The ability to automatically collect critical information about business assets, processes, and events is transforming companies across the globe. Known as data capture, this capability fuels data-driven decision making by providing real-time visibility into everything from supply chain logistics to energy infrastructure monitoring. As the Internet of Things and edge computing continue to evolve, purpose-built data capture solutions are emerging to help organizations efficiently harness high-fidelity data.
The Promise and Potential of Data Capture
Data capture offers immense potential for streamlining operations, mitigating risks, revealing efficiencies, and identifying new revenue streams. By deploying sensor-enabled devices at the network edge, companies can gather granular data on factors like equipment performance, product shipments, energy consumption, and more. When this time-series data is aggregated and analyzed in cloud-based software, organizations gain an unprecedented level of insight.
However, for many companies, realizing the full benefits of data capture remains an elusive goal. Challenges such as selecting the right edge hardware, ensuring reliability of data transmission, scaling catch solutions across distributed infrastructure, and building user-friendly applications for analysis and reporting have slowed adoption. This is set to change with the availability of highly configurable plug-and-play edge computing solutions.
Data Capture to Power Your Digital Transformation
The Interceptor offers a modular edge computing and data capture platform purpose-built for industrial settings (rated for harsh environments from -40C to 85C). Flexible hardware coupled with intuitive software means customers can reliably aggregate sensor data, perform edge-based analysis, and integrate outputs with existing cloud tools and dashboards. Supporting 4G/LTE out of the box while being hardware-ready for the upcoming 5G rollout enhances reliability.
Optimized, Adapatable Edge Hardware
Leveraging innovative product design, the Interceptor allows clients to customize data capture hardware for specific use cases across a myriad of industries:
Industrial Manufacturing & Automation
Smart factories powered by IIoT depend on capturing granular data across workflows to drive optimization. The Interceptor enables this through custom modules for the following:
Key Applications:
- Profile machine health and utilization at every production step
- Continuously track material, WIP, and finished good inventories
- Monitor product quality metrics through automated inspection systems
- Log data from barcode scans to trace material genealogy
- Identify bottlenecks in production workflows based on line visibility
- Enforce product handling requirements through environmental monitoring
The edge analytics in Interceptor can turn this raw data into invaluable OEE metrics, alarms, traceability reports, and more, leading to millions in savings from reduced cycle times, downtime, and scrap.
Aerospace
Safely operating complex vehicles in highly dynamic environments requires enormous amounts of data. The Interceptor gives aerospace companies an efficient way to ingest telemetry across various aircraft systems.
Key Applications:
- Interface with existing avionics data buses to centralize metrics from distributed aircraft sensors
- Continuously profile engine performance, fuel economy, and other efficiency KPIs
- Monitor cabin environment, including pressure, temperature, and air quality
- Analyze vibration and noise patterns within cockpit to identify emerging mechanical issues (predictive maintenance)
- Track detailed flight telemetry and patterns to optimize routes and operations
This wealth of real-time data streamed during flight as well as pre/post operation enables ground crews to shift from routine scheduled maintenance to highly predictive practices - substantially reducing grounded downtime for repairs.
Oil & Gas
Monitoring distributed infrastructure across upstream, midstream, and downstream operations is critical for mitigating safety risks and environmental impacts. The Interceptor makes this possible.
Key Applications:
- Profile wellbore integrity with precision sensors to identify fissures
- Monitor pipeline pressure changes and leaks through flow meters
- Track corrosion and erosion of critical valves, joints, and actuators
- Analyze noise and vibration patterns from pumps, compressors, and motors
- Monitor tank farm levels and predict overflow conditions
- Enforce no-go zones with location tracking of personnel and vehicles
Continuous condition monitoring rather than periodic inspections allows anomalies to be identified early. This minimizes the chance of catastrophic failures leading to injuries, spills or explosions.
Renewable Energy
Capitalizing on renewable energy depends on maintaining high uptime and efficiency as environmental conditions continuously change. The Interceptor gives owners deep visibility into operational metrics for wind, solar, and other distributed resources.
Key Applications:
- Monitor wind turbine yaw, pitch, and vibration to forecast mechanical failures
- Continuously profile solar panel soiling, output, and ambient weather conditions
- Track generator temperature differentials and insulation breakdown precursors
- Ensure integrity of submarine power cables for offshore assets
- Verify stability and siting requirements for temporary power facilities
- Log all activity relating to infrastructure access and maintenance
These metrics optimize preventative and predictive maintenance strategies to keep assets running at peak potential, ultimately lowering LCOE.
SubSea
Subsea infrastructure presents numerous challenges for reliable data capture, including pressures exceeding 600 bars, saltwater corrosion, and temperatures as low as 2°C. The Interceptor's ruggedized edge devices are engineered specifically for these extreme underwater environments.
Key Applications:
- Monitor wellhead and pipeline pressure, temperature, vibration and flow rates for preventative maintenance
- Track ROV location and telemetry data to guide remote piloting and optimize inspection routes
- Ensure integrity of power and communication cables along the seafloor
- Profile water quality conditions to meet environmental regulatory reporting
- Acoustically monitor submarine zones to identify threats and unauthorized activities
By aggregating sensor data from across offshore oil fields and continuously profiling system health, the Interceptor platform leads to substantial reductions in unplanned downtime and maintenance costs over the lifecycle of underwater assets.
Edge-Based Analytics & Processing
The Interceptor goes beyond basic data aggregation to enable real-time analytics at the edge. With the addition of the Data Nebula CLOUD, Rule engines and ML inferencing extract actionable insights as data is captured instead of transmitting raw telemetry. Examples include:
- Signal Processing - Filter noise, detect patterns, and identify anomalies in sensor data
- Geospatial - Enrich device data with location context
- Thresholding - Trigger alerts when operational boundaries are exceeded
- Image Processing - Identify overheating electrical cabinets by fusing thermal imagery with metadata
Performing these computations at the edge reduces costs and latency versus cloud-only solutions. The Interceptor, coupled with Data Nebula’s CLOUD analytics engine, is fully customizable based on industry-specific requirements.
Seamless Integration with Data Platforms
The Interceptor line of modular IIoT devices makes edge data readily available to an organization’s data infrastructure via interconnectivity with our Data Nebula CLOUD for:
- Real-Time Monitoring – Pipe data to cloud-based dashboards and data observability platforms
- Time-Series Storage – Forward data to specialized databases optimized for IoT workloads
- Data Lakes – Load processed edge data into cloud data lakes like Snowflake and Databricks for batch and BI analytics
- Business Systems – Connect with ERPs, MES, SCM and other legacy software via adapter libraries
This flexibility allows customers to augment existing data analytics investments instead of introducing yet another siloed application.
Democratic Data Access via Cloud Portal
The Interceptor platform makes edge data easy to manage and access via Data Nebula CLOUD – an intuitive centralized portal for administration, visualization, and sharing.
Key Portal Capabilities:
- Remote Device Management – Push firmware updates, modify configuration settings, and remotely debug connected edge devices
- Custom Reporting - Use drag and drop tools to build reports and dashboards tailored to specific data analysis needs
- User Access Controls – Granularly control data access across customer groups and roles
- Third-Party System Integration – Connect portal with popular applications for expanded analytics
- RESTful APIs – Enable direct access to aggregated edge data for integration with other customer applications and models
This self-service access model decreases dependency on IT resources while still ensuring oversight of data management policies.
The market outlook has never been stronger for solutions that transform previously invisible operational data into business opportunities. As leaders, the Interceptor platform and the Data Nebula CLOUD provide the tools and technology to make data capture at the edge an engine for innovation rather than just another IT headache. Built from the circuit boards up to excel in harsh industrial environments, the Interceptor combines plug-and-play hardware flexibility with seamless cloud connectivity and a centralized portal for administration. In doing so, the Interceptor finally unlocks scalable, reliable, and cost-efficient data capture infrastructure so that customers can focus on analysis and optimizations that boost the bottom line. There will never be a better time than now to launch your organization's data-driven digital transformation.
