Fundamental to the digital era, cable systems have become the backbone of our digital society. A broken cable in the production environment can easily destroy millions of dollars as downtime costs. It can shut down the entire production for several days or worst-case scenario it can cause harm to the health & safety people around it. Cables are backbones, up to now it has not been possible to determine the condition of the cable from just looking at it. The cables are often not accessible, integrated into vehicles, trains, production lines, machines, or even robots.
For example – if a broken cable lies submerged underwater, then it is next to impossible to detect the break, unless and until huge efforts are invested. And it may lead to serious consequences.
To eliminate common safety issues ”Leoni “ an Egyptian Wire Harness & Cable Manufacturing Company invented an intelligent cable with a very smart system. Intelligent cable becomes the entire nervous pathway of digital exchange. As a result, not only the network device become intelligent but also the network itself. This technology is called LeoniQ.
With LeoniQ, Leoni has introduced an intelligent technology platform, capable of recording and analyzing system-critical parameters throughout a broad variety of applications. Especially, it brings added value to systems and applications that heavily rely on efficient, secure, and reliable energy and data transmission, for example in robotic manufacturing, electric vehicle charging, or wind turbine monitoring.
This system consists of sensor solutions, gateway technology, cloud connectivity, digital functional simulation, as well as data analytics and multi-physical models besides other elements. These LeoniQ building blocks are combined and deployed, to provide comprehensive feedback on the state of critical components, within the energy and data transmission network of customers’ applications.
The LEONiQ hardware, software, and services stack is always tailored towards the exact needs of the customer, whether the interest lies in predictive and preventative maintenance, recommendations for future development cycles, optimized system design, etc.
LEONiQ will make energy and data streams more efficient, more secure, and more reliable. For the first time, not only the networked devices become intelligent but the network itself. It is not a product, but a solution to deliver business outcomes to customers and partners.
Based on LeoniQ, LEONI has developed a key digital technology to make cable systems safer, more reliable, and more intelligent. For example, LEONiQ Predictive Maintenance is now possible for the first time for a large number of cable systems, thereby reducing the risk of unexpected power and data transmission failures.
LEONI uses Microsoft Azure Sphere to evaluate the measurement data generated by LEONiQ. By using Azure Sphere, LEONI can bridge the gap much faster, between new digital solutions and customer applications, and increase its hardware performance while addressing security issues around data and equipment, in much more detail.
Microsoft’s Azure Sphere is a secure platform that combines three components: the Azure Sphere microcontroller (MCU), a secure operating system (Sphere OS), and a turnkey cloud security service, with which the controllers communicate. The microcontroller’s computing logic is sufficiently powerful to process LEONI’s on-site generated measurement data (i.e. “on-the-edge”) so that, in extreme cases, it is possible to directly intervene in the cable system, as well as transmit only relevant data to the cloud. To provide customers with greater convenience and transparency, data transferred to the cloud is evaluated by LEONI using its algorithms and then made accessible via dashboards. Azure Sphere’s multi-layer security concept creates additional customer confidence in LEONiQ and is an important basis for connecting security and function-relevant cable systems with the cloud.
As LEONI customers are already familiar with Microsoft solutions, no extra effort is necessary to convince them about the cloud. LEONI customers benefit from the cloud platform, by being able to work comfortably using the dashboards, without having to concern themselves with the processing of raw data from the sensors. It is simple to access the dashboards by mobile devices too.
In early-stage system development, Leoni helps customers and partners by deploying digital functional simulation, to achieve an interconnected solution design, that best matches the respective use case. If potential problems are identified during this early development stage, integration of sensor systems and electronics along the cable can provide built-in monitoring functionality. Various parameters, including temperature, leak tightness, mechanical stress, and GPS location, can be recorded on a continuous basis, analyzed in the cloud using algorithms (developed in-house by Leoni), and then made available to customers in the form of a dashboard or a piece of software, to be integrated into the customer‘s technology stack.
This offers a series of smart services including early warning systems, active system control, and precisely targeted recommendations for action – effectively offering 100% transparency across critical energy and data interconnect systems, anywhere in the world and for almost any application.
Interconnect solutions that used to be a black box are now clearly visible in a customer application cloud interface. Also, recorded data is fed – back into the digital functional simulation models.
LEONiQ does much more than just transmit – it is offering new benefits for systems and users. In real time!
Advantages:
- Electromobility: To control regular-charge cycle hazards – such as damaged cable can be detected early on. Means charging will be fast, efficient, and secure in the future.
- Mechanical stress, shielding wear & tear, short circuit, etc. can be monitored between pairs of cord inside the cables. The data generated from monitoring cable sensor systems can be transferred to the cloud, via IoT gateway. The data will be analyzed based on internally developed algorithms. The current condition of the cable can be monitored by respective applications, and the data processing and feedback can be shared, in almost real-time.
- It will be possible in the future to place a maintenance measuring system more effectively based on the current state of individual cables.
- Unexpected downtime caused by the cable in the black box can be drastically reduced in this way.
- At an early stage of defect or even before occurring, it can be possible to detect any deterioration in shielding in transmission within the system.
- It will help to avoid malfunction & downtime during production, which makes future production more efficient, safe, and economic.
