M2M is coming of age

M2M technology has reached into many aspects of our lives and is continuing to expand into areas that a few years ago would have been thought regions of science fiction.

Several factors have contributed to its wide acceptance. Two of them, electronics and the widespread use of wireless networks and the declining workforce in manufacturing and shortage of labour in other areas, have forced M2M technology into an early maturity.

On the electronics side, components in general and programmable devices in particular have fallen dramatically in price as their capabilities and complexity have gone up. Couple this with greater miniaturisation and the lower power demands of today’s components and there is a technology that is within the grasp of all but the smallest organisations.

And there is the bonus that M2M systems don’t want holidays, never go sick, don’t ask for pay rises but keep working 24 hours a day with little human intervention that in itself reduces the likelihood of man-made human error.

Wireless systems such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are already familiar to many of us. M2M is an extension of this technology that promises to revolutionise manufacturing, medicine and process control among others.

The technology allows networked machines to exchange information and perform actions without human intervention. This has enabled applications to expand across a wide range of fixed and/or mobile devices, including transport, water and energy smart meters, HVAC, smart homes, military, environmental monitoring, home medical devices and robotic equipment.

Physical conditions that can be monitored include temperature, fluid leaks, energy spikes, location, consumption, heart rate, stress levels, oxygen levels, light, movement, altitude, speed and many more.

Wireless carriers have partnered with service delivery platform providers to make their networks more accessible to M2M applications. Globally connected solutions can be created using wireless communications technologies such as GSM, CDMA and satellite connections. Some of these connections occur over a relatively short range, some over many kilometres.

When looking at the advantages and disadvantages of wireless M2M applications, it is important to consider how the design factors of the data link can play a most important role in terms of real-time guarantees, energy efficiency, scalability, throughput, latency and reliability. Such varied design implications have dramatically increased the complexity of finding the ideal balanced and cost-effective solution across the wide range of diverse applications.

In the past, the effective polling, monitoring, storing and fusing of vast amounts of data coming from hundreds and sometimes thousands of network devices have been challenging. Now, with smarter devices, software and more reliable networks, new M2M applications are possible and reliable. The widespread availability and decreasing cost of wireless communication is making M2M applications more cost-effective to implement. Two examples that illustrate the practical use of M2M technology are healthcare and mining.

Healthcare applications

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, one in three Australians is over the age of 50. By 2050 it is estimated that at least 44% of the population, or over 14 million people, will be aged 50-plus.

One of the problems caused by an ageing population is that it places big strains on the existing health systems as these people are more prone to illness and injuries. Smart technologies can help provide a solution that will eventually reduce doctors’ visits and hospital admissions.

The Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) estimates that home-based, self-management interventions can improve patient outcomes, halve hospital admissions and reduce doctor visits by 40%.

Certain patients can use radio-based monitors that can be used to measure their temperature, heart rate and blood oxygen level while the patient remains in their home during treatment. This information is then fed back to the medical station/hospital for monitoring.

Bioelectronics melds biology and electronics to design and build the likes of ECG machines and 3D CT scanning equipment. Linking gerontology with smart technologies can make a substantial contribution to meeting the economic and social challenges posed by changing demographics.

Dr Alistair McEwan from the University of Sydney’s School of Electrical and Information Engineering is an expert in bioelectronics and says the bioelectronics degree at the university will train engineers to help drive down the skyrocketing health costs associated with growing numbers of elderly patients.

In an article featured on the What’s New in Electronics website, he said he believes wired and wireless technology can help diagnose, monitor and manage patients, with instruments connected via telephone, web-based services and databases.

It is crucial for M2M systems used in healthcare applications to be accurate and up to the minute. Patient information must always be available for every piece of equipment, from digital thermometers to life-support machines, and networked and associated with a patient ID.

The devices and the network need to be ‘intelligent’ and ‘real time’ so the M2M systems must embed device intelligence and software support within a reliable network. Eliminating the need for human intervention for network and device support and keeping the patient out of hospital have the potential to save huge costs for the community.

Mining applications

Mining at the traditional ‘coalface’ is where many of the worst accidents happen and mining remains one of the most dangerous occupations. Automating mining using robotic equipment networked to remote monitoring centres and moving people out of danger zones could provide huge benefits to the improvement in human health, safety and productivity in the industry.

For over 16 years, Rio Tinto has been working on what it calls ‘the mine of the future’. Just this year, the company rolled out a fleet of 150 automated trucks at its Pilbara iron ore operations in what it claims is the world’s first major deployment of an autonomous truck fleet.

The trucks are controlled from its Operations Centre in Perth, 1500 km away. Following predefined courses, the trucks use GPS to navigate from loading units to dump locations.

The trucks were trialled at Rio Tinto’s West Angelas iron ore mine near Newman and can take themselves to refuelling stations when they need a refill. The trial used five autonomous trucks fitted with radars, lasers, communication antennas and high-precision GPS and travelled 570,000 km in over 897 days of operation.

The vehicles are fed data about the location, speed and direction of all manned and unmanned vehicles in the pit and can adjust speed based on that information. The trucks travel along defined GPS courses that identify haul roads, intersections and mine locations, such as loading areas, stockpiles and crushers.

According to reports, the company is also working with machine manufacturers to create next-generation tunnelling machines to replace traditional human-driven drilling and blasting equipment.

The automated systems would mean less waste as efficiency improvements would result in reduced need for energy and consumables, but the labour shortage is also cited as a reason for the move. Greater safety and lower costs would also follow the shift from human to machine labour.

These two examples are just the tip of the iceberg. Networked technology will undoubtedly spread into many other areas in the next few years, limited only by imagination and cost.