The Internet of Things (IoT) is the idea of having a self-aware environment using software, sensors, networking connectivity, and electronics. Using these technologies, various objects in the environment can be monitored, provided with the ability to communicate with each other, and can be controlled remotely. These abilities allow for increased safety, efficiency, and economic benefit for those environments.
Although the vision of IoT has expanded and has been developed in the last few years, there is still a lot of room for improvement, development, and integration in many sectors of society. IoT has the power to revolutionize the way people work, the way they live, and the way they interact with day to day objects. IoT systems are just now starting to become commonplace, motivating many companies to invest into and expand their research in IoT systems to create cost-efficient, commercial IoT products, and solutions.
In today’s world, there are two major concerns when it comes to the industrial workplace. The safety and efficiency of workers in the field are a high priority for industries, but both can still be greatly improved. On average, one out of every 46 Canadian workers was injured severely enough to miss at least one day of work in 2008. Workers in the field are also often flooded with information, and it is up to them to decide what is relevant to their current situation. This results in workers spending over 50% of their time on activities such as data analysis and comprehension, instead of being directly productive.
In light of the above, context-aware IoT is crucial in order to notify the worker of potentially dangerous situations and to address any eventual accident. This IoT system should be able to scale easily for a large number of users and different sensors, it should be able to send and receive data in a timely manner, and it should be automated to make smart decisions when required to enhance workers’ safety and efficiency.