ExoSense® Overview¶
ExoSense® is an end-to-end solution for remote monitoring applications that need to gather data from sensors, machines, PLCs, legacy controls, etc. It enables OEMs, Distributors, and System Integrators to provide customers with a branded and configurable application to go with connected devices and sensors.
Users are able to view machine and sensor data and insights, build dashboards, receive notifications on state condition changes, manage user access, generate reports, and manage their account.
OEMs and System Integrators are able to build and configure the application to look and feel like their own product, create integrations, and manage organization group hierarchy.
What is ExoSense?¶
ExoSense is a condition monitoring application that runs on top of IoT Platform services. It is highly configurable and supports a wide range of assets and application types - from factory equipment to remote monitoring of machines to mobile vehicles.
ExoSense is deployed as whitelabel instances, meaning users manage it as their own product offering, creating a hierarchy of customers and partners that control permission levels.
Digital Assets are collections of signals sourced from connected equipment, rules on those signals, digital content about the Asset, and dashboard visualizations.
Digital Assets¶
ExoSense® focuses around the concept of users interacting with digitalized Assets in the application.
These assets represent real-world systems, machines, and equipment. Data signals, historical data, conditional rules, notifications, and permissions revolve around the concept of an asset. Assets are a collection of signals and those signals can come from various devices. The Digital Asset Objects do not need to be the same as the physical IoT Devices, which provides flexibility when setting up the system.
Data Flow¶
Terminology¶
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Asset | A digital representation of a physical system or machine, i.e. a Digital Twin. Assets have streaming data (Signals) to store sensor and status information from the physical world. Assets also have content files, meta information, and links. devices. Information about Rules |
| Signal | Individual piece of data for an Asset (Digital Twin) that has a real time and historical (time series) component associated it in addition to data unit, data type, and other properties. Typically sourced from IoT connected device channels. Information about Signals |
| Device | Also: IoT Device, Connected Device, Edge Device. Electronic hardware with ability to send data, an IoT connected device. The connected thing that is measuring a sensor or asking for data (e.g. fieldbus) for a physical data. It is typically connected via IP (internet protocol) unless an advanced use case that includes a gateway that talks on behalf of the devices. |
| Channel | Stream of data from an IoT connected Device (e.g., sensor data, status codes, event data), that will be consumed by Asset Signals. |
| Gateway | A gateway typically is an IoT edge device that handles protocol conversion (fieldbus to cloud, sensor interface to cloud). There are some use cases where a Gateway is truly a pass-thru for identifiable connected IoT devices. A gateway can also be a piece of software in the cloud that handles protocol conversion. Please contact Exosite for more information about custom Gateway talk-on-behalf-of applications where the devices do not have ability to connect using IP. |
| Dashboard | A visualization associated to an asset, group, or private use that displays 'panels' which represent assets and asset signals in various visualizations. ExoSense Dashboards Information |
| Insights | Real-time and continuous stream functions that are inserted into the Asset Signal data pipline, of type transform (analytics), rule, or action. Custom Insights are supported. Information about Insights |
| Rule | Signal pipeline workflow logic that has the ability to detect states of a signal. Output is a state event, which affects the state of a signal and the asset. Rule events (state changes) are written to the asset log. Information about Rules |
| Transform | Also Transformation Signal pipeline workflow logic that has the ability to perform operations or other functions on Asset signal data. Output of a transformation is a secondary signal that has it's own properties. Information about Transforms |
| Content | Files and content associated to an Asset. Can be uploaded by a device or a user. Asset Content Information |
| Asset Template | A template of the digital Asset that can be used to create and update many assets to use the same signals, transforms, rules, dashboards, and other functionality of the Asset. Asset Templates |
| Asset Type | A collection of Assets that contain similiar key metrics, when viewed as a fleet or group of assets. Typically representing similiar type of equipment or machines, a product model, etc. Asset Templates |
| User | Any user that can log into ExoSense using email/password for authentication. All users have a User Role and are assigned to a group node in the group hierarchy. User Roles and Permissions |
| Group | A node in a permission hierarchy that contains assets, users, devices, sub-groups, and group dashboards. Can represent any combination of regions, customers, sites, locations, or other organizational structures. Group / Hierarchy Management |
| Role | A role is given to a user that defines what functionality they have access to in ExoSense. A role is a list of permissions. User Roles and Permissions |
| Permission | A specific function that a User Role can perform within the application. User Roles and Permissions |
Exosite Software Products¶
| Software | Description |
|---|---|
| ExoSense® | Exosite's remote condition monitoring solution that runs on top of Murano. ExoSense Overview |
| Murano® | Exosite's IoT Platform. Murano Overview |
| ExoEdge | A python client based application for Linux based IoT / Edge computers, available from Exosite to help integrate edge devices to Murano and ExoSense. ExoEdge information |
Requirements¶
Deploying / Running¶
ExoSense is a Murano platform solution, meaning it must run within Exosite's Murano platform as it uses Murano's IoT Connectors, databases, scripting, web-service, web-socket, web asset hosting, and other micro-services. Individual ExoSense solutions are deployed as their own instances from with-in a user's Exosite business account. Each instance has it's own URL, branding, users, assets, hierarchy and data storage.
IoT Device Data¶
ExoSense receives data from IoT edge devices via Murano IoT Connector device events and using a common schema. For devices connected to other clouds or device platforms, or that sends data in a different format, a Murano IoT Connector must be created to handle the translation into the proper data events and schema.
Connecting a Device - Guide
Browser Support¶
ExoSense's user interface runs as a web application in a web browser on top of an IoT and application platform. The following tables list typical browsers and whether they are supported by ExoSense.
| Browser | ExoSense Support | Notes / Recommendations |
|---|---|---|
| Google Chrome (Recommended) | Supported | Recommended browser. |
| Microsoft Edge (Chromium Version) | Supported | Tested and validated. |
| Mozilla Firefox | Not Supported | Can be used but is not validated or tested. |
| Apple Safari | Not Supported | Can be used but is not validated or tested. |
| Microsoft IE version 11 | Not Supported (As of Oct, 2019) | Recommend Microsoft Edge or Microsoft Edge built on Chromium |
Mobile / Tablets
The ExoSense web application supports running in the browser of small touchscreen based devices, i.e. smart mobile phones and tablets. These devices have many browsers that can be installed and run on them. Exosite has been validated on specific devices/browsers such as iPhone iOS (Safari, Chrome), iPad iPadOS (Safari), and Android OS (Chrome). The functionality for small screens has been limited for user experience reasons, these details can be found below.
Small Screen Functionality
Touchscreen Tablet
- Size: 600 pixels < width < 960 pixels
- Dashboard Viewing: All panels are full screen width and are stacked vertically
- Disabled Functionality:
- Asset Create/Edit/Duplicate/Delete
- Dashboard Create/Edit/Delete
Touchscreen Mobile Phone
- Size: 360 pixels < width < 600 pixels
- Dashboard Viewing: All panels are full screen width and are stacked vertically
- Disabled Functionality:
- Asset Create/Edit/Duplicate/Delete
- Dashboard Create/Edit/Delete
- Dashboard Full-screen mode
- Create a Report
- Create a Template
- Application Setup / Administration
- Device Software Packages UI on Device Overview