Partnership helps industry get wise to sensor tech

NERA and Innovation Central Perth (ICP) have partnered to assist industry with developing and deploying sensor technology to diagnose problems and optimise efficiency in industrial processes.

Under the partnership, NERA will provide matched funding to support the WISE Program (Wireless Industrial Sensor Environment) to demonstrate how productivity and cost efficiencies can be improved across the energy and resources supply chain via non-competitive collaboration between industry, technology and research participants.

NERA CEO Miranda Taylor said the program would enable new technologies to be rapidly deployed to help industry address contemporary and future challenges stemming from inspection and maintenance schedules, ageing infrastructure and other operational issues.

“With the emergence of technologies such as cloud computing, machine learning, artificial intelligence and big data, our sector has the opportunity to improve the operation and maintenance of assets by cost-effectively deploying IIoT technology,” Taylor said.

“NERA is pleased to support the WISE Program and similar initiatives that can help streamline the adoption of innovative, cutting-edge solutions for the benefit of Australia’s energy resources sector and the broader economy, but also to leverage Australian innovation into global supply chains and create new value and job opportunities.”

WISE is a partnership between ICP, a Cisco-led collaboration with Curtin University, Woodside and Data61, and a growing number of industry members to boost productivity and cost efficiencies across industry sectors. The program aims to lead best practices for data management and the widespread deployment of wireless sensor technologies.

Cisco’s Lead for Co-Innovation Centres in Australia, Tom Goerke, said the WISE program gave members the opportunity to solve business challenges by providing the resources to collaborate and test Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technology.

“WISE members are regularly brought together through several workshops, networking functions, problem-solving events and design thinking groups to prototype solutions,” Goerke said.

“WISE offers a unique open collaboration format to its members, which includes a mix of industry and end-user organisations, technology providers and research organisations.

“The program taps into a broad resource of expertise and talent from ICP’s partners and other WISE members, including from NERA, a member and project partner who collaborates right across the energy resources sector.”

The program provides industry with a test-friendly environment and the resources to collaborate, develop and deploy real-world IIoT technology solutions to solve business challenges.

This includes access to existing infrastructure located at ICP and Curtin University’s main Perth campus for experimentation and testing; sensors provided by the centre and the ability to test their own; and subject matter experts to help identify and validate the most appropriate sensor, connectivity and analytics technology stack to address their most challenging problems in operating various physical assets.

WISE also enables industry participants to begin building in-house capabilities to deploy and manage the technology tested within the centre. Sensors available for members include acoustic, ultrasonic, location, vibration, soil moisture, surface moisture, temperature, CO₂, VOx and luminosity.

For more information or to join the WISE Program, email: wise@icentralau.com.au.

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