物联网即将给工业领域带来巨大机遇

据说，联网设备将改变你的家居、你的汽车、你的生活。不过至今为止，物联网在真实世界的应用仍旧受到了某些限制，至少对消费者而言是如此。当然，你已经可以给你的电灯和调温器设定程序，但物联网的大规模创新（以及挣大钱的潜力）正在商业领域悄然发生。

我们把它称作工业物联网（Industrial Internet of Things, IIOT）

科技研究公司高德纳（Gartner）预计，到2020年由互联网驱动的“物”将达到208亿件，其中有72亿件将会为企业服务。不仅如此，研究公司MarketsandMarkets称，工业物联网的投入预计将从2014年的939.9亿美元增长到2020年的1,510亿美元。

以下三大物联网产品可能将会带来颠覆性的影响。

1. 智能感应器

感应器只有一盒扑克牌大小，它们易于安装，带来的影响却将远超它们的体积。Helium感应器可以测量温度、湿度、气压、光线和运动，在不充电的情况下使用时间长达三年。医院和餐厅正用它们来保证药品和食物在合适的温度下储存。Helium的董事长罗伯•钱德霍克在接受Fast Company采访时表示：“这可以归结为一个问题：你如何获取物理世界的信息，并让你的企业从中受益？”谷歌风投（Google Ventures）最近给该公司投资2,000万美元。

Cargosense感应器能密切关注移动中的产品。除了跟踪温度、湿度、压力和光度之外，它们还能监视震动和倾斜的情况，记录货物在货板或集装箱的运送途中得到了怎样的处置。由于美国食品与药物管理局（FDA）的新规定中为运送食品的条件设立了标准，Cargosense的服务引起了食品行业许多公司的兴趣。

2. 通用电气的Predix

重点研发工业物联网，是通用电气（GE）促进销量、让公司重归业内巅峰的计划的重大组成部分。通用电气的首席执行官杰夫•伊梅尔特甚至发明了术语“工业互联网”。据The Street报道，该公司打造了一个名为Predix的软件平台，希望它“给工厂带来的革新能像苹果（Apple）的iOS给手机带来的一样”。

Predix能提供工业规模的数据、分析和自动化。风力涡轮发电厂正在使用该产品搜集温度、轴心差和震动水平的数据。通用电气在接受The Street采访时表示：“工作人员可以实时改变叶片的弯曲度或是做出其他调整，每座100兆瓦特的发电厂可以据此增加1亿美元的价值。”

据Fast Company报道，Predix还被用于火车，火车可以利用其感应器提前通报机械问题，并能通过其“巡航定速的功能，整理大量数据并进行综合分析，帮助驾驶员全程以最有效率的速度行驶火车，同时节省燃料。”

3. 人机合作机器人

Rethink Robotics表示，他们研发的制造机器人Baxter和Sawyer并不是为了完成企业的制造工作而存在的。公司的共同创始人罗德尼•布鲁克斯在接受《时代》（Time）杂志采访时表示：“购买这些机器人的公司需要完成的是人力无法完成的任务。他们会用更积极的方式使用员工，更多利用他们的聪明才智。”

Baxter和Sawyer比传统工业机器人要先进得多。它们可以通过演示来学习——工人抓着机器人的“手腕”，展示如何完成一个任务，机器人就能在几分钟内学会。与这些家伙一起工作会不会很奇怪？为了让工友们更加自在，这些机器人拥有数码“脸”，它们的眼睛会看向接下来要前往的地方，还拥有感应器。所以，它们不会无意间撞到真人。办公家具制造商Steelcase已经开始使用Sawyer机器人了，它们的起售价为3万美元。（财富中文网）

译者：严匡正

Internet-connected devices were supposed to change your home, your car, and your life. For now, though, the real-world applications for the internet of things (IoT) have been somewhat limited, at least for consumers. Sure, you can program your lights and your thermostat, but the big innovation (and the potential for big money) is happening on the business side of things.

Call it the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

Technology research company Gartner predicts there will be 20.8 billion internet-enabled “things” by 2020, and 7.2 billion of those will serve businesses. Not only that, IIoT spending is expected to grow from 2014’s $93.99 billion to $151 billion by 2020, according to research firm MarketsandMarkets.

Here are three use cases with the potential to make waves.

1. Smart sensors

Small, easy-to-install sensors, about the size of a deck of cards, could have an impact far greater than their size. Helium sensors run for three years without power and measure temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, light, and motion. They’re being used in hospitals and restaurants to help ensure both medication and food are being kept at the proper temperature. “What it boils down to is this: How do you detect information from the physical world, and bring it into your business?” Rob Chandhok, president of Helium, told Fast Company. GV, née Google Ventures, recently lead a $20 million investment round in the company.

Cargosense sensors keep tabs on products on the move. In addition to tracking temperature, humidity, pressure, and light, the sensors monitor shock and tilt and provide a historical record of how goods are handled in each pallet or container shipped. Thanks to new FDA regulations that set standards for the conditions of food during transport, Cargosense has many in the food industry interested in their services.

2. GE’s Predix

Focusing on IIoT is a big part of GE’s plan to boost sales and bring the company back to its industrial roots. GE CEO Jeff Immelt even introduced the term “Industrial Internet.” The company has built a software platform called Predix, which it hopes “will do for factories what Apple’s iOS did for cell phones,” according to The Street.

The software offers data, analytics, and automation at an industrial scale. Predix is being used on wind turbine farms gathering temperature, misalignments, and vibration levels. “Operators can change the curvature of a blade or make other alterations in real time, which can add $100 million in value to every 100-megawatt farm,” the company told The Street.

Predix is also being used on trains by using sensors to predict mechanical problems and by implementing “a type of cruise control that combs through piles of data and synthesizes them for the driver in a way that allows him to steer the locomotive to maintain the most efficient speed at all times and reduce fuel burn,” according to Fast Company.

3. Cobots

Baxter and Sawyer, the manufacturing robots created by Rethink Robotics, are not here for your manufacturing jobs, their creators swear. “Companies who are buying robots are filling in the tasks they can’t get people to stay and do,” Rethink Robotics co-founder Rodney Brooks told Time. “They’re using the people they have more positively by using their intelligence.”

Baxter and Sawyer are far more advanced than traditional industrial robots. They learn by demonstration– a worker will take the robot’s “wrist” and show it how to perform a task. And the robots learn in a matter of minutes. Think it will be weird to work alongside these guys? Well to make co-workers more comfortable, the robots have digital “faces” with eyes that focus on where it is going next and sensors, so they don’t bump into real people. Office-furniture manufacture Steelcase uses the Sawyer, which starts at about $30,000.