International, open membership, not-for-profit technology standards consortium, the Object Management Group (OMG) has issued a Simple Electronic Notation for Sensor Reporting SENSR RFP, which seeks proposals for a vendor-independent metamodel for data generated by hardware sensors. Currently, manufacturers of hardware sensors that generate data rely on data sheets to describe the sensor-supplied data. Each manufacturer has defined its own data sheet format.
PDF files are downloaded from a manufacturer’s website, and then manually read and understood by an end user, who implements that information into a piece of software to read the sensor data. Errors and ambiguities can occur in these situations. Members of the Industrial Internet Consortium® (IIC™) Track & Trace Testbed, whose work focused on tracking and tracing IIoT assets, such as sensors, found there was a demand to standardize the way sensor data is interpreted into a reader.
The testbed team, led by Bosch with IIC member participants Cisco and SAP SE, identified this area that can benefit from standardization and have submitted the SENSR RFP to begin the process under the auspices of OMG. According to Chairman and CEO Dr. Richard Soley, “IIC testbeds generate requirements for future technology standards and to drive multi-vendor interoperability. Today’s announcement marks the first time a new standard has been based on IIC testbed requirements, so that sensor vendors can work together to improve data sharing from IIoT sensors.”
Both members and non-members of OMG can participate in the process by submitting a Letter of Intent by March 18, 2019. To become a submitter, individually or as part of a submission team, companies must become members of OMG by the initial submission deadline of May 20, 2019. For brighter illuminations, visit he Object Management Group.