Artificial intelligence (AI) is catalysing the internet of things (IoT) for purposes like automation and predictive maintenance and transforming smart cities as a result, a series of reports has outlined.
GlobalData’s Internet of Things report, released earlier this year, noted that AI is becoming increasingly important for the IoT through being embedded in the connected devices that constitute it. It explains: “Combining data collected by connected sensors and actuators with AI supports automated operations and predictive maintenance. AI can run in the cloud, on IoT devices directly with some limitations, or on both the cloud and the device.”
Elaborating on this, GlobalData’s Automated Home report explains: “The application of AI turns connected devices into smart devices. Within any IoT ecosystem, data is transferred between connected devices and analysed by humans. Some data flows are human-to-machine, and others are machine-to-machine. When analysed in aggregate, data reveal patterns and trends. AI technologies such as machine learning are often used to interpret and react to these data flows.”
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The company’s recently published Smart Cities report, which explores the use of connected sensors to enhance the quality and performance of urban services such as energy, transport and utilities to make cities function more efficiently, details that the integration of AI into the devices and platforms powering smart cities is advancing urban management and infrastructure. It adds that AI algorithms are becoming increasingly critical for optimising city operations.
“Smart cities have a track record of using digital technologies and data-driven tools within their systems and services,” the report says. “AI allows those systems to become self-adjusting, act independently on data and automate tasks. Therefore, AI enables cities to respond dynamically to changing conditions and requirements.”
IoT and AI in smart cities
The report notes that the IoT, AI, 5G and digital twins are the most widely implemented smart city technologies, providing hardware like sensors and cameras, connectivity and data analysis capabilities that underpin most smart city infrastructures.
“IoT technology is pivotal to the operation of smart cities, delivering data on everything from local weather conditions to traffic information, harvested through networks of sensors across the city,” it says.
Among the uses of the IoT in existing smart cities, the report points to aspects of urban planning including transportation management, energy efficiency, and senior citizen safety in Singapore; the use of smart poles that combine street and traffic lights with lighting controls, environmental sensors, public Wi-Fi and CCTV for public safety, connectivity and urban operations in the US city of Hogansville, Georgia; and flood monitoring in New York.
Of the significance of AI among the technologies referenced, the Smart Cities report states: “AI is arguably the most important. The future will see AI systems in cities autonomously managing real-time adjustments to issues such as traffic flow and energy consumption, heralding a new era of predictive and preventive urban management.”
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