Trustworthy sensor data service

From multinational manufacturing firms to small and midsized enterprises to startups, many industries use sensors and sensor data to improve daily operations. Sensor data should ideally save your business at least hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue by improving your operational safety, productivity, and product quality.

But for this to be the reality, your sensor data should be trustworthy. Only accurate sensor data can ensure that your make the right decisions. TÜV SÜD’s run-time sensor network verification system can help you gain confidence in your data’s accuracy.

Despite their usefulness and convenience, sensor data still presents a myriad of challenges to its users. Sensors that show misconfigured or inconsistent data could lead to unplanned downtime and revenue loss. 

This could be fixed with the addition of built-in redundancies to mitigate the risk of a single sensor failure. An example of such a redundancy could be a secondary sensor to monitor a primary sensor for the same critical process parameter. However, such a move does not scale to the complexity and dynamic nature of today’s sensor networks and tends to be costly to maintain and implement in the long run. 

A trustworthy sensor data service from a reliable third-party such as TÜV SÜD can help you overcome these challenges.

TÜV SÜD’s trustworthy sensor data-as-a-service is committed to help your organisation be cost-efficient in running sensor networks while also ensuring that your sensors are properly working within your system. We ensure efficiency, transparency, and consistency.

Whether it’s robotics, AGVs, Internet of Things (IoT), Building Management System (BMS), or other smart systems, we’ll keep your sensors properly calibrated and ensure high-fidelity sensor data for your operational safety and process reliability.

Moreover, you can review the comprehensive reports and real-time notifications about the system’s health that we will send consistently.

Our sensor data services comprise the following:

Runtime verification – Evaluating sensor data efficiently

We perform verifications of sensor readings and system working states at run time, while also generating trustworthiness scores for each sensor data stream for easier visualisation and prediction of possible system-level impact.;

Transparent – Complying with existing systems and industry standards

We ensure transparency that will not disrupt operations but instead work in parallel to your organisation’s system or IoT platform. This service also guarantees that sensor readings are streamed through credible industrial protocols like OPC-UA and Modbus.

Real-time notification – Providing real-time updates consistently

We provide real-time notifications to keep you abreast of new sensor network updates. You can access these notifications through various configurable channels including email, SMS, and mobile app service.

Here are two case studies of our trustworthy sensor data-as-a-service in action. In both cases, TÜV SÜD provided a solution that was both flexible and scalable according to regulatory requirements and the clients’ needs now and in the future. 

Digital greenfield facility for a global pharma manufacturer

We worked with a global pharma manufacturer to establish a digital greenfield facility. The company needed sensor data to meet their target quality and productivity levels, to submit regulation-required reports, and to smoothly run their advanced manufacturing process monitoring and control tools.

However, such requirements called for the sensors’ frequent calibration and maintenance, resulting in high costs. But if they cut back on expenses, their systems would be at risk of inaccurate and unreliable sensor data.

TÜV SÜD provided a solution with a trustworthy sensor network framework. We conducted a thorough risk assessment of their existing system, recommended redundant and soft sensors, and installed a new software system that calculated a quantitative confidence score for each sensor reading at run-time.

Green buildings in Singapore

In a project with the Singapore government to green the country’s buildings, there was a need to focus on energy efficiency but also maintain indoor air quality. To control ventilation and energy consumed, buildings installed demand-controlled ventilation systems. This relies heavily on the accuracy and reliability of the CO2 sensors deployed within the building.

To ensure the accuracy of CO2 sensors, TÜV SÜD developed a software system that calculated the sensor data’s reliability remotely and autonomously, isolated faulty sensors, provided timely updates on calibration needs, and provided ‘corrected’ data till the next sensor calibration is scheduled.