IoT Hardware Development for Scalable Smart Buildings
What Is IoT Hardware Development and Why Does It Matter?
IoT hardware development services for smart buildings involves designing a system of interconnected devices to automate tasks and optimize how you use your resource usage. Smart buildings use enterprise IoT, meaning that all your devices are connected to the same network. They work as a team to collect and analyze data.
Your IoT hardware includes sensors, gateways, firmware, and cloud systems. Sensors gather your data and send it to a device through a gateway. Firmware controls the gateway and lets it talk to the sensors and a cloud-based app.
Think of a gateway like a sports agent, the sensors as the athlete, and the cloud-based app as team ownership. The sensors focus on playing sports (collecting data for individual systems such as HVAC or energy), while a gateway controls communication with the app. It translates information between systems so they can all work together.
IoT hardware developers are responsible for making this system work. When they do it well, you get reliable data about your indoor air quality, energy, water, and equipment.
Core Stages of IoT Hardware Development
Your car didn’t magically appear out of thin air. Everything we use today started as a concept. IoT hardware development starts by understanding what people need. In our case, it’s smart buildings. Someone was probably compiling a report with a stack of utility bills and thought, “There’s got to be a better way.”
Once you’ve identified the problem, you develop a concept and define the required hardware. Our building manager, drowning in paper, may have said, “We need a series of meters that collect data in real time and feed it to a computer.” At this stage, you determine how many sensors you need, how you're going to collect the data, and how you'll access it from the system. Then you move into:
Prototyping: Building the early version to test your system architecture and refine it
Firmware development and edge logic capabilities: Creating the software that enables devices to process data and make decisions
Testing and certification: Making sure each part of the system works accurately and complies with regulations
It’s important to design IoT systems to be scalable and adaptable. As building technology changes, your IoT devices need to evolve with them. Otherwise, you’ll replace them every few years.
Sensor Selection and Integration
Sensors are a crucial part of your smart building, and you want the best. They are one of the biggest green building trends. Sticking with the sports analogy, choosing sensors is like drafting your players. You make a list of what you need and choose the players that fit.
Since you’re gathering environmental data, consider:
Accuracy: Inaccurate sensors could compromise your indoor air quality or energy usage.
Drift: Some sensors degrade, which makes their data unreliable over time.
Environmental tolerance: You’ll put your sensors in potentially harsh conditions, such as high heat and humidity. Choose sensors that can withstand the pressure.
Calibration: Look for sensors you can adjust so you know you’re getting reliable data.
Determine how these devices will communicate. They may use Wi-Fi, cellular data, Bluetooth or BTE, or a long-range wide area network (LoRaWAN). The network could impact how your enterprise IoT system operates with building systems.
For example, if you want to install a LoRaWAN IoT hardware system in a building without the infrastructure, it might not work with existing HVAC and lighting systems. Pick a communication standard that works with diverse building systems.
Connectivity, Communication, and Edge Intelligence
Developing a system with multiprotocol support makes your IoT hardware flexible. These systems work with multiple communication protocols, such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, making integration seamless. Interoperability is a key in what to look for in IoT hardware, because you want your systems to talk to each other.
IoT hardware product development that uses gateways gives you a faster, more reliable connection. Your sensors aren’t sending large amounts of data to a cloud. They’re using the sports agent onsite. You get alerts faster.
These edge devices also provide real-time analytics for fast decision-making. You get alerted right away when the system detects a leak or an anomaly. You can send someone to the building to fix the problem faster.
Local data processing also improves security. Your sensitive data stays local instead of traveling through the cloud. It also frees up your cloud bandwidth for other uses.
Challenges and Best Practices in Developing Hardware at Scale
Outdated technology presents one of the biggest challenges to IoT hardware development. Would you rather attend a football game in a brand-new, climate-controlled stadium or an old one with no roof and crumbling seats?
Legacy building automation systems might run with old technology. Some of your buildings' automated systems might also be siloed. Both situations complicate IoT hardware design.
You also need your buildings to have reliable networks and power systems. You may also have to upgrade your cybersecurity.
To generate accurate data and automate systems accordingly, you should be able to test and calibrate your sensors. In smart building management, IoT sensors control tenant comfort and safety, so they need to be accurate. Otherwise, you could lose tenants to bad IAQ.
Best practices to follow when developing IoT hardware include:
Modular design: Use independent building blocks instead of a large, complex system.
Flexible firmware: Install easily modifiable software into your hardware for updates and customization.
Standardized components: Standardizing each system component improves interoperability.
Built-in cybersecurity: Keep people from hacking your building by making cybersecurity a key feature of the system.
Attune carefully considers all your needs during IoT hardware development. We offer sensors, gateways, and other devices that are easy to deploy and configure to your specific needs. Schedule a demo today to learn more.
