Industrial IoT and SentientQ

Hello. My name is Ian Verhappen, Solutions Architect at Willowglen Systems. I am an active member of the IIoT community, both contributing to trade journals and to the ISO JTC1 SC41 standard.

Willowglen’s SentientQ has re-defined the control and monitoring of mission-critical infrastructure and IIoT systems.

Today’s SCADA systems monitor and control the field based on traditional, costly and single data point sensors. However, with the introduction of IIoT and sensors capable of generating multiple parameters, monitoring and control will now inherently involve managing enormous amounts of data.

Mission-critical infrastructure requires the collection, processing, storage and analysis of this data from multiple sources, in order to power data-driven, real-time decision making.

Enabling organizations to extract value from such vast quantities of data in a scalable, performant and efficient manner is what the promise of IIoT is all about.

Traditional control systems have a number of disadvantages.

Firstly, they are not able to make the required connections or manage the associated data at rates that IoT devices generate.

In addition, the data collected by traditional SCADA deployments is selected for control objectives and may not have all the information needed for analysis, overall optimization, or asset management / utilization objectives. For example, to reduce the energy consumption on a pipeline, real-time analysis could be used to constantly adjust pump or compressor operation.

Lastly, traditional SCADA data can only indicate if the pump is on or off – not how much power it is using. This occurs because the total installed cost of adding a new sensor to a SCADA system can be prohibitive, even though the cost of a sensor that directly measures power is insignificant!

In contrast to traditional SCADA systems, SentientQ prepares you for the future, and new current reality, of IIoT.

The IIoT enabled SentientQ platform makes adding new devices and data points easier than adding new devices to your home WIFI network. Like your home WIFI network, SentientQ is designed to easily manage devices while securely collecting data for all applications, not just SCADA.

SentientQ infrastructure collects and manages data from legacy infrastructure that SCADA systems have been managing for decades, the new world of “smart devices” and other IIoT enabled devices in a single secure ecosystem.

SentientQ Unisen Edge provides all of the functionalities of traditional RTUs and PLCs as well as the power of IoT in a fully configurable edge device supporting field-level computations and application support.

Unisen Edge integrates SentientQ’s zero-trust architecture and active threat assessment, allowing safe adoption of low-cost sensors.

SentientQ leverages the power of IIoT to deliver disruptive improvements in operational efficiency, environmental stewardship, capital asset utilization, system reliability, and safety.

To learn more about SentientQ and IIoT please visit our website.