Smart products improve existing systems, allow for completely new products and create the basis for new business models, according to the participants of the round table. Despite this, people cannot be left forgotten, as a positive user experience is an important feature of development in all applications.
Many factors combine to turn a technical system into a Smart System. For Erich Brockard, Director of Application Central Europe at EBV, the distribution of intelligence in a Smart System is decisive. Each component in the system is then able to make decisions to a certain extent. For Björn Peters, another core issue is converting these decisions into an action: “My definition of a Smart System is based on intelligent, self-controlled processes,” says the director of the M2M/IOT segment at exceet Secure Solutions AG. “This also involves the automated and secure communication between different systems, including from different operators.”
Intelligence versus smartness
The definition of the term intelligence is not entirely agreed upon. Guido Stephan, Director of the Networks and Communication technology field at Siemens, differentiates in his definition of Smart Systems between intelligence and smartness: “Humans are an example of intelligent beings. Smart Systems, by contrast, are able to recognise contexts, operate within these and react flexibly to different requirements.” For him, this sensitivity to context involves the systems reacting in a way that goes beyond normal expectations. Alongside the self-controlled, autonomous behaviour and the sensitivity to context, Prof. Elisabeth André adds the ability to plan and to react to unknown situations as a feature of Smart Systems. This also means that the function adapts to the requirements, or changes over the life cycle of the product.
By combining these features, Smart Systems bring a wide range of benefits in all kinds of sectors. In industry, the main advantage is in the optimisation of production and logistics processes. Machines can be serviced when the Smart System indicates a need for this, for example, rather than in set intervals. “The smartness here comes from combining the incoming sensor data from the machine with the knowledge of the respective processes and industry together with the knowledge of how a system works internally” explains Stephan. “This allows us to predict when a system failure will occur.” The interaction between people and machines will also change, according to Erich Brockard: “Smart Systems with additional redundancy can be so secure that a robot can interact directly with a person, for example, without the need for protective grilles separating them.”
A world of new solutions
The focus here is not only on improving existing products, but also on creating entirely new solutions. This starts with the smart grid, which makes it possible to feed renewable energies into the existing grid structures. Erich Brockard gives another example, explaining how a car maker in the USA enables the rain sensors in its vehicles windscreen wipers to tweet. They indicate when they switch on. “By recording data on where several rain sensors react at the same time, it can create a very effective local weather map,” says Brockard. “Who would have thought a few years ago that we would have tweeting rain sensors?”
Innovative business models
“We are also seeing businesses wanting to use Smart Systems to create entirely new business models,” adds Björn Peters. Among other things, his division develops M2M gateways for connected products in the production industry. “Companies who have previously been purely in the business of selling products now want to use mechatronic systems to make money through services.” In the consumer sector too, the round table participants see real uses for Smart Systems. “In the consumer sector, there is this element of having a gadget to play with,” explains Prof. André. “But they also make life easier. If you want to save energy in your home, for example, that is easier to achieve with Smart Systems. These technologies are also very important in the healthcare sector, as they allow people to live in their own home for longer, with greater control and independence.” As examples, Prof. André points to systems that detect when someone has a fall in their home, or solutions that remind elderly people to take their medication.
Technical developments as an enabler
“There is a demand for smart products,” emphasises Björn Peters. “And technological advance is providing the solutions.” He sees the sensors, miniaturising electronic components and increasing computing power as important enablers for Smart Systems. “The processors, and therefore the chips, are not just getting smaller, but cheaper too,” says Brockard. “In addition, you can integrate ever more functionality on a single chip, such as communication modules. This means that a chip can exchange much more information itself.” He is sure that this trend will continue.
Tailored communication
Future Smart Systems are fully capable of using existing infrastructure. But Guido Stephan also expects completely new functions in the wireless and mobile communications sectors: “Here, it’s not just a matter of bandwidth and the highest possible transmission rates. Another important aspect will be how to handle a high number of applications that only rarely send small data volumes, but which create high traffic simply through their combined mass.” Björn Peters can imagine here that communication between Smart Systems may not even need the most modern standards like LTE or 5G. “It depends what you want to transfer. While end consumers only want to use standards like 4G, 5G or LTE, machine communication can, in certain circumstances, also use an older standard like 2G or 3G. This may result in less strain on these networks than the more modern, high-performance networks.” In the future, the systems will be able to find the right network or, even better, the right communications channel. “There is also a lot of research currently in the area of software defined networks and network function virtualisation,” says Stephan. “The focus here is on decoupling the function of the network from its implementation. Not only does that allow for new technologies, but it also enables us to better use existing networks today.”
From big data to function profiles
The Siemens expert emphasises that Smart Systems are not simply a matter of hardware: “Smart Systems only arise through the interaction between hardware and software.” He points to big data, also known as smart data, as an important software trend. “This involves the data flows being viewed in a certain context and linked, either algorithmically or explicitly, with knowledge on how a system works. This then gives you the relevant insights.” But Stephan expects that in future, it will not only be pure data that will be important: “If you are able to view things in their context and gain insights as a result, then that can also be mapped in a functional profile. The question then ceases to be what data is and what it means. Instead, a component will use this function profile to tell us what it can do.”
The right amount of security
Any discussion about data and communication quickly turns to the issue of data security and data protection. This was no exception at our TQ round table. “Communication is the only possible way to produce Smart Systems”, says Erich Brockard. “But it is important that the data goes to the right address and is only read by the person it is intended for. That will be one of the biggest challenges.” Björn Peters also sees the issue of security as an important element; a cornerstone of Smart Systems. But that does not mean using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, as he says. His company has developed a methodology for determining the security requirement and carrying out a risk analysis. “We have customers who see this kind of security assessment as a required standard, just like an EMC test for example, even in the pre-development stage.”
No Smart Systems without secure identity
Secure identities are an important element of any security solution, as they ensure that a system really is what it claims to be. One thing that can help here is a suitable system design, as Guido Stephan explains. This allows all machines in the same factory hall to communicate freely with each other, for example. For communicating outside the hall, however, the system design ensures that only certain information may cross this threshold, and only for certain users. “This creates what are known as trusted ecosystems,” explains Björn Peters. “These are communication areas where new participants can be accepted, provided that they have been given a unique identity.” This requires not only an elaborate solution design, but also a type of whitelist that contains guaranteed secured devices of subsystems. “Current systems cannot solve this smartly,” says Guido Stephan. “The participants that are allowed access are simply defined at the start.” He stresses however that this need not be a disadvantage, as this implies a high level of security. “Looking into the future, though, we have to ask ourselves how the level of security can be maintained whilst also achieving a certain smartness. This will be impossible without identities and certain system paradigms.” This is why product design must take into account right from the start that the product will be connected with other systems or with the internet. “We simply have to prepare for the fact that more and more devices will communicate with each other and that data can be hacked if it is not sufficiently protected,” says Brockard. But this is no cause for hysteria, as is often the case in Germany, says Prof. Elisabeth André: “People in Germany often block new developments, only to then eventually accept technology from the USA, instead of thinking about how to design a product that corresponds with our values and our security needs.”
Soft factors are decisive for acceptance
But it’s not just security that has to be considered from the start. The user should also be involved in the development of Smart Systems. “This is especially important in the smart home sector,” says Prof. André. This is because the people who use the systems are usually laymen with no particular affinity to technology. “The users must be able to understand the behaviour of a system – it must be plausible to them.” This also includes a system explaining itself or giving feedback in certain situations, says the expert for human-machine interaction. Guido Stephan gives an example of this. He has installed a heating system at home that learns over time on which days he will probably go to the bathroom and heats the water accordingly. This makes sense, as long as he sticks to his normal daily routine. If he deviates from this, however, he has to wait for hot water. “I wish that the system would ask me in the evening whether it should heat as normal the next day,” says Stephan. “That’s because I think smartness also means that the system informs me what it will do in a certain context.” This leads to a positive user experience: “These ‘soft factors’ are so important,” says Prof. André. “Ideally, a smart product will contribute to greater well-being.” In some applications, this can go so far in some circumstances that the machines imitate human characteristics. Social robotics is an example of this, where the robots will accompany an elderly person in their day-to-day lives. “This actually imitates emotional behaviour,” reports Prof. Elisabeth André. “Whether that is really required in production machinery, however, is a different issue. Some experts believe that people often make better decisions based on their gut feeling. Simulating emotional behaviour through machines could have a similarly positive effect. What is important is that we know when imitating emotions in technical systems is beneficial and when it is not.”
Even if this kind of “emotional intelligence” is not required in the majority of Smart Systems, the issue of human-machine interaction will be at the core of future developments, according to Guido Stephan: “The question of how to use human senses for technical interaction with systems will play a key role in the future. And this future is not far off.”