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News and New Products
ZigBee Takes to the Sea
By Suzanne Deffree -- Electronic News, 3/4/2005
ZigBee took to the water at the 2005 Miami International Boat Show in February, when Raymarine and Ember Corp. debuted the industry's first wirelessly controlled autopilot, the SmartPilot S1000, using the recently standardized technology.
Designed for hydraulic powerboats up to 25 feet -- such as sports fishing boats, ski boats and day boats -- the Raymarine S1000 uses embedded ZigBee chips and networking software from Ember.
But a marine application is a step away from the norm for ZigBee, which initially targets home control, building automation and industrial automation, according to the ZigBee Alliance, the group largely responsible for ZigBee's IEEE ratification, known there as 802.15.4.
As for Ember, Adrian Tuck, executive VP, notes that most of the company's ZigBee technologies fall into those categories, with a heavy presence in the home and the commercial building space. However, anything with a consumer spin on it typically moves faster than these markets, he admits.
"There's tragically, no need to get a wireless thermostat out in time for Christmas. Whereas if you are Raymarine, there are a number of times, spring being one of them, that if you can get products out as people start to refit their boats for the summer. You get driven to a more aggressive development schedule than you do in commercial building, so that means these products will move fairly quickly."
Speed to market and demand are not the top concerns for all involved. Joyce Putscher, director of In-stat's converging markets and technologies group, points to safety as a major stumbling block.
"Any wireless technology is not foolproof. It's the nature of the beast. If you want something that's failsafe, it better be wired -- and even then, there's no guarantee," she said.
A proponent of ZigBee, Putscher's concern lays in the technologies use for critical applications. "For example, on car applications in the near future, you are not going to see a wireless application that's driving a critical function. Just like you are not going to see it in a hospital being the only technology that's running something critical for a function of a human being. You're not going to see it as being the primary connection for critical applications."
Putscher maintains that while wireless technologies aren't completely new – ZigBee being in the works for years now and receiving its first version's ratification in late 2004 – not everyone is entirely comfortable with them.
"It is definitely an emerging technology. As far as the specifications go, it is really very new and there's a lot of interoperability testing yet to go," she said. "I'm not saying that there aren't a lot of potential applications, but, in general, most companies do not feel comfortable relying on wireless technology for critical aspects."
Raymarine and Ember disagree, and Tuck disputes that ZigBee is ready to take the helm, noting that his company also has ZigBee technology in medical devices in use today.
"I don't think Raymarine would have done it without that level of comfort. The standard is new, but the technology isn't all that new."
Raymarine and Ember worked together on the SmartPilot S1000 for about a year. The technology is available now.
