Sensors and Actuators in IoT

Sensor:
The sensors in an IoT device are actual small physical devices that convert one energy
into another.
For example, a light sensor in your ambient light system checks the brightness nearby
by turning the light into an electrical signal, the signal is then used by an actuator to
increase or decrease the brightness of your ambient light system.
Actuator:
The actuator it works opposite to the sensor. It takes the electrical signal and converts it
into certain physical actions. The actuator is what physically changes the lights into
some other brightness or another color. Other places where the actuator is used are car
airbags and hydraulic systems.

What Connects Sensors and Actuators in IoT Device

In a smart IoT system, The sensor collects data and sends it to the control center. The
control center processes the data depending on what they are programmed to do and
then it commands the actuators to perform certain tasks. Basically, if the sensor is the
brain and the actuator is the limb that performs the tasks.
Difference between Sensors and Actuators in IoT Device
 Change In Energies– The first difference between sensors and actuators in the
principle they follow. Actuators measure heat or motion energy and perform a
physical task. Sensors pass them the energy depending on the environmental
conditions that they collect with the help of an electrical signal.
 Collection Place– The second difference between sensors and actuators in Iot is
sensor track the output from the environment where as actuator track the output from
the control center.
Types of Sensors in IoT
1. Temperature sensor
manufacturing plants, warehouses, weather reporting systems, and agriculture use
temperature sensors it’s by far the most common sensor for checking the thermal
condition of the environment.
 Thermistor– Its a type of resistor, whose resistance varies depending on the
temperature. Thermistors are widely used as sensors in electronics for preventing
excessive current increase. They measure the temperature depending on the
resistance.
 Resistance temperature detectors– They depend also on the resistance for the
reading but instead of the resistance itself, it depends on the rate of the change in
resistance.
 Thermocouples– Eletric-Current travells from high voltage to low voltage.
Similarly every eletric circuit consists 2 conductors. This sensor measures the
temperature by measuring the voltage diffrence between those 2 conductors.
2. Moisture Sensor
Apparently, Moisture Sensors may look like they are only used in Weather stations but
they are also used in agriculture, environment monitoring, food supply chain, HVAC,
and health monitoring.
 Hair tension moisture sensor– This is the simplest and one of the oldest kind of
sensors it uses a hair or synthetic fiber pointing to a scale that changes its length
depending on the humidity.
 Psychrometer– It consists 2 thermometers one is attached to a wet bulb another one
is dry. The more humid the environment the less temperature the wet thermometer
will show.
3. Light Sensor
Smart T.V.s, smartphones, and tablets use this sensor to modify its brightness
depending on ambient light. Its also used in smart city street lights that change the
brightness depending on the ambient light for better economy from electricity.
 Photoresistor– It depends on photo-sensitive elements which have a variable
resistance depending on the radiation. If the sensor understands the ambient it dark it
sends information to the connected actuator to turn on or brighten the light.
 Photodiode– When photon touches this photodiode they absorbe from here the
electrons gets transferred in the connection. its basically used in industrial
automation.
4. Motion Sensor
Motion sensors are mostly used in security systems but they are also used in smart
cameras and automation devices.
 Active, ultrasonic motion sensor– It sends ultrasonic waves and receives when it
returns like a bat uses ultrasonic sounds to see at night.
 Active, radar sensor– Works similarly to the previous one but uses electromagnetic
waves.
 Passive, infrared motion sensor– It detects changes in infrared radiation.
5. Noise Sensor
This sensor is used to monitor sound levels in a given environment. It can be used in
cities to gather data regarding noise pollution.
 Hydrophone– They are used in locating fish in the stream. They work by capturing
sound in the water
 Geophone– They capture ground vibrations and convert ito electrical voltage it is
often called a kind of seismometer.
6. Gyroscope Sensor
This sensor is used in navigation, robotics, and in every machine relating to rotation, it
detects rotation and measures angular velocity.
 Accelerometer– This sensor does not maintain a constant direction but indicates the
angular velocity of the object on which it is located it uses a mechanical gyroscope
with limited mobility.
 Heading indicator– Its a directional gyroscope or heading indicator that allows
observing the rotation of the body to which it is attached. The gyroscope is most
often made as a fast rotating rigid object.
7. Chemical Sensor
They are used to detect chemical compounds present in the air
 Electrochemical breathalyzer– It can measure the alcohol presence in the human
body by breathing into it. It can differentiate between citric acid, cigarette smoke and
menthol.
 E-Nose — A set of detectors, that reacts to different types of particles contained in
the environment or their different characteristics
Different Actuator Types in IoT
1. Hydraulic Actuators
This Actuator operates by converting hydraulic power to do the mechanical tasks. Here
the mechanical power is converted into rotary, leaner, and oscillatory motion. The
actuator here captures output from motors and uses liquid as the pressure generator.
2. Pneumatic Actuators
This actuator works similar to the hydraulic actuator but it uses vacuum or compressed
air to convert it into mechanical power they are weaker compared to hydraulic
actuators.
3. Electrical Actuators
Similarly, electrical actuators use electrical energy to turn it into mechanical torque.
The mechanical actuators are used in industrial places I valve pumps and motors mostly
work in the following voltages.
4. Thermal Actuators
This can be called an electric less motor. It’s equipped with thermal-sensitive material
that’s capable of producing linear motion in response to temperature changes. Opposite
to another actuator, it does not need an external power source. It is used to release
latches, operate switches, and open or close valves.
5. Magnetic Actuators
This kind of actuator changes electronic magnetic current to mechanical output They
operate in either a rotary or linear direction and can have continuous or limited motion.
Magnetic actuators are used within the aerospace, automotive industry, healthcare,
computers, and many other industries.
Communication Modules in the IoT

IoT communication protocols fall into two broad categories:

One is the access protocol: generally responsible for networking and communication
between devices in the subnet

One is the communication protocol: it is mainly a device communication protocol

running on the traditional Internet TCP/IP protocol, which is responsible for data
exchange and communication between devices through the Internet.

Physical layer, data link layer protocol

1. Long-distance cellular communication

1.1 2G/3G/4G communication protocols refer to the second, third and fourth
generation mobile communication system protocols respectively.

1.2 NB-IoT

Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) has become an important branch of the
Internet of Everything. NB-IoT is built on a cellular network and consumes only about
180kHz of bandwidth, and can be directly deployed on a GSM network, UMTS
network or LTE network to reduce deployment costs and achieve smooth upgrades.
Focusing on the Low Power Wide Coverage (LPWA) Internet of Things (IoT) market,
NB-IoT is an emerging technology that can be widely used around the world. It has the
characteristics of wide coverage, multiple connections, fast speed, low cost, low power
consumption, and excellent architecture.

Application scenarios: Scenario applications brought by the NB-IoT network include

smart parking, smart fire protection, smart water affairs, smart street lights, shared
bicycles, and smart home appliances.

1.3 5G

The fifth generation mobile communication technology is the latest generation of

cellular mobile communication technology. The performance goals of 5G are high data
rates, reduced latency, energy savings, lower costs, increased system capacity, and
massive device connectivity.
Application scenarios: AR/VR, Internet of Vehicles, smart manufacturing, smart
energy, wireless medical care, wireless home entertainment, connected drones, ultra-
high-definition/panoramic live broadcast, personal AI assistance, and smart cities.

2. Long-distance non-cellular communication

2.1 WiFi

Due to the rapid popularity of home WiFi routers and smartphones in the past few
years, WiFi protocols have also been widely used in the field of smart homes. The
biggest advantage of the WiFi protocol is that it can directly access the Internet.
Compared with ZigBee, the smart home solution using the Wifi protocol eliminates the
need for additional gateways. Compared with the Bluetooth protocol, it eliminates the
need for mobile terminals such as mobile phones.

The coverage of commercial WiFi in public places such as urban public transportation
and shopping malls has undoubtedly revealed the potential application of commercial
WiFi in scenarios.

2.2 ZigBee

ZigBee is a wireless communication protocol for low-speed short-distance

transmission. It is a highly reliable wireless data transmission network. The main
features are low speed, low power consumption, low cost, support for a large number
of online nodes, support for multiple online topologies, and low complexity. , fast,
reliable and safe. ZigBee technology is a new type of technology, which appeared
recently, mainly relying on wireless network for transmission.

The advantages of ZigBee technology make it gradually become a mainstream

technology in the Internet of Things industry, and it has been widely used in industry,
agriculture, smart home and other fields.

2.3 LoRa

LoRa (LongRange) is a modulation technology that provides longer communication

distances compared to similar technologies. LoRa gateways, smoke detectors, water
monitoring, infrared detection, positioning, plug sockets, etc. are widely used in IoT
products. As a narrowband wireless technology, LoRa uses time difference of arrival
to achieve geolocation. Application scenarios of LoRa positioning: smart city and
traffic monitoring, metering and logistics, agricultural positioning monitoring.

3. Near Field Communication

3.1 RFID
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is the abbreviation of
RadioFrequencyIdentification. The principle is the non-contact data communication
between the reader and the tag to achieve the purpose of identifying the target. The
application of RFID is very wide, typical applications are animal chip, car chip anti-
theft device, access control, parking lot control, production line automation, material
management. A complete RFID system consists of three parts: reader, tag and data
management system.

3.2 NFC

The Chinese full name of NFC is Near Field Communication Technology. NFC is
developed on the basis of non-contact radio frequency identification (RFID)
technology and combined with wireless interconnection technology. It provides a very
safe and fast communication method for various electronic products that are becoming
more and more popular in our daily life. The "near field" in the Chinese name of NFC
refers to radio waves that are close to the electromagnetic field.

Application scenarios: It is used in access control, attendance, visitors, meeting check-

in, patrol and other fields. NFC has functions such as human-computer interaction and
machine-to-machine interaction.

3.3 Bluetooth

Bluetooth technology is an open global specification for wireless data and voice
communication. It is a special short-range wireless technology connection based on
low-cost short-range wireless connection to establish a communication environment
for fixed and mobile devices.

Bluetooth can wirelessly exchange information among many devices, including mobile
phones, PDAs, wireless headsets, notebook computers, and related peripherals. Using
"Bluetooth" technology can effectively simplify the communication between mobile
communication terminal devices, and can also successfully simplify the
communication between the device and the Internet, so that data transmission becomes
more rapid and efficient, and the road for wireless communication is widened.

4. Wired communication

4.1 USB

USB, short for Universal Serial Bus (Universal Serial Bus) in English, is an external
bus standard used to regulate the connection and communication between computers
and external devices. It is an interface technology applied in the PC field.
4.2 Serial communication protocol

The serial communication protocol refers to the relevant specifications that specify the
content of the data packet, including the start bit, main data, check bit and stop bit.
Both parties need to agree on a consistent data packet format to send and receive data
normally. In serial communication, commonly used protocols include RS-232, RS-422
and RS-485.

Serial communication refers to a communication method in which data is transmitted

bit by bit through data lines between peripherals and computers. This communication
method uses fewer data lines and can save communication costs in long-distance
communication, but its transmission speed is lower than that of parallel transmission.
Most computers (excluding notebooks) include two RS-232 serial ports. Serial
communication is also a commonly used communication protocol for instrumentation
equipment.

4.3 Ethernet

Ethernet is a computer local area network technology. The IEEE802.3 standard

organized by the IEEE has formulated the technical standard of Ethernet, which
stipulates the content of the protocol including the connection of the physical layer, the
electronic signal and the medium access layer.

4.4 MBus

The MBus remote meter reading system (symphonicmbus) is a European standard 2-

wire two-bus, mainly used for consumption measuring instruments such as heat meters
and water meters.

Network layer, transport protocol

1. IPv4

Internet Protocol Version 4 is the fourth revision in the development of the Internet
Protocol and the first widely deployed version of the protocol. IPv4 is the core of the
Internet and the most widely used version of the Internet Protocol

2. IPv6

Internet Protocol version 6, because the biggest problem of IPv4 is the limited network
address resources, which seriously restricts the application and development of the
Internet. The use of IPv6 can not only solve the problem of the number of network
address resources, but also solve the obstacles for various access devices to connect to
the Internet
3. TCP

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP, Transmission Control Protocol) is a connection-

oriented, reliable, byte stream-based transport layer communication protocol. TCP is
designed to accommodate a layered protocol hierarchy that supports multiple network
applications. Reliable communication services are provided between pairs of processes
in host computers connected to different but interconnected computer communication
networks relying on TCP. TCP assumes that it can get simple, possibly unreliable,
datagram service from lower-level protocols.

4. 6LoWPAN

6LoWPAN is a low-speed wireless personal area network standard based on IPv6,

namely IPv6overIEEE802.15.4.

Application layer protocol

1. MQTT protocol

MQTT (MessageQueueTelemetryTransport), translated into Chinese, is the telemetry

transmission protocol, which mainly provides two message modes of
subscription/publishing, which is more concise, lightweight, and easy to use,
especially suitable for restricted environments (low bandwidth, high network latency,
It is a standard transmission protocol of the Internet of Things (Internet of Things).

In many cases, including constrained environments, such as: Machine-to-Machine

(M2M) communication and the Internet of Things (IoT). It is widely used in
communicating sensors via satellite links, occasional dial-up medical devices, smart
homes, and some miniaturized devices.

2. CoAP protocol

CoAP (Constrained Application Protocol) is a web-like protocol in the Internet of

Things world, suitable for small and low-power sensors, switches, valves and similar
components that need to be remotely controlled or monitored through standard Internet
networks. response

3. REST/HTTP protocol

RESTful is a resource-based software architectural style. The so-called resource is an

entity on the network, or a specific information on the network. A picture, a song is a
resource. RESTful API is an implementation based on the HTTP protocol. (HTTP is
an application layer protocol, which is characterized by simplicity and speed).
An application or design that meets the Rest specification is RESTful, and an API
designed according to the Rest specification is called a RESTful API

4. DDS protocol

DDS (DataDistributionService) distributed real-time data distribution service

middleware protocol, it is "TCP/IP" in distributed real-time network, used to solve the
network protocol interconnection in real-time network, its role is equivalent to "bus on
bus".

5. AMQP protocol

AMQP, the Advanced Message Queuing Protocol, is an application-layer standard

advanced message queuing protocol that provides unified messaging services. It is an
open standard for application-layer protocols and is designed for message-oriented
middleware. Clients and message middleware based on this protocol can transmit
messages, and are not limited by different client/middleware products and different
development languages. Implementations in Erlang include RabbitMQ, etc.

6. XMPP protocol

XMPP is a protocol based on XML, a subset of the Standard Universal Markup

Language, which inherits the flexibility of development in the XML environment.
Therefore, XMPP-based applications are highly scalable. The extended XMPP can
deal with the needs of users by sending extended information, and build applications
such as content publishing systems and address-based services on top of XMPP.