Using Ultrasonic Sensors in your IoT Application
Introduction
Sensors play a major role in everyday life and IoT. Sensors can monitor our health status, home security, air quality, and are widely used in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), monitoring production processes. Due to these factors, it is important to know how the components work and how we can use them to acquire data for analysis.
As a sensor designer and manufacturer, our clients rely on other components and service providers in order to develop their application. In this article, we’ll be covering the hardware and software components of IoT, including the sensors used in a few use cases.
MaxBotix Inc. develops ultrasonic sensors that are used in various use cases by thousands of engineers.
Popular applications include:
- Autonomous Navigation
- Tank Level Monitoring
- People Detection
- Waste Level Management
- Early Flood Warning Systems
- Parking Management
Our sensors have been the choice for many of our clients for over the last 17 years due to the ease of use, quality, low power requirements, and competitive pricing.
Generally, product developers are looking for a solution that can fit in their budget and perform as needed within the low power requirements of their application.
We’ve compiled a list of a few successful products that are currently available in the market, which you can review as solutions, to understand the capabilities of working with MaxBotix sensors in IoT applications. This insight is crucial for effective IoT development.
Ideal Partners
Product Developers
The most crucial phase of any project is the product development phase. This is where the development and implementation of a product roadmap that will establish requirements and system architecture for realizing your IoT product takes place. This stage involves developing the product 3D design, refining the key features of your product, validating the product features and at the end developing a prototype.
IoT Software Developers
It is inevitable that IoT software developers will play an increasingly central role in creating the next generation of connected devices. Maintaining device security is of paramount importance to all IoT software developers who rely on the ability to connect their devices. The number of devices connected to the Internet has increased by more than 100 million since last year and is expected to continue growing at this rapid pace.
IoT Hardware Developers
IoT hardware developers contribute to any project in this industry. A major challenge of IoT hardware development is that any new device or technology must be innovative as well as viable. It could be something that works with existing technology, such as Alexa, or something completely new. This kind of development takes an extended team of professionals that creates everything from the idea to the prototype to the interface design and release. Therefore, embedded IoT engineers must possess deep programming knowledge as well as a complete picture of the future product.
IoT Software Use
Software solutions are what connects these solutions to the cloud and to the hardware component in an IoT application.
By working with various application developers, we’ve been able to see in real time which cloud solutions are working well in different use cases.
Many product developers in the market, like the Ultrasonic Distance Sensor by Decent Lab, build their product to communicate over LoRaWAN, showcasing iot hardware examples in practical applications.
Designed to wirelessly connect battery powered networking devices to the internet, the LoRaWAN® standard targets key IoT requirements such as bi-directional communication, end-to-end security, mobility and localization services.
Also, there are other providers such as TankVista, which developed their own easy to use cloud solution for tank and bin level monitoring solutions.
IoT Hardware Use
Internet of Things (IoT) includes a wide range of devices such as routers and bridges. These IoT hardware components manage key tasks and functions such as system activation, security, action specifications, communication, and detection of support-specific goals and actions.
Many of our collaborators provide the routers and bridges needed to connect the software, or cloud solutions, to our sensor components, to create a fully functional IoT implementation.
Below you’ll read about our partners that developed their own hardware solution and the industries they serve.
IoT Sensor Use
An IoT sensor is a device that is capable of detecting changes in an environment. Sensors alone aren’t very useful, but when they’re integrated into an electronic system, they can offer a lot of value.
Different sensors may be used for certain solutions according to the characteristics of the target or the environment.
This section covers certain sensor solutions and their respective applications.
Currently, we specialize in ultrasonic sensors. They work by sending out high-frequency sound waves that bounce off objects in their path. The sensor then uses a microphone to pick up the echo and determine how far away the object is. As with most sensors, these devices vary in size and application. Some are built for indoor use, while others are made for outdoor use in all types of weather.
This sample size of our sensor offering will allow you to see the various use cases of our sensors in IoT applications.
IoT Case Studies
While developing your IoT application, it’s helpful to see actual use cases to verify the viability of using ultrasonic sensors for your use case.
Our sensors have been successfully deployed in thousands of applications.
Below you will find a few different examples of applications that can help you determine if ultrasonic sensors are right for your project.
Conclusion
While developing your IoT solution, it’s important that you know what problem you’re trying to solve first, then find the components to help you solve the problem.
As an ultrasonic sensor manufacturer and designer, we’ve assisted thousands of engineers discover the right sensor solution for their application.
Our sensors have successfully been deployed in many commercial and industrial use cases.
As you start to develop your IoT solution, choosing your sensors will be an integral part of your process.
We’re here to help you choose something that has already been developed, or to develop a new sensor for your application needs.
Either way, you can contact us here for help on your next steps.