developer kits usually come with additional sensors and
actuators on board. Most boards will have one or more LEDs you can program, along with other devices such as standard plugs for adding more sensors or actuators using various manufacturers' ecosystems or built-in sensors (usually the most popular ones such as temperature sensors).
Some microcontrollers have built-in wireless connectivity such as
Bluetooth or WiFi or have additional microcontrollers on the board to add this connectivity.
Microcontrollers are usually programmed in C/C++.
34 Introduction Example of Microcontroller dev kits:
• The Arduino UNO:
• The NodeMCU ESP8266: has a WiFi module!
35 Introduction Single-Board Computers
A single-board computer is a small computing device that has all the
elements of a complete computer contained on a single small board. These are devices that have specifications close to a desktop or laptop PC or Mac, run a full operating system, but are small, use less power, and are substantially cheaper.
Like a microcontroller, single-board computers have a CPU, memory and
input/output pins, but they have additional features such as a graphics chip to allow you to connect monitors, audio outputs, and USB ports to connect keyboards mice and other standard USB devices like webcams or external storage. Programs are stored on SD cards or hard drives along with an operating system, instead of a memory chip built into the board.
Single-board computers are fully-featured computers, so can be
programmed in any language. IoT devices are typically programmed in Python.
=> Can be used as a gateway! 36
Introduction Example of Single-Board Computers :
• The Raspberry Pi:
• The Raspberry Pi also has a variant that can be integrated in commercial
products: the compute module
37 Introduction Production IoT device
38 Introduction Key element in production IoT devices: Energy Management
IoT devices may be deployed in hard to reach areas: example, sensors
embedded in the street
They cannot be easily charged, or their battery replaced
They need to be able to use their main energy source for a very long time 39 Introduction Key element in production IoT devices: Energy Management
Challenge: battery capacity doesn’t evolve very rapidly:
40 Introduction Energy Management solutions:
Duty cycling:
41 Introduction Energy Management solutions:
Use lower power wireless technologies:
42 Introduction Energy Management solutions:
Energy harvesting:
43 Introduction Summary
• Definition of IoT • Components of an IoT solution: o IoT device o Sensors o Actuators o IoT Gateway o IoT Edge Devices o Cloud Services • Examples of IoT applications • IoT dev kits • Key challenge for IoT devices: energy management
