Sensors Will Drive AI Growth in Manufacturing

In the broadest definition, a sensor is a device whose purpose is to detect changes in the environment, and then generate a signal or data based on those changes. All living organisms contain biological sensors. Most of these are specialized cells that are sensitive to light, motion, temperature, magnetic fields, gravity, humidity, moisture, vibration, pressure, electrical fields, or sound, to name just a few. Over the years, many thousands of mechanical sensors have been developed to detect changes in their environments. Besides pressure, sensors have also been developed to measure changes in sound, vibration, chemical composition, electric current, electric potential, magnetic force, radio waves, flow, fluid velocity, ionizing radiation, subatomic particles, navigation instruments, position, angle, displacement, distance, speed, acceleration, optical, light, imaging, photon, force, density, level, thermal, heat, temperature, proximity and presence, again to name a few.