The small, flexible IoT sensor solution for autonomous condition monitoring
Measures where others can’t reach – no cables, no IT, no effort.
Minimal effort. Maximum impact.
Many measuring points in industry and infrastructure remain unmonitored – because there is no power, IT integration is too complex, or the location is simply hard to access.
With minion, it’s easy: a compact device that does it all – measure, transmit, alert. No wiring, control cabinet or large engineering project required.
All-in-one:
Autonomous:
Compact design:
Easy installation:
Remote monitoring and condition tracking in the cloud
Access your measurements anytime via autosen.cloud. Keep all key information in view while on the go.
Learn more about remote monitoring
Smart alerts for critical machine conditions
Get notified immediately when critical deviations occur – by email or SMS. Alert configuration is simple and lets you keep an eye on everything even when you’re away from your assets.
Learn more about cloud-based alerts
Optimization through digital automation
From measurement to action item – automate your processes and turn sensor data into, for example, a maintenance ticket or a reorder with just a few clicks.
Learn how to automate your processes
How does minion work®?
Configure the exact minion that fits your use case. minion is a modular IoT sensor system consisting of three combinable components:
Start configuring now
The right sensor for every task
Three sensor variants and one adapter for analog sensors are available for the minion system.
Vibration & temperature
Detects, for example, imbalance, misalignment, shocks, changes in position, and more.
Temperature & relative humidity
Ideal for greenhouses, warehouses and production halls
Radar
Perfect for liquid or bulk material containers as well as simple object detection
Adapter input
Independently digitizes analog 4–20 mA sensors
Reliability to the highest industrial standards
The most important questions
The minion sends its measurement data directly to the cloud via modern IoT mobile radio standards such as LTE-M and NB-IoT.
You can use the sensor in two ways:
- autosen.cloud – ready for immediate use, without your own infrastructure – dashboards, alerts, data export, user management
- Your own cloud / third-party systems via MQTT – integration via an MQTT broker – ideal for existing IT/cloud architectures
This allows the minion to be flexibly integrated into a wide variety of IoT and IT system landscapes.
In the factory setting, for example, the sensor measures every 60 minutes and sends to the cloud once a day – with this configuration, a runtime of around 375 days is specified.
The actual runtime strongly depends on:
- measurement and transmission intervals
- ambient temperature
- signal quality and mobile network activity
Recommendation: If your site is, for example, very cold or the minion transmits frequently, you should expect a shorter battery life and, if necessary, plan for a battery replacement or an external power connection.
For reliable measurement, the minion should be mounted in the following order:
- Attach the sensor
- Connect the gateway
- Establish the power supply
Important notes for correct installation:
- The contact surface should be free of paint, clean and smooth.
- Screw mounting is recommended for permanent installation.
- Adhesive or magnetic mounting is suitable for temporary measurements.
- Only mount on stable surfaces (e.g. bearing housings).
- The sensor should be aligned perpendicular to the surface.
- When using adhesive mounting, always consider the adhesive type and ambient temperature.
Proper installation ensures that the minion can measure accurately and reliably over the long term.
However, if there is no usable mobile network available at a site, the following applies:
- The sensor continues measuring as usual,
- but cannot transmit the data to the cloud immediately.
- Transmission takes place with a delay as soon as coverage is available again.
Node-RED is an intuitive low-code platform that allows you to create data flows, automations and visualisations easily using drag-and-drop. With a wide range of ready-made functional building blocks (“nodes”), data can be received, processed, displayed or forwarded to other systems – without the need for traditional programming.
The minion can be integrated into Node-RED without any problems:
- The captured IO-Link sensor data is structured by the minion and transmitted to the connected cloud environment.
- Using the provided Node-RED plug-ins, this data can then be integrated directly into your flows.
- Within Node-RED, you can create customised dashboards, workflows, alerts or forwarding to external systems.
This makes Node-RED ideal for flexibly processing, visualising or integrating minion sensor data into complex IoT processes.
Any questions left?
Go to our FAQ