IoT provides a lot of opportunities in many different fields, but it’s important to optimize its use and meet the increasing demands. This week, we’re looking at this year’s IoT priorities for developers and how smart city planners can integrate IoT into a more complete system. After that, we’ll find out how to build earthquake-resistant buildings, and look at a robotic solution to recycling.

Priorities for IoT developers in 2019

A new study by The Eclipse Foundation shows that this year’s top priorities for IoT developers are: security, connectivity, and data collection/analysis. This top three reflects the challenges that are often brought up when IoT is part of the conversation. IoT is becoming more and more commercialized with a lot of new uses and a continuing increase in demand. Therefore, it’s imperative to reflect on the potential hurdles, before throwing IoT devices on the market. Smart Energy reassures us that IoT developers are on the case, so check out more detailed results of the study there!

Managing IoT data in smart cities

IoT systems provide a ton of data, which need to be processed. The problem with a city full of IoT applications is that they often don’t work together. This means that there’s a whole lot of links and interconnections that can’t be analyzed. On Smart Cities Dive, Chris Teale writes that this is one of the biggest mistakes city planners make: IOT solutions for parking and traffic lights work, but connect them on a platform, and you get a much better overview of what transportation in a city looks like. The platform approach facilitates smarter decisions with already smart technology. Read more about it here.

Sorting recycling robots

Trash companies go through unimaginable quantities of waste and their methods create unsafe jobs for the workers at the conveyor belts. MIT decided to tackle this issue by developing a robotic system that can differentiate between paper, metal, and plastic. Currently, recycling isn’t sophisticated in many places, so a system like this could cause a huge improvement in waste management overall, making it easier to repurpose well-recycled waste. Read more about this development and future ambitions on the MIT website.

Earthquake resistant buildings

Earthquakes in areas where they’re strong and frequent, are devastating, causing widespread death and destruction. When building in those high-risk areas, earthquake resistance is one of the top priorities. This article on Thomasnet talks about why metal is a key material for these types of constructions. Especially now new steel and metal technologies are emerging, the way people think about construction is changing for the better. It’ll definitely make me feel safer traveling to a high-risk area, knowing that the buildings withstand seismic force!

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