Nanotech sensors connected to the internet are dispersed in the painting of hulls and pipes, measuring thickness and corrosion rates in real-time and practically eliminating risks of offshore operations. It’s cool, but it will take a little longer. So far, it’s only science fiction.
But if the painting nano gadget is still a dream, the use of sensors connected to the internet integrated by a software like PhDC4D is headed in the next five years. Until the beginning of the next decade, thickness or and corrosion rates will be measured all the time. Since we are talking about very large structures, human measuring will still be needed, but in a more intelligent way, focused in areas previously selected with the help of sensors.
In fact, any device with an on and off switch to the Internet (and/or to each other) will be connected, in what is called the Internet of Things (IoT). The IoT is a giant network of connected “things”, which also includes people. The relationship will be between people-people, people-things, and things-things. Intel says that by 2020 there will be over 200 billion connected devices. In 2015, there were 15 billion.
This includes everything from cellphones, coffee makers, washing machines, headphones, lamps, wearable devices and almost anything else you can think of. This also applies to components of machines, for example a jet engine of an airplane or the drill of an oil rig. It is not different with Computerized Management Maintenance Systems (CMMS).
If you want to know more, have a look at this Guide to the Internet of Things produced by Intel.
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