8/28/2016 IoT Path­To­Product: The Making of a Connected Transportation Solution | Intel® Software

https://software.intel.com/en­us/articles/iot­path­to­product­the­making­of­a­connected­transportation­solution 1/16

Figure 1. The finished product demonstration with custom trailer housing.

IoT Path-To-Product: The Making of a Connected TransportationSolution

 

To demonstrate a rapid path-to-product edge IoT solution for the transportation sector, a proofof concept was created using the Grove* IoT Commercial Developer Kit. That prototype wasscaled to an industrial solution using an Intel® IoT Gateway, industrial sensors, and Intel® SystemStudio. This solution monitors the temperature within a truck’s refrigerated cargo area, as wellthe open or closed status of the cargo doors. The gateway generates events based on changes tothose statuses, to support end-user functionality on a tablet PC application.

 

Submitted on August 12, 2016 Translate

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8/28/2016 IoT Path­To­Product: The Making of a Connected Transportation Solution | Intel® Software

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The core opportunity associated with the Internet of Things (IoT) lies in adding intelligence andconnectivity to everyday devices, harnessing information and putting it to use in ways that add value.Monitoring the status of a refrigerated semi-truck trailer hauling perishable goods is a simple example.Alerting the driver when the temperature passes outside a pre-set range or when cargo doors areopened unexpectedly can help avoid financial losses. An IoT solution to monitor and track theseaspects of a semi-truck trailer could therefore be a viable commercial product.

Intel undertook a development project to investigate this and other opportunities associated withbuilding a connected transportation solution. The project was presented as a demonstration at Intel®Developer Forum (https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-iot-commercial-dev-kit-path-to-product) in 2015 and again in 2016. This document recounts the course of the project developmenteffort, to help drive inquiry, invention, and innovation for the Internet of Things.

For a how to for this project, see IoT Path-to-Product: How to Build a Connected TransportationSolution (https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/iot-path-to-product-how-to-build-a-connected-transportation-solution).

Visit GitHub for this project's latest code samples and documentation.(https://github.com/intel-iot-devkit/path-to-product/tree/master/transportation/java)

Introduction

The goal of this project was to build a functional prototype and then to transition that proof of conceptinto an industrial-grade solution for scalable deployment as a commercial product. Rapid prototyping isfacilitated by using the Grove* IoT Commercial Developer Kit, which consists of an Intel® NUC system,Intel® IoT Gateway Software Suite, and sensors and their components from the Grove* Starter Kit Plus(manufactured by Seeed). The project also uses the Arduino* 101 board. Hardware used in theprototype stage of this project is illustrated in Figure 1, and specifications are given in Table 1.

Note: Known in the United States as “Arduino* 101,” this board is known elsewhere as “Genuino* 101.” It isreferred to throughout the rest of this document as the “Arduino* 101” board.

Table 1. Prototype hardware used in connected transportation project

  Intel® NUC KitDE3815TYKHE

Arduino* 101Board

Processor/Microcontroller

Intel® Atom™ Processor E3815 (512KCache, 1.46 GHz)

Intel® Curie™ Compute Module @ 32 MHz

Memory 8 GB DDR3L­1066 SODIMM (max) 196 KB Flash Memory

24 KB SRAM

DeveloperZone

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Networking /IO

Integrated 10/100/1000 LAN

Dimensions 190 mm x 116 mm x 40 mm 68.6 mm x 53.4 mm

Full Specs specs(http://ark.intel.com/products/78577/Intel­NUC­Kit­DE3815TYKHE)

specs(https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoard101)

14 Digital I/O Pins

6 Analog IO Pins

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Figure 2. Intel® NUC Kit DE3815TYKHE and Arduino* 101 board.

The course of this project demonstrates the value of the path-to-product approach: it allows aprototype to be built with a relatively small investment of time and effort, followed by an efficienttransition to a commercially viable solution. Using a precompiled OS as well as RPMs helps to eliminateunnecessary downloads, having to customize the OS, and identifying libraries necessary to bring aproject to life.

This project was devised to contribute to innovations around solutions for similar use cases beingproduced and marketed. While this project was designed to provide only basic functionality, its designis flexible and extensible enough that a variety of features could be added. In particular, the projectcould be expanded in the future to include web connectivity, cloud capabilities, remote monitoring, andother components.

In the project’s earliest stages, the team listed potential features for the prototype and the product. Asample of these included rear-door status (open or closed), temperature of the trailer, alarms based onthe state of the door and temperature, an online application to view data, and in-cab monitoring ofinformation. To demonstrate the viability of creating a robust solution while maintaining simplicity andlow cost, the team elected to limit the bill of materials for the prototype phase to just the contents ofthe Grove IoT Commercial Developer Kit.

Creating the Prototype Proof of Concept

To allow for separation of duties and efficient progress, the team divided the solution into three primary areasof effort:

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This approach of separating the project into discrete segments allowed the team to progress throughthe prototype phase more rapidly than otherwise, taking best advantages of skill sets available withinthe team. In particular, while the user interface was not strictly required in the early phases of theproject, it was expected to require the most development time of the three areas listed above.Therefore, so beginning it as early as possible allowed for it to be well underway by the time it wasneeded later in the project.

In terms of the application logic, the team was able to look ahead to the expected final functionalprototype and make decisions in the early prototype process looking to the future. Overall, the teamexpected the operation of the door sensor to be relatively simple, allowing greater attention to theproper utilization of a temperature sensor on a small and then commercial scale.

By utilizing the sensors in the Grove* Starter Kit Plus, we were able to rapidly create a prototype with afunctional sensor environment that the UI team could work with. This approach enabled layout anddesign elements to come to life quickly and provided a future framework for the final functional usecase. The prototype configuration, with the Intel® NUC, Arduino* 101 board, and sensors, is illustratedin Figure 3. The bill of materials is given in Table 2.

User interface (UI). Part of the team began working on the actual production UI layout and design,looking ahead to the production stages of the project.

Application business logic. Part of the team began working on the logic for the prototypeapplication, while also recognizing that changes would be needed as the project progressedtoward the commercial solution.

Prototype sensor solution. Part of the team began to create the configuration of sensors for thesolution, utilizing the UPM/MRAA libraries for rapid development.

8/28/2016 IoT Path­To­Product: The Making of a Connected Transportation Solution | Intel® Software

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Figure 3. Developer kit with selected sensors enabled.

Table 2. Connected transportation prototype components.

  Component Details

Base System Intel® NUC KitDE3815TYKHE

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/boards­and­kits/intel­nuc­kits/intel­nuc­kit­de3815tykhe.html(http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/boards­and­kits/intel­nuc­kits/intel­nuc­kit­de3815tykhe.html)

Arduino* 101 Board https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoard101(https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoard101)

USB Type A to Type BCable

For connecting Arduino* 101 board to NUC

Componentsfrom Grove*IoTCommercialDeveloper Kit

Base Shield V2 http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/Base­Shield­V2­p­1378.html (http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/Base­Shield­V2­p­1378.html)

Touch Sensor Module http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/Grove­Touch­Sensor­p­747.html (http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/Grove­Touch­Sensor­p­747.html)

8/28/2016 IoT Path­To­Product: The Making of a Connected Transportation Solution | Intel® Software

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Button Module http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/Grove­Button­p­766.html (http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/Grove­Button­p­766.html)

Temperature SensorModule

http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/Grove­Temperature­Sensor­p­774.html(http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/Grove­Temperature­Sensor­p­774.html)

Buzzer Module http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/Grove­Buzzer­p­768.html (http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/Grove­Buzzer­p­768.html)

Red LED http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/Grove­Red­LED­p­1142.html (http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/Grove­Red­LED­p­1142.html)

LCD with RGBBacklight Module

http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/Grove­LCD­RGB­Backlight­p­1643.html(http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/Grove­LCD­RGB­Backlight­p­1643.html)

Use Case

The use case was built and displayed through an administration application to support the followingscenario:

 

1.  Press button to start the use case (simulating opening the door):a.    Sets threshold ambient temperature +5 degrees.b.    Solid red LED lights up in cab.c.    LCD displays current temperature and door status (open), as shown in Figure 4.

8/28/2016 IoT Path­To­Product: The Making of a Connected Transportation Solution | Intel® Software

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Figure 4. Showing door status.

 

2.   Touch temperature sensor to raise ambient room temperature by five degrees:a.    Buzzer sounds.b.    Red LED blinks continuously.c.    LCD turns red and displays actual temperature and door status (open), as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5. Showing high temperature status.

8/28/2016 IoT Path­To­Product: The Making of a Connected Transportation Solution | Intel® Software

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Simulation

This simulation demonstrates the reduced potential loss of temperature-sensitive cargo by monitoringtemperature changes and alerting the driver if it becomes critical, as illustrated in Figures 6 and 7.

Figure 6. Log file showing events.

 

3.  Touch sensor to acknowledge alert (buzzer turns off).4.  Press button to close the door:

a.    Red LED continues to blink until temperature passes below threshold.b.    LCD displays temperature and door status (closed).c.    When temperature passes below threshold, blinking red LED turns off, solid green LED lightsup, and LCD turns green.d.    LCD displays temperature and door status (closed).

8/28/2016 IoT Path­To­Product: The Making of a Connected Transportation Solution | Intel® Software

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Figure 7. Base online view as envisioned.

Target Commercial Solution

With an operational prototype based on the Intel® IoT Developer Kit and Grove IoT CommercialDeveloper Kit, it was necessary to determine how to proceed to create a commercial solution. Table 3outlines how the components used in the prototype phase could be transitioned to a productionsolution.

Table 3. Components in prototype versus production solution.

  Prototype Production Solution

Buzzer Grove Kit Buzzer Alarm on Phone (customer application)

LCD Grove LCD panel Screen on Phone (customer application)

LED (RED) Grove Kit LED Light on Phone (customer application)

Button Grove Kit Button Industrial magnetic sensor with pairedmagnet

Touch Sensor Grove Kit Touch Sensor Touch on Phone (customer application)

Temp Sensor Grove Kit Temp Sensor Commercial Temp Sensor

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Heat Source Person’s Finger 20­watt Halogen Puck Light

Gateway Intel® NUC and Arduino 101Board

Intel® IoT Gateway

In addition, there are many commercial gateways available, with design differences making them suitedto various industries and use cases. A key consideration for this project was a broad range of I/Ooptions, to support both current and future functionality, specifically for connecting sensors to providea data feed.

An Intel® IoT Gateway was chosen as the gateway device for the product portion of this project, asshown in Figure 8. The processing power and I/O functions were deemed sufficient for the presentedcommercial usage.

A wired Modbus temperature sensor was chosen to provide a reliable connection to obtaintemperature readings every several seconds. All communications on devices were performed via directwiring or via Ethernet. Standard MRAA/UPM libraries were maintained throughout the process withoutany modifications.

The gateway acts as a web server, storing data as well as making calls to the temperature sensor tokeep the data fresh.  The Java UPM Library uses libmodbus to read and send periodic updates from theComet* temperature sensor to the Tomcat* web server.

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Figure 8. Gateway installed as part of demo with temperature sensor.

Transferring Code to the Gateway

Typically, ramping up to a commercial gateway involves having to revamp code so that it is compatiblewith whichever services are available on the system. In this case, the coding on the prototype was allperformed in Java*, HTML, and JavaScript*, making the transition to a commercial solution relativelysimple. The code transition was simplified by the use of the same MRAA/UPM libraries in both phasesof the project.

Mapping Grove Sensors to Industrial Sensors

Using MRAA and UPM libraries can help jumpstart a project. The following steps cover porting the appto the commercial product solution:

1.  Target desired industrial hardware:a.    Determine whether the hardware requires additional libraries or application support.b.    If needed, integrate libraries and software and create OS layers for software deployment.

2.  Once commercial product hardware is successfully integrated into the prototype solution, removethe code that is no longer needed:a.    Utilize existing layers created during the prototype phase to install solution dependencies.b.    Make changes as needed for new hardware.

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Customer Application

The base customer application, shown in Figures 9 through 12, was created to replace the functionalityof the Grove LCD, LED, buzzer, and touch sensor that the driver would interact with. In the productionsolution, the customer application would reside on the mobile device carried by the driver, allowing foreasy notification and response to alerts. The customer application is quite simple in this example butcould be easily expanded. It has two status indicators that refer to temperature and door status. Analert button becomes active and then gives an acknowledge button to clear the alert.

Figure 9. Main status screen.

3.  Take new and old layers and build into production runtime.4.  Complete all installation and testing on production hardware.

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Figure 10. Status showing an alert.

Figure 11. Showing a full alert and acknowledge button active.

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Connect

Collaborate on Dev Mesh

Figure 12. Initial setup screen finding IP address of gateway.

Conclusion

This exercise demonstrates use of the Grove* IoT Commercial Developer Kit to rapidly develop aprototype. With wide-ranging libraries, the ease of use of the Developer Kit simplifies the developmentprocess while also providing high compatibility for commercialization of the product. Scaling up to acommercial gateway was quite easy, as the team was able to directly copy code and have it functionimmediately.

More Information

How to Build the IoT Path to Product Connected Transportation Solution(https://software.intel.com/en­us/articles/iot­path­to­product­how­to­build­a­connected­transportation­solution)

Intel® Developer Zone for IoT (https://software.intel.com/en­us/iot/home)

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