Integrating sensors and sensing technology has multiple benefits, including predictive and preventive maintenance. They enhance precision while ensuring that measurement data is communicated more quickly, enhancing asset health and process control. As demand for secure and agile sensors increase, Radicos, an OEM organisation, provides the TWIN (Two Wire Integrated Network) system, which is a robust and fault-tolerant sensor-actuator-network optimised for Industrial IoT applications. The advantage of the TWIN system is that it can be used in various applications per the clients’ requirements.

Unexpected fire breakouts have been a major unresolved issue especially in the case of containerships. Since there could be insufficient space between containers, wireless sensor systems are at a disadvantage. As a solution, Radicos provides one wired temperature sensor for each container to monitor temperature changes. Therefore, heating events that could not be detected before can now be determined by installing the TWIN system.

Since tens of thousands of sensors must be installed to monitor large assets, human assembly work on-site must be avoided as it can lead to many errors. Whereas with TWIN— prefabricated in the factory— operators have a reliable and secure data collection system that can be easily installed to monitor large assets in various IoT applications.

Designed specifically for monitoring assets of up to ten square kilometers, TWIN is the world’s first integrated digital asset monitoring system. With TWIN, we bring sensors to industrial plants where no sensor system has gone before; and there we solve industry problems from which many or all operators in that industry suffer,” says Bernhard Heibl, the co-founder, and director of Radicos. With teams in Austria and Switzerland, the company is en route to developing, marketing, and globalising the TWIN system.

The system collects data from thousands of sensors, processes it locally or in the cloud, and reversely drives actuators at the sensor locations. TWIN systems also have complete remote configuration and maintenance capabilities, making them easy to document, maintain, extend, and repair.

The TWIN system consists of: the TWIN Root (TR), connecting the TWIN Nodes (sensor-actuator nodes) with a TWIN Modem (local analysis and alarming unit). The TWIN Nodes (TN) are extremely miniaturized computers providing sensors and a data output function via a programmable LED (light-emitting diode). Over hundreds of sensor nodes can be integrated onto one TR.

The TWIN Modem (TM) is situated at the head of the TR and addresses the TN. The patented addressing method between TN and TM is the core of the TWIN technology (Computer-In-Cable- Technology™), which offers unmatched and uncompromising fault tolerance. One TWIN Bridge can support multiple TM with one TR each in a TWIN system. Thousands of sensors and actuators are mastered centrally due to such architecture.

The TWIN Bridges interface with local or remote networks, automation systems, and the TWIN Dashboard, a powerful web-based data visualisation and analysis platform. Based on an open-source solution, the dashboard shows live heatmaps to visualise the current sensor data at a glance. Users can also configure custom-tailored dashboards to visualise sensor data time series.

Today, the TWIN system is used in multiple applications such as fire detection, ship holds, greenhouse and livestock housing, conveyors, and production lines: The solution can monitor and predict incipient fires in industrial facilities. The digital asset monitoring system can also predict the failure of conveyor rollers and monitor the location of parts, workpieces, or trays over the entire production line to avoid congestion. TWIN is a game changer in providing solutions to various industrial IoT applications that are infeasible with conventional technology.