Bluetooth hailed as transformative for IIoT
The unveiling of Blecon’s Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) solution at Hardware Pioneers last month in London demonstrated an ongoing shift towards embracing Bluetooth as a technology capable of transforming IoT applications. For Blecon, part of the mission is to increase the use cases utilising Bluetooth and assist companies in addressing challenges encountered in adopting this technology.
In an exclusive upcoming interview with IoT Insider at Hardware Pioneers, Simon Ford, Co-Founder of Blecon discussed the “amazing opportunity” presented by Bluetooth LE as a technology “that is known globally. People are already discovering some of the capabilities that they perhaps didn’t understand before,” he explained.
In a press release announcing the launch of the solution, the company said that the challenges companies encounter when looking to implement Bluetooth LE into their IoT connectivity applications led Blecon to be founded in response, and it looks to democratise Bluetooth LE.
Because Bluetooth LE uses less power, it is well suited to applications which require lower power consumption; like battery-powered sensors used for environmental monitoring, where the regular replacement of batteries proves costly and time-consuming.
It isn’t just Ford singing Bluetooth’s praises: Bluetooth is a technology at the forefront of tackling the challenges and requirements of operating in industrial environments, a recent white paper put out by Infineon and ABI Research revealed. The opportunity for Bluetooth is growing, with an expected growth rate of 34% between 2023 and 2028.
Increasing pressures and challenges on industrial companies including the impact of lockdowns and the war in Ukraine have led companies to invest in digitalisation, seen as a solution to improving supply chains, labour resources and increasing yields, the white paper explained in its introduction.
Because of the variety of technologies and applications encompassed by the Internet of Things – such as robotics, wearables and electric vehicle (EV) chargers – no one technology suits all. A combination of technologies spanning Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and Ultra-wideband (UWB) will play a collaborative role in transforming industrial applications.
Bluetooth’s particular advantages in industrial applications include its resilience to interference, ultra-low power consumption through Bluetooth Low Energy (LE), wide availability of low-cost chipsets and modules, ubiquitous presence in mobile and laptop devices, and more.
Industrial applications span industrial sensors; robotics and human-machine interfaces (HMIs), to name a few, but the biggest opportunity at this moment in time is RTLS and asset tracking, according to the white paper, because of its low-cost and high accuracy. Annual shipments of RTLS solutions are expected to reach more than 322 million annual shipments by 2028. The second largest market is the commercial building automation market.
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