Current And Future Wireless And Energy Autonomous Sensing In Industrial Applications (Energy Harvesting and Storage Europe 2016)

Wireles industrial temperature and pressure sensing is now well-established in the process industry, with numerous suppliers for battery-powered instruments. ABB also offers energy-autonomous temperature transmitters that are powered directly from the temperature difference between process and ambient.

We explore possible next steps in energy autonomous wireless industrial sensing: Process industry sensors with higher power consumption require advanced harvesting techniques to become wireless. In contrast, possible sensors for condition monitoring and IoT applications may need less power, but the power supply must be low-cost and very compact.

All of these future devices have in common that they, like present devices, need to be integrated into existing industrial control systems to benefit from the data they provide.

Dr. Kai König is employed as a scientist at the ABB Corporate Research Center in Ladenburg, Germany. His current research topics include industrial sensors, energy harvesting, and autonomous process devices. He studied physics, microelectronics and biology in Heidelberg, and received his PhD in 2011 from the German Cancer Research Center and the University of Heidelberg for his work on microparticle-based peptide array synthesis on CMOS chips.

ABB www.abb.com  is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility, industry, and transport and infrastructure customers to improve their performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in roughly 100 countries and employs about 140,000 people..