With industrial production systems becoming increasingly complex, expansive and data-critical, it has become imperative to adopt telemetry as a tool that does not require human intervention, is error-free, reliable, and cost-effective. The most obvious advantage of telemetry communication systems is that they can replace the need for industry to put in large numbers of manpower to gather and transmit machine and production data. Remote telemetry is also used to collect and transmit information from places that can be impossible for human beings to access without danger to life and limb.

While the use of advanced automated measuring and communication systems has been embraced by the manufacturing industry for quite some time, its use by the medical sector to monitor the vital signs of patients is increasingly becoming popular. Sectors as diverse as disaster management, law enforcement, and meteorology are also adopting telemetry to increase their data collection efficiencies and boosting productivity.

What Is Telemetry?

Telemetry has been devised for the sole purpose of collecting and delivering information without the need for human intervention from places that are distant in relation to the users of the data. The sole purpose of using telemetry systems is to increase the pace of data-dependent decision making.

A large variety of telemetry systems are available that are suited for the end-use that may include collection of data pertaining to humidity, power consumption, temperature, flow, motion, luminosity, pressure, water level, vibration, voltage, impact, and much more.

The data collected by the sensors are transmitted immediately or at pre-designated intervals through wireless connections to computers and hand-held devices of the users. The essential advantage of remote telemetry is that physical visits to the site are not required for data collection.

Typical Telemetry Application in Industry

Mobile telemetry is incredibly useful and finds application in a large assortment of applications as evident from the list of data types it can collect and monitor. Some of the earliest uses of telemetry have been in application as diverse as monitoring the level, pressure, and temperature of fuel, gases, and chemicals kept in storage tanks.

The data is transmitted to remote locations that can effectively monitor it for taking appropriate action in case any of the levels crosses the safety parameters. Advanced systems include automation of this function also. For example, if the vapor pressure exceeds a pre-determined level, vents may automatically open to release the pressure. Similarly, if the temperature becomes too high, coolant circulation may be increased.

There have been a lot of telemetry applications too for operating pumps, air and gas compressors, vehicles, air conditioning, environmental monitoring, fire and security monitoring, etc.

Why Adopt Telemetry?

Telemetry has been very successfully used to improve the efficiency of business operation as with its deployment it is possible to ensure the secure and uninterrupted flow of data that in turn boosts work efficiency and operational reliability. Since remote telemetry does away with a lot of human intervention, it is possible for businesses to reduce manpower expenses and become more profitable.

Decision-making obligations can be done much faster as the telemetry systems deliver the data right to the user’s computer or mobile phone and make it completely redundant for site visits by workers or supervisory staff. Not only is valuable time saved but a lot of financial resources too are not unnecessarily expended. The level of errors and data duplication that would have occurred if the data collection was undertaken by human beings is also reduced.

Other Operational Advantages

Installation of remote telemetry systems is relatively simple as they typically do not need the presence of phone or power lines. The simple yet robust construction is also quite inexpensive. It is possible for users to customize the data reading and transmission frequency according to industry and organizational requirement.

The absence of wires not only leads to better reliability but eliminates the chances of lightning strikes. Since devices have ample data storage capacity, it is possible to reduce the transmission frequency. Even if a transmission failure occurs, no data is lost as it can be recovered from the device memory to a certain extent.

Data transmission is quite secure as the equipment setup and programming is required to be done with user names and passwords that are secure. Even the access to the transmitted data by users is secured by logins and passwords to minimize unauthorized access.

Author bio: Jim Finch is the chief technologist at a leading supplier of mobile telemetry services provider. Jim is also a regular contributor of articles on technology in real-life operation in the online media.