What’s New in MindSphere – December 2020 and January 2021

Connect your devices to MindSphere with MindConnect Software Agent’s updated installation method that gives you a pure no-code software solution. MindConnect Software Agent unlocks the full potential of your existing hardware by connecting it to MindSphere and enabling complex edge calculations.

Previously, onboarding required coding and additional hardware for installation. With this update, you can onboard and log devices via a local web server without any additional coding required. Reduce the time it takes to get assets connected to MindSphere with an out-of-the-box solution.

It is now possible to design Custom Analysis Packages in MindConnect Edge Analytics. Reduce the technical barrier to edge analytics and enable non-experts to gain insights from their data being processed at the edge. Custom Analysis Package calculations are graphically built based on a NodeRed editor known as Visual Flow Creator. By using the visual block editor format, users can take advantage of drag-and-drop and the linking of pre-defined analysis nodes from the established library.
The UI layout of a Custom Analysis Package can be individually designed to fit the skills of whoever is using the solution. Consequently, this reduces the technical barrier for non-experts while not limiting the solution for technical experts. For instance, experts can create reusable packages such as KPIs for non-experts and experts alike.

The most recent version 3.1.1 of X-Tools enables communication with MindSphere through an MQTT broker. MQTT is an Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) messaging protocol common to the IoT landscape. Its persistent sessions reduce the time to reconnect the client with the broker. It is an optimal protocol for X-Tools users because it excels with remote devices that have a small code base and limited network bandwidth. Improving the reliability of communication with these hard-to-reach devices improves the efficiency of analytics performed across an entire fleet, no matter its location.

The Closed-Loop suite of applications is MindSphere applications that make it possible for you to create a complete, closed-loop digital twin with the power of the industrial IoT. To learn more about this Digital Twin solution, check out some of these blogs.

The most recent updates to this suite of solutions o further improve simulation operations, scheduling and UI updates. These updates are:

Additional updates have simplified the process to create a digital twin template by improving the MindSphere user interface and the application user interface.