Blog: Accelerate your digitization projects with netFIELD

Industry 4.0 and the digitization of factories represents a change in the organization and control options of the entire value chain and, in particular, of production. According to Daniel Stasiak, this is breathing new life into the market. Many users have questions about the best way forward: How should managers approach a digitization project and how do they get the data they need to solve a particular problem? How does someone make a system that has been running for years even more efficient, since a whole new build is simply not an option?

Many prototypes and pilot projects ultimately fail due to their implementation into serial production. There are different reasons for this. The scaling costs for digitization projects must be kept in mind. Development work in particular is often costly.

For D. Stasiak’s, the approach is an important aspect to consider in how to successfully implement digitization projects. In his opinion, the best approach can be worked out quite well in workshops. Participants learn about IoT concepts in a practical way using Hilscher’s netFIELD operating system and the netFIELD.io cloud platform. These include data collection, inter-container messaging, cloud communication, and deployment mechanisms. Under the guidance of the experts from Hilscher, workshop participants get the opportunity to put the skills they’ve learned into practice using the netFIELD Compact X8M gateway and the netFIELD.io platform. D. Stasiak emphasizes the high scalability of the Hilscher solution: “From start-ups to highly specialized engineering offices to international corporations, everyone can benefit from it.”

Sensor data can be collected from IP67 IO-Link master devices from Hilscher, for example. “These IO-Link edge devices feature our multiprotocol netX 90 SoC for easy connection of fieldbus and Industrial Ethernet signals, an ARM processor and a Linux-based OS,” he adds.

“With the Hilscher toolbox, sensor data is moved to the cloud via MQTT,” he continues. “We enable seamless communication from the sensor to the cloud, and in both directions.” He adds: “The workshop participants can take their own data on their edge devices and then deploy their own applications worldwide.” This Linux hardware is typically based on Raspberry Pi 4.

Last but not least, device management is a central aspect to consider for the success or failure of Industry 4.0 projects. “The netFIELD OS enables local device management,” explains D. Stasiak. “Our operating system based on Linux-Yocto is industry-proven and meets high security requirements.” Remote device management is implemented with netFIELD.io.

According to the Hilscher expert, the entire administration for Docker, network, bridges, firewalls and additional features is easy to manage due to the powerful UI: “You don’t have to be a Linux expert. It enables fast time-to-market. The software already has 20 years of development work in it.” The goal is to enable the software to be installed on any hardware platform based on X86 or ARM.