IoT technology is not new anymore, it is well established in many industries with many companies. One of the sectors that have been revamped by IoT is the industrial sector, and in this sector are many applications that optimize the utilization of each machine, applications that cut the downtime, applications that improve efficiency, and so on.

Companies are benefiting big-time by adopting Industrial IoT technologies. They gain better intelligence from data so they can make more informed decisions.

In this article we pose the question: are the current asset tracking solutions, that are available, suitable for industrial challenges?

Asset Tracking Solutions

Asset Tracking solutions use sensors and IoT technology to locate and track a company’s assets in real-time. This is possible whether it is indoors, such as in a warehouse, or outdoors for moving vehicles.

Asset tracking solutions are generally more aligned for mobile assets such as trucks, cars, and shipping containers. A typical use case is a school or a company that has a fleet of delivery trucks. Tracking the trucks would enable getting analytics over routes, optimizing the routes to cut operational costs, and optimizing the fleet size according to the predicted load.

But, these tracking solutions are not suitable for the industrial sector. Industrial solutions often require handling critical parameters at the locations.

For example, a moving asset inside a warehouse might need to also monitor temperatures and vibration. It might need to monitor the orientation of the objects being transported or need system information that requires connection to the On-Board Diagnostics (OBD) system of the vehicle.

The problem here is that most asset trackers are not customizable, They work out of the box and need minimal intervention. Furthermore, Developing hardware that is compatible with the industrial protocols is time-consuming and requires specific technical expertise. We want to gather sensor data or control some devices so you might need to use CAN protocol, Siemens S7 protocol, or to communicate over different physical interfaces such as RS485.

Hence, the development platform for these solutions should be purposely built for these requirements to minimize the development time and offer maximum scalability for the future.

Zerynth Asset Monitoring Solution

The complexities of developing an IoT solution become apparent when you think of all the numerous hardware vendors along with software, cloud integration, and scalability of such solutions.

Zerynth solves these complexities by providing a hardware-software platform that is specifically made for industrial asset monitoring applications.

Zerynth hardware supports GPS positioning, communicates with industrial devices and sensors, and sends data over the GSM. Zerynth also integrates the hardware with a cloud service that powers dashboards to visualize the data in real-time.

Let’s have a look at each component of the platform

Zerynth Asset Monitoring platform consists of:

• 4ZeroBox Mobile: a cellular and GPS-enabled Industrial data acquisition unit. It features a DIN-rail mountable case with industrial-grade sensor channels, support for Wi-Fi, Relays, CAN, RS485, RS232,  3-axis accelerometer, and more.
  
• Zerynth SDK: Python enabled development environment that supports Wifi, Ethernet, Cellular connectivity in addition to the support for Industrial sensor channels and communication protocols.
• Zerynth Cloud: Fully integrated with the Zerynth SDK, Easily send the data to Zerynth Cloud for controlling devices,  visualizing the data, and providing analytics for the end-user.
  

To learn more about the technical features of the 4ZeroBox Mobile, visit this documentation. If you would like to order it, visit the official page.