Sensors, Actuators, and

Smart Objects
A Sensor

• A sensor measures some physical quantity and converts that measurement

reading into a digital representation. That digital representation is typically
passed to another device for transformation into useful data that can be
consumed by intelligent devices or humans.
• sensors provide superhuman sensory capabilities
• Sensors can be readily embedded in any physical objects
• interpret their environment and make intelligent decisions
Sensor categories

• Active or passive: Sensors can be categorized based on whether

they produce an energy output and typically require an external
power supply (active) or whether they simply receive energy and
typically require no external power supply (passive).
• Invasive or non-invasive: Sensors can be categorized based on
whether a sensor is part of the environment it is measuring
(invasive) or external to it (non-invasive).
• Contact or no-contact: Sensors can be categorized based on
whether they require physical contact with what they are
measuring (contact) or not (no-contact).
Sensor categories

• Absolute or relative: Sensors can be categorized based on whether they measure

on an absolute scale (absolute) or based on a difference with a fixed or variable
reference value (relative).
• Area of application: Sensors can be categorized based on the specific industry or
vertical where they are being used.
• How sensors measure: Sensors can be categorized based on the physical
mechanism used to measure sensory input (for example, thermoelectric,
electrochemical, piezoresistive, optic, electric, fluid mechanic, photoelastic).
• What sensors measure: Sensors can be categorized based on their applications or
what physical variables they measure.
Sensor Types

what physical
phenomenon a
sensor is
Measuring`?.
Sensor Types
Sensor Types
use case - smart farming

• uses a variety of technical advances to improve the efficiency, sustainability, and

profitability of traditional farming practices
• Technical advances that users GPS and satellite aerial imagery for determining field
viability; robots for high-precision planting, harvesting, irrigation, and so on; and real-
time analytics and artificial intelligence to predict optimal crop yield, weather impacts,
and soil quality.
• most significant impacts of precision agriculture : real-time measurement of soil quality,
pH levels, salinity, toxicity levels, moisture levels for irrigation planning, nutrient levels
for fertilization planning
• sensor data can be analyzed to provide highly valuable and actionable insight to boost
productivity and crop yield.
significant accelerator for sensor
deployments is mobile phones

Image source: IOT Fundamentals: Networking technologies, protocols and use cases for Internet of Things by David Haynes et al (CiscoPress)
 trillion-sensor economy

• Many large players in

the sensor industry
have come together to
form industry consortia,
such as the TSensors
Summits
(www.tsensorssummit.o
rg), to create a strategy
and roadmap for a
trillion sensor economy.

Growth and Predictions in the Number of Sensors

Image source: IOT Fundamentals: Networking technologies, protocols and use cases for Internet of Things by David Haynes et al (CiscoPress)
 Actuators

Sensors and Actuators Interact with the Physical World

Sensors convert their

Actuators receive some
measurements (typically
type of control signal
analog) into electric
(commonly an electric
signals or digital
signal or digital
representations
command) that triggers a
that can be consumed by
physical effect, usually
an intelligent agent (a
some type of motion,
device or a human).
force, and so on.

Image source: IOT Fundamentals: Networking technologies, protocols and use cases for Internet of Things by David Haynes et al (CiscoPress)
Sensor and Actuator comparison with Humans

Image source: IOT Fundamentals: Networking technologies, protocols and use cases for Internet of Things by David Haynes et al (CiscoPress)
Actuator Categories

• Type of motion: Actuators can be classified based on the type of motion

they produce (for example, linear, rotary, one/two/three-axes).
• Power: Actuators can be classified based on their power output (for
example, high power, low power, micro power)
• Binary or continuous: Actuators can be classified based on the number
of stable-state outputs.
• Area of application: Actuators can be classified based on the specific
industry or vertical where they are used.
• Type of energy: Actuators can be classified based on their energy type.
Actuators classified based on their energy
type
Sensor Vs Actuator

• Whereas sensors provide the information, actuators provide the

action.
• Can solve everyday problems by simply elevating the data that
sensors provide to actionable insight that can be acted on by work
producing actuators.
• actuators can complement and enhance a sensor-only solution.
Example

Smart sensors used to evaluate soil quality by measuring

a variety of soil,
temperature, and
plant characteristics
Sensor can be connected with electrically or pneumatically controlled valve actuators that control
water,
pesticides,
fertilizers,
herbicides, and so on.
Intelligently triggering a high-precision actuator based on well-defined sensor readings of temperature, pH,
soil/air humidity, nutrient levels, and so on to deliver a highly optimized and custom environment-specific
solution.
Smart Objects

• the building blocks of IoT.

• transform everyday objects into a network of intelligent objects
that are able to learn from and interact with their environment in
a meaningful way
Smart Farming example

• a complete system that provides intelligent automation using the power of IOT.
• For instance, recall the smart farming sensors described previously. If a sensor
is a standalone device that simply measures the humidity of the soil, it is
interesting and useful, but it isn’t revolutionary
• If that same sensor is connected as part of an intelligent network that is able to
coordinate intelligently with actuators to trigger irrigation systems as needed
based on those sensor readings, we have something far more powerful.
• Extending that even further, imagine that the coordinated sensor/actuator set
is intelligently interconnected with other sensor/actuator sets to further
coordinate fertilization, pest control, and so on—and even communicate with
an intelligent backend to calculate crop yield potential.
Demo Project –
Sensor Driven Automatic Retractable Shade

IOT Device- Transmitter

IOT Device- Receiver and

Shade

This IOT Project done by MCA and IC Students under supervision and guidance of Dr Saurin Parikh and
Dr Jignesh Patel (IOT lab @ Nirma Uni) Project was funded by Nirma Uniersity
Terms similar to Smart Objects

• smart object despite some semantic differences, is often used

interchangeably with terms such as smart sensor, smart device,
IoT device, intelligent device, thing, smart thing, intelligent node,
intelligent thing, ubiquitous thing, and intelligent product.
Smart Object

• It has a
• Processing unit: A smart object has some type of processing unit
for acquiring data, processing and analyzing sensing information
received by the sensor(s), coordinating control signals to any
actuators, and controlling a variety of functions on the smart
object, including the communication and power systems.
• Processing unit : microcontroller is popular because of its small
form factor, flexibility, programming simplicity, ubiquity, low
power consumption, and low cost.
Components of Smart Objects

• Sensor(s) and/or actuator(s): A smart object is capable of interacting with

the physical world through sensors and actuators.
• A sensor learns and measures its environment
• An actuator is able to produce some change in the physical world.
• A smart object does not need to contain both sensors and actuators.
• A smart object can contain one or multiple sensors and/or actuators,
depending upon the application.
Components of Smart Objects

• Communication device: The communication unit is responsible for

connecting a smart object with other smart objects and the outside world
(via the network).
• Communication devices for smart objects can be either wired or wireless.
• In IoT networks smart objects are wirelessly interconnected for a number
of reasons,
• including cost,
• limited infrastructure availability, and
• ease of deployment.
Components of Smart Objects

• Smart objects are limited in power, are deployed for a very long time, and are
not easily accessible
• Power requirement:
• Smart objects have components that need to be powered.
• the most significant power consumption usually comes from the communication unit of a
smart object.
• As with the other three smart object building blocks, the power requirements also vary
greatly from application to application.
• Smart object relies on
• battery power
• power is commonly obtained from scavenger sources (solar, piezoelectric)
• infrastructure power.
Characteristics of a Smart Object

Image source: IOT Fundamentals: Networking technologies, protocols and use cases for Internet of Things by David Haynes et al (CiscoPress)
Smart Object Trends impacting IOT

• Size is decreasing:
• in reference to MEMS, there is a clear trend of ever-decreasing size.
• Some smart objects are so small they are not even visible to the naked eye.
• This reduced size makes smart objects easier to embed in everyday objects.
• Power consumption is decreasing:
• The different hardware components of a smart object continually consume
less power.
• This is especially true for sensors, many of which are completely passive.
• Some battery powered sensors last 10 or more years without battery
replacement.
Smart Object Trends impacting IOT

• Processing power is increasing:

• Processors are continually getting more powerful and smaller.
• This is a key advancement for smart objects, as they become increasingly
complex and connected.
• Communication capabilities are improving:
• wireless speeds are continually increasing, but they are also increasing in
range.
• IoT is driving the development of more and more specialized
communication protocols covering a greater diversity of use cases and
environments
Smart Object Trends impacting IOT

• Communication is being increasingly standardized:

• There is a strong push in the industry to develop open standards for IoT
communication protocols.
• In addition, there are more and more open source efforts to advance IoT.
References

• IOT Fundamentals: Networking technologies, protocols and use

cases for Internet of Things by David Haynes et al (CiscoPress)
• MARINA BARBIROLI et al, Smart Metering Wireless Networks at 169
MHz, IEEE Access, 2017, Digital Object Identifier
10.1109/ACCESS.2017.2694853
• Various blogs
• Next Capsule:
• IOT Enabling Tech and IoT levels & Deployment Templates