Sensor networking and interface standardization

Sensors are used in various industries, ranging from aerospace, automotive, biomedicine, building, industrial automation, manufacturing, and process control to environmental monitoring. Traditionally, sensor outputs are analog signals, which are then fed to an instrumentation system for processing and display. The incorporating of microelectronics and microprocessor technologies into sensors has enabled greater functionality such as smart and digital communication capabilities to be built into the sensors. This enables the transitioning of sensors into the digital sensor domain. Sensor networking, a technology adopted from the networking of personal computers, is becoming pervasive in all areas of the industrial world and is causing a major shift in the measurement arena. The rapid development and emergence of smart sensor and networking technologies have made the networking of smart transducers (sensors or actuators) a very economical and attractive solution for measurement and control applications, but have created some standardization issues in industry. In this talk, the evolution and state of the sensor networking technologies are discussed and the effort to bring about a set of standard interfaces to address this issue is described.