Smart Efficiencies Enable the Internet of Everything

Abstract

In the next 10–15 years, power electronics will enable the Internet of Everything (IoE) to reach a trillion sensor economy. To achieve this high volume will require focus on data and system energy trade-off within a functional framework of Sense, Think (Compute), Act, and Communicate. The IoE session of the IEEE Future of Electronic Power Processing and Conversion (FEPPCON) XI examined three aspects related to this vision of power electronics enabling such growth of IoE. The first aspect is the technological challenges and economic drivers of the data-energy trade-off across the full IoE architecture, from edge to middle to cloud. The second aspect is the specific needs and the decisions to be made due to the electronification and electrification of an established industry as demonstrated by a case study of the future of smart power tools with the associated intelligent infrastructure of future construction sites. The third aspect is how heterogeneous integration and power-data system co-design will enable the efficiency and performance requirements of the future IoE. This third aspect is demonstrated by a case study of microprocessor power management which introduces the concept of “granular power management” leading to integrated voltage regulation (IVR). During the session, invited speakers Timothy Obermann of Milwaukee Tool, Milwaukee, WI, USA, and Francesco Carobolante of IoTissimo LLC, Reno, NV, USA, presented the two case studies, and Dr. Stephanie Watts Butler of WattsButler LLC, TX, USA, introduced IoE and the functional framework used to examine IoE’s data-energy trade-off. Prof. Cian Ó Mathúna of Tyndall National Institute, Cork, Ireland, served as the session organizer, and Prof. Hanh-Phuc Le of the University of California at San Diego, USA, served as the note-taker.