Image Credit : CHS
Project Overview
We developed an IOT based live, machine monitoring product. Capturing vibration, temperature and humidity monitoring remotely. These live feeds are available through our Foundations Pulse app with automated alerting, profiling of data providing an early warning system to protect against failure and business critical assets.
Organisation
Team
To build the Foundations Pulse app we assembled a quality team to bring the project forward, concept & project was by the in house CHS Development team – www.chsservices.com
Project Brief
To enable smart thinking and forward approach we wanted to develop an IOT solution to connect devices, products and machines through the cloud. This included challenges such as:
• Connecting machines to the cloud
• Developing a bespoke service product
• Solution for collecting readings such as, vibration, temperature and humidity
o Transmitting these to the cloud
o Performance analysis and alerting in the cloud
o Power
• Provide a service that could pre-empt failure
• Provide alerts through Email and text messaging services
We had to build a solution that would provide these service over the air through the IOT to provide a sustainable, cost effective and reliable service. We wanted to deliver live, information & alerts and translated clean content. We treated this challenge with a focus on interactive design with an interface optimised for touch that would bring our content to the front.
Typical engineering solutions can cumbersome, require specialist knowledge and can be difficult to translate and we wanted to avoid all these drawbacks where possible.
Based on our CHS Foundations Pulse app we wanted to create a solution that would not only speed the process up but take advantage of and innovate IOT and deliver the primary services through our app.
Project Need
We, with our partners essentially needed to develop a new product service as such an item didn’t appear to openly exist.
With our IOT partner we created a service which is essentially a ‘box’ that has a integrated Arial and GSM sim card (which operates on a encrypted, cross network system to ensure we always have a signal regardless of the network it operates on), with vibration, temperature and humidity sensoring capabilities.
Our ‘boxes’ have then installed inside and connected to critical equipment and assets which then through the mobile network to the could for analysis is real time. The Foundations pulse app is one of the front line services delivering this information and has gone from providing weekly updates through a manual system to an online connected real-time early warning system.
This service effectively creates ‘smart machines’ that against trend and performance analysis conducted in the cloud and alert and inform operators on performance and warn of potential failure of components inside the machine.
The analysis that takes place in the cloud looks at the connected and trends and create its own benchmarks (or these can be fixed) to alerts engineers to early warning signs of items such as failure, poor performance and asset degradation.
User Experience
When putting the app together the key focus was the visual user experience through the tablet interface backed by our installed boxes (Foundations Connect devices). We wanted to provide a clean interface and deliver information that was easy to understand and review. Users can scroll through the different sensor feeds and review performance and alert information in real time.
We made use of the windows 8.1 semantic zoom view allowing the user to pinch out to grouped levels by first letter of the asset tree. Assets can be found within a few seconds, this is further enhanced as each asset tile contains an image of the asset for quick visual reference and the ability to pin favorited assets to the start page and windows start menu.
Project Marketing
• This services is in use at the largest London airport currently undergoing a case study
• Changi Airport Singapore is currently reviewing this technology and are using our phase 1 release: https://customers.microsoft.com/Pages/CustomerStory.aspx?recid=18911
• Currently working with Microsoft and our partners on best promotion opportunities
• We hosted a stands at various events
• In talks with other major global airport and parcel/logistics handling companies.
• Clean, simple and easy to use Foundations Pulse is gathering momentum and has already received positive reviews in store
• Flyers, email campaigns and showcases
Project Privacy
The main Foundations application is hosted on the Microsoft Azure with platform their applied security and the app runs securely on windows 8.1. All users are provided with a username & password which can be managed from the cloud with various access permissions.
All passwords are encrypted. When a user logs out of the app it automatically removes all data from the app on the device.
Also see privacy policy here http://www.foundationspulse.com/pdfs/privacy.pdf
Tags
Best IoT
The Internet of Things has the power to reshape our world, as there is endless opportunity as we start to connect people to things, things to things and people to people. What will stand out in IoT are those that create a seamless experience and make the ordinary extraordinary.
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