The Road to embedded world ’23: Seattle, Washington, AWS IoT

By Chad Cox

Production Editor

Embedded Computing Design

March 03, 2023

Blog

The Road to embedded world ’23: Seattle, Washington, AWS IoT
Image Credit: AWS IoT

Off to Seattle, where, if it were back in my day, I would be watching Gary Payton lob it up there to Shawn Kemp, but the past is behind us. Although it is nice to reminisce, the past should not bind us. According to Seamus Heaney in his epic “The Burial at Thebes: A Version of Sophocles' Antigone”, he writes, “Bear with the present; what will be will be. / The future is cloth waiting to be cut.” And here at our stay in Seattle, we will be in the moment with AWS IoT and take a little peak of that cloth waiting to be cut.
 

Here at AWS IoT, it is gearing up for The Road to embedded world 2023 where it will be highlighting many of its solutions on a wide range of IoT topics such as RTOS (FreeRTOS), embedded connectivity (AWS IoT ExpressLink), AI/ML at the edge (AWS IoT Greengrass), managing devices at scale (AWS IoT Core and AWS IoT Device Management), and device security. Here is an example of what AWS IoT will have at hall 4 booth 550 during the expo:

FreeRTOS

How it works

FreeRTOS is an open-source, cloud-neutral real-time operating system that offers a fast, dependable, and responsive kernel. FreeRTOS is freely distributed under the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) open-source license and implemented in over 40 architectures, providing developers with a broad choice of hardware along with a set of prepackaged software libraries.

Use cases

  • Manage multiple commercial equipment tasks

    • FreeRTOS supports task scheduling across multiple identical processor cores, such as IoT-activated vending machines running video promotions and beverage selection tasks simultaneously.
  • Locally collect and process data

    • Collect data on industrial device system performance and take critical local actions in real time to prevent outages.
  • Update your devices remotely

    • Use AWS IoT Device Management with FreeRTOS devices for an integrated OTA update solution to securely maintain and update your devices.

AWS IoT ExpressLink

How it works

AWS IoT ExpressLink powers a range of hardware modules developed and offered by AWS Partners, such as Espressif, Infineon, and u-blox. The connectivity modules include software implementing AWS mandated security requirements, making it faster and easier for you to securely connect devices to the cloud and seamlessly integrate with a range of AWS services.

Use cases

  • Modernize industrial applications

    • Modernize industrial applications without redesigning the application from scratch. AWS IoT ExpressLink offers out-of-the-box connectivity for all types of devices, regardless of resource constraints.
  • Ship new consumer products faster

    • Get consumer products to market in a fraction of the time and at a lower cost by delegating the complex work of securely connecting an embedded device to the cloud.
  • Reinvent smart buildings and cities

    • Manage the security and health of your commercial fleet sensors and actuators at scale. Easily integrate them with AWS IoT services to detect anomalies and take action when metrics deviate from expected behavior.

AWS IoT Greengrass

AWS IoT Greengrass is an open-source edge runtime and cloud service for building, deploying, and managing device software.

IoT devices can vary in size, ranging from smaller microcontroller-based devices to large appliances. AWS IoT Greengrass Core devices, AWS IoT Device SDK-enabled devices, and FreeRTOS devices can be configured to communicate with one another. If the AWS IoT Greengrass Core device loses connectivity to the cloud, connected devices can continue to communicate with each other over the local network.

AWS IoT Greengrass provides pre-built components so you can easily extend edge device functionality without writing code. AWS IoT Greengrass components enable you to add features, and quickly connect to AWS services or third-party applications at the edge.

Use cases

  • Run at the edge

    • AWS IoT Greengrass makes it easy to bring intelligence to edge devices, such as for anomaly detection in precision agriculture or powering autonomous devices.
  • Manage apps

    • Deploy new or legacy apps across fleets using any language, packaging technology, or runtime.
  • Control fleets

    • Manage and operate device fleets in the field locally or remotely using MQTT or other protocols.
  • Process locally

    • Collect, aggregate, filter, and send data locally. Manage and control what data goes to the cloud for optimized analytics and storage.

AWS IoT Core

Securely transmit messages to and from all of your IoT devices and applications with low latency and high throughput.

 

With Device Shadow, store the latest state of a connected device so it can be read or set at any time, making the device appear to your applications as if it were online all the time.

The Alexa Voice Service (AVS) Integration for AWS IoT Core introduces a new virtual Alexa device in the cloud. Use a new set of AWS IoT-reserved MQTT topics to transfer audio messages between devices.

Set up and manage a private LoRaWAN network by connecting LoRaWAN devices and gateways to the AWS cloud—all without developing or operating a LoRaWAN Network Server (LNS).

Use cases

  • Monitor and manage industrial operations

    • Build industrial IoT applications for predictive quality, maintenance, and remote operation monitoring.
  • Build differentiated consumer products

    • Create connected applications for home automation, home security and monitoring, and home networking.
  • Innovate with automotive data

    • Develop solutions for connected, autonomous, shared, and electric vehicle (EV) applications.
  • Develop safety products

    • Design commercial applications for traffic monitoring, public safety, and health monitoring.

For more information, visit amazon.com/iot.

Chad Cox. Production Editor, Embedded Computing Design, has responsibilities that include handling the news cycle, newsletters, social media, and advertising. Chad graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a B.A. in Cultural and Analytical Literature.

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