Imagine getting an email, text or Facebook message notifying you that you have been tagged in a Facebook post by the packaging line that will be holding an event next Saturday called “Control electric axes for excessive waste.” The message also notes that the compressor room identifying “preventive lubrication” and the oven identifying “thermoregulation check” will join the packaging line event. At the end of the message is a question asking: Will you participate?
科幻小说？还是您应该期望在未来几个月内获得的信息类型？
This type of interconnectedness between machines, systems, and people is what the Internet of Things (IoT) is all about. And along with Big Data and the Cloud, IoT is among the so-called megatrends that are on everyone's lips. As often happens in these cases, people love to talk about such trends because they are synonymous with competence.
不幸的是，讨论的许多“事物”被不当归类为“物联网”。我听说过几位会议发言人在讨论诸如FieldBus传感器诸如通信端口和设备之类的事情，以支持串行通信协议为theInternet of Things. But that's like saying an enterprise storage server is a cloud solution.
Let's start with the basic technology that is at the core of the Internet of Things, namely the Internet. The Internet has features that set it apart from all other forms of communication. By definition, the Internet is a set of interconnected communications networks—without central governance—that connects globally distributed computers and devices. It is the Internet’s vastness of interconnections and lack of governance that differentiates it from any other individual network. So when we talk about Internet of Things, especially in an area such as manufacturing that needs to be more conservative and controlled, we have to keep in mind how different IoT and the Internet are unless we want to lose the real innovation potential behind IoT.
The Internet of Things can introduce a deep revolution in the organization and management of a manufacturing environment. Consider that, with IoT, different devices linked together in different networks and fields can communicate and transfer information among themselves and interact with their users. All this can give rise to highly innovative behavior that, a short time ago, was hardly imaginable. This concept is further amplified if you consider the social component of IoT. Think of a network of devices that can interact not only with each other, but also on the social network of an operator, engineer or manager.
This is already happening with some consumer devices, e.g., lamps capable of communicating with each other and reacting to social network signals, such as changing color or lighting levels in response to a tweet with a specific hashtag. Such capabilities can easily be extended to industrial devices.
越多的运营商参与社交网络，更自然的甚至必要的是，设备或系统能够在同一网络上与他们进行通信。设计一个系统在任何网络上创建消息的系统并不难，该网络需要运行信号达到特定值或发生特定条件时需要操作员干预。在不同的网络上运行的不同设备也可以同时收到此消息，这将有助于通过照明的更改，机器的HMI屏幕上的报告，发送到发送到运算符的注意力，这是发送到机器HMI屏幕上的报告手表或Google Glass。
What I want to stress here is that the Internet of Things can be a true revolution for industry, but should not be confused with our common industrial networks that are increasingly evolvable, but not revolutionary in and of themselves.
路易吉·德·伯纳迪尼（Luigi de Bernardini）是自动保健的首席执行官Vicenza, Italy. Autoware is控制系统集成商协会的认证成员。有关自动保健的更多信息，请访问www.autoware.it.For more information about CSIA, visitwww.controlsys.org.
