Unified IoT Platform

Our client had a problem that seems all too common. They had a system to control and knew the equipment needed to make it a reality. But there was a problem: the equipment required use of vendor apps and cloud subscriptions. The project was dead and no longer feasible. The system would be annoying to use due to multiple apps and the steep subscription costs negated potential ROI. No one wants to jump through multiple apps and cloud platforms to see what is going on and try to correlate it all together.

There must be a solution, right?

Let's review the current problems:

• Equipment requires use of a proprietary app and cloud platform.
• There are many equipment suppliers each with their own platform.
• The system is not friendly. Analysis of the system requires manually downloading, joining, and processing the data from multiple platforms.
• Control of the system is limited. The platforms provided by the manufacturer lack necessary features.
• Each proprietary system is different. 
• A lack of standardization across platforms makes subsequent analysis difficult.
• Employees must learn multiple platforms. Training becomes time-consuming.
• Subscription fees reduce long term feasibility.

Here's how we helped:

• Established control and connection of the equipment without using the proprietary platform.
• Unified the data and control into a cohesive platform.
• Enhanced functionality of the equipment beyond what the manufacturer provided.
• Delivered the system with $0 software cost and eliminated the subscriptions.
• Provided a user-friendly interface with built-in technical guidance on the screen.
• Added custom reporting and alerting features.
• System is completely customizable and configurable.

• Hog farms desire to efficiently and evenly grow their hogs for market.
• They do this by sorting hogs into low, medium, and high protein diets determined by weights and controlled by the ProSort® system.
• Historically, farmers could only see the sorting process by physically going to the barn.
• This takes a toll on the farmer's peace of mind as he wonders how the hogs are doing but can't always spend the time to drive to the barns.

• Farmers might be home with family for the night but want to keep an eye on the sorting process without driving 20-30 miles or having to get back in barn clothes.
• Pig sorting required hands at the control station to make changes.
• No visibility to farm operations unless physically present. 
• Lack of data prevented awareness into which areas would improve their business.

• Collect data from the PLC and publish to a private cloud environment.
• Each farm site has its own dashboard.
• Each dashboard can control sorting parameters without being at the control station. 

• 24/7 visibility to farm operations. 
• Farmers control the sorting process from their phones.
• Aggregation of data from all sorters into one web app.
• Historical viewing of data.

• Utilized Open-Source Software to provide entire solution at $0 software cost.
• No PLC program changes required.
• Dashboards automatically scale to incorporate new sorters for existing customers.
• Simple user configuration requiring only a name and IP address.