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The Benefits of AIOT: “Lower Costs or More Efficiency”

AIoT has many benefits. Those benefits can be summarized as: saving, controlling, optimizing and innovation. How does AIOT reduce costs and provide more efficiency?

How AIoT can help to save:

  • Preventive maintenance
  • Efficient use of time, equipment and money
  • Lesser costs of energy
  • Don´t throw away infrastructure which is working fine

Preventive maintenance

Purchasing new machinery involves high costs. The assets of public infrastructure exist of expensive equipment. So, there are high costs of replacing equipment which is failing. To reduce these costs, Preventive maintenance comes in. With Preventive maintenance, you can repair or replace parts from which you know that they will not be working properly in a short time. Or on the moment they are not working properly anymore.  With this maintenance program, you can act because an (expected) little failure has caused damage.

And, in many cases such as public infrastructure, a not working device isn’t just a not working device!  A failure of a sluice or railroad switch causes disruption for the infrastructure as a whole: Ships and trains can’t deliver their goods anymore on time. Customers are standing literary in the cold due to not working train infrastructure. With preventive maintenance you can spare them (or yourself) high costs and much annoyance.

Efficient use of time, equipment and money

Use your time, equipment or money? As efficient as possible. In a time of growing economies, employees are scarce and hard to find. So you want to make use of your employee’s time as efficient and effective as possible. This means that employees have to to be able give attention to things… really needed. IoT makes this possible. Some examples:

  • For offices: cleaners have to clean only the places of the office which have actually used instead of cleaning the whole building. Non-used offices can even be shut down.
  • Logistics: more efficienct planning of cranes, further transport
  • Already mentioned: the benefit of preventive maintenance

Lesser costs of energy

Another savings IoT makes possible is saving of energy.

And of course, this benefits the user but also the planet as a whole! And that makes your customers and employees even more satisfied. Which makes that they will stay customer or employer longer… Besides, if you rent offices, they will be longer and easier hired.

Don’t throw infrastructure which is working fine

In most buildings and logistics, the infrastructure has been built years ago with huge efforts and costs. The infrastructure is mission critical, so owners often still accept that their infrastructure isn’t the most efficient, as long as it works. Now sensors come in: they bring an extra layer upon the already existing devices, be it such different devices as hvac in office buildings or cranes in ports.

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How to design FIR Filters in ASN Filter Designer

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What are Finite Impulse Respsonse (FIR) Filters? And how to design FIR Filters in ASN Filter Designer and which filters does ASN Filter Designer support?

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Get the best results out of your IoT infrastructure: design, maintenance and innovation

ASN Smart algorithms and technology offer the IoT approach and results you need.

Since 2006, ASN has successfully helped many international organisations. With data analysis, algorithms, security and successful implementations for their embedded IoT applications.

  • 62 Tried & tested IP blocks that are used worldwide
  • Combability with Arm Cortex-M technology, used in over 80% of IoT devices
  • Biomedical ECG, EMG, Lab-on-chip and vital life signs algorithmic solutions
  • High precision gas and flow rate measurement solutions
  • Human/object radar based motion tracking
  • Sensor signal processing

62 application IP Blocks

Our tried and tested application IP blocks are tried and tested worldwide for variety of IIoT/IoT applications, including:

  • Biomedical (EMG, ECG, vital life signs, lab-on-chip)
  • Smart Grids
  • Machine and motor maintenance
  • Oil and gas
  • ADAS (automotive driver assistance)
  • Smart street lighting
  • Noise cancellation
  • Industrial sensors

Compatibility with Arm Cortex-M technology

The ASN Filter Designer has an automatic code generator for Arm Cortex-M cores. This means that we support virtually every Arm based demo-board: ST, Cypress, NXP, Analog Devices, TI, Microchip/Atmel. And over 200+ other manufacturers. Our compatibility with Arm’s industry standard CMSIS-DSP software framework removes the frustration of implementing complicated digital filters in your IoT application. As a result, you get code that is optimal for Cortex-M devices and that works 100% of the time.

From algorithmic concept to NPD

Our NPD (product development process) provides a systematic and efficient way of productising a developed IoT algorithmic concept. This allows you to get your IoT application to market based on first time right principles.

Biomedical ECG, EMG, Lab-on-chip and vital life signs

One of our specialised sectors is the one of biomedical. For this sector, our ASN Filter Designer is very suitable for data filtering of ECG and EMG. After data filtering, you can export your cleaned data to Matlab. Or immediately export it to an Arm microcontroller for deployment. In parallel to the ASN Filter Designer, we have developed algorithms for a Lab-on-chip and Vital Life Signs measurement.

High precision gas and flow rate measurement solutions

One of our other specalisms are high precision gas and flow rate measurement solutions. Our comprehensive collection of application IP blocks has allowed many international companies to obtain outstanding measurement performance for their IoT applications!

And we can do much more for you… just ask us!

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How drones fuel ‘smart air’: air control and congestion

While the developments in the use of drones are going very fast, most of its use is still in an experimenting phase. Besides, the technique is working on an individual basis. From start-ups to big companies like Google, Amazon and UPS. Companies are experimenting by delivering pizzas on the beach. In the future, when drones have become widely adapted, a new form of air control must be developed. In crowded areas in particular. When drones might take up from anyplace and land anywhere anytime, air control is far more difficult than control of normal airplanes. And of course, delivery drones are supposed to work without human interference, even beyond sight from the owner of these drones.

Communication

Drones need to communicate with each other, and with other participants of air traffic. Furthermore, questions about prevention from flying over fires and forbidden areas must be solved. For instance airports, strategic points as driveways and military zones. Taking in consideration they might fly of its course due to wind.

Congestion

When pizza delivery will be just as common as delivery by scooter nowadays, a form of air congestion is going to take place as well. Companies are already proposing to use different ‘airlines’ for speedy delivery and slower registering traffic. But then, there must come a solution how to handle the event when delivery drones are in each other environment without colliding. Or to prevent that the whole traffic gets stuck because every device is waiting on other drones.

The ‘congestion’ takes also place in the use of frequencies. Drones use the same frequencies as a lot of other uses. For instance, airlines and military.

Standardization and legislation

That means standardization and legislation is needed. Standardization, to make certain that drones from different users/companies can communicate with each other. And to make decisions to fly safely and as efficiently as possible. Like other kinds of traffic, legislation is needed to set some rules how all devices can participate in drone traffic and traffic in general. And, when industry won’t be able to solve the already issues mentioned on trust and acceptability, legislation might also come in to set restrictions in the use of drones.

Final Thoughts

The application possibilities of drones are very promising for delivery and registration uses. It is still in its experimental phase. But with developments going fast, soon it will reach the maturity phase. For this, there are two-fold kind of challenges.

One of these are challenges on privacy, safety and security. These challenges have to be solved before their use will get widespread trust and acceptance. Besides, there are technical and communication issues: where multiple drones are being used – especially in cities- challenges how drones can and have to behave in traffic has to be solved.

In both challenges, sensors play a pivotal role in solving the technical questions. Find out more about Drones and DC motor Control

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Are you a logistics provider or art supporter? How Track and Trace helps you to defeat graffiti

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For public infrastructure, removing graffiti costs millions of euro each year. Besides the direct costs, there are the costs of not using the equipment and environmental costs. And naturally, the trains, buses, metro, etc. are your visit card to customers.

The thrill of success

Sometimes, graffiti can look beautiful. But mostly, it looks -and is- vandalism.

Non-removal is an invitation to even more graffiti. Tests in New York have turned out that the immediate removal of graffiti, at least the same day, discourages further graffiti. Besides, the subway of New York is guarded closely, so it has become difficult for vandals to create their painting.

To create something beautiful is mostly not the aim of the sprayers. Most painters do it for the ‘thrill’. The first thrill is to finish their work before they are noticed. The other is to see their work travelling the next day, knowing it will travel the whole country. There are solo-sprayers. But mostly, sprayers work in groups. Actions are being planned, to out-smarten the (railway) police.

Nowadays, public transport companies have guidelines when graffiti is noticed: an employer (e.g. the train manager notices the painting, signs a cleaning company and this company cleans the graffiti the same day with a mobile team.

But as the saying goes: prevention is better than curing! How can you diminish the change of graffiti paintings? Track & Trace solutions help.

Know if someone enters your shunting yard unwanted

The shunting yard is a known spot for graffiti painters. At night, or just on the day itself because it’s easy to enter the premises.

Most marshal yards are guarded by security. However, because they are quiet places, it is rather easy to enter the site and hide from security. Besides, most graffiti painters operate in groups. So, they are practiced to paint a wagon in no-time.

The Dutch regional TV broadcast OogTV: “Meanwhile I know, also from stories that I hear from colleagues from the country, that such artists are unstoppable. We can make the gates so high, and the locks so wide, but if these people want to, they will succeed.”

How Tracy can help: perimeter and object guard

Track and trace can help preventing graffiti in 2 ways:

  • Perimeter detection
  • Object guard

Know if someone enters the marshal yard or any other perimeter. Act immediately on ‘strange’ behavior, such as: unidentified persons on the premises. Or persons at times when you expect nobody will be there. Another option is to guard the object itself, such as a train wagon itself with a sensor. An alert is being send when persons approach the object.

So, you can prevent graffiti to take place or at least, to prevent the painter from finishing his ‘artwork’.

Find out how we can help you: https://www.advsolned.com/tracy-home/

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How ASN Filter Designer eases DSP for engineers

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DSP for engineers: the ASN Filter Designer is the ideal tool to analyze and filter the sensor data quickly. Create an algorithm within hours instead of days. When you are working with sensor data, you probably recognize these challenges:

  • My sensor data signals are too weak to even make an analysis. So, strengthening of the signals is needed
  • Where I would expect a flat line, the data looks like a mess because of interference and other containments. I need to clean the data first before analysis
Sensor data: wanted components, desired signals (DC components), and unwanted components (50HZ sine powerline interference, white noise). Filter sensor data DSP

Until now, you’ve probably spent days or even weeks working on your signal analysis and filtering? The development trajectory is generally slow and very painful.

In fact, just think about the number of hours that you could have saved if you had design tool that managed all of the algorithmic details for you. ASN Filter Designer is an industry standard solution used by thousands of professional developers worldwide working on IoT projects.

Our close collaboration with Arm and ST ensures that all designed filters are 100% compatible with all Arm Cortex-M processors, such as ST’s popular STM32 family.

Challenges for engineers

  • 90% of IoT smart sensors are based on Arm Cortex-M processor technology
  • Sensor signal processing is difficult
  • Sensors have trouble with all kinds of interference and undesirable components
  • How do I design a filter that meets my requirements?
  • How can I verify my designed filter on test data?
  • Clean sensor data is required for better product performance
  • Time consuming process to implement a filter on an embedded processor
  • Time is money!

Designers hit a ‘brick wall’ with traditional tooling. Standard tooling requires an iterative, trial and error approach or expert knowledge. Using this approach, a considerable amount of valuable engineering time is wasted. ASN Filter Designer helps you with an interactive method of design, whereby the tool automatically enters the technical specifications based on the graphical user requirements.

Fast DSP algorithm development

  • Fully validated filter design: suitable for deployment in DSP, micro-controller, FPGA, ASIC or PC application.
  • Automatic detailed design documentation: expediting peer review and lowing project risks by helping the designer create a paper trail.
  • Simple handover: project file, documentation and test results provide a painless route for handover to colleagues or other teams.
  • Easily accommodate other scenarios in the future: Design may be simply modified in the future to accommodate other requirements and scenarios, such as 60Hz powerline interference cancellation, instead of the European 50Hz.

ASN Filter Designer: the fast and intuitive filter designer

The ASN Filter Designer is the ideal tool to analyze and filter the sensor data quickly. When needed, you can easily deploy your data for further analyze for tools such as Matlab and Python. As such it’s ideal for engineers who need and powerful signal analyser and need to create a data filter for their IoT application. Certainly, when you have to create data filtering once in a while. Compared to other tools, you can create an algorithm within hours instead of days.

Easily deploy your algorithms to Matlab, Python, C++ and Arm

A big timesaver of the ASN Filter Designer is that you can easily deploy your algorithms to Matlab, Python, C++ or directly on an Arm microcontroller with the automatic code generators.

Instant pain relief

Just think about the number of hours that you could have saved if you had design tool that managed all of the algorithmic details for you.

ASN Filter Designer is an industry standard solution used by thousands of professional developers worldwide working on IoT projects. Our close collaboration with Arm and ST ensures that the all filters are 100% compatible with all Arm Cortex-M processors.

How much pain relief can 125 Euro buy you?

Because a lot of engineers need our ASN Filter Designer for a short time, a 125 Euro license for just 3 months is possible!

Just ask yourself: is 125 Euro a fair price to pay for instant pain relief and results? We think so. Besides, we have a license for 1 year and even a perpetual license. Download the demo to see for yourself or contact us for more information.

 

 

Download demo now

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Preventive Maintenance and the challenges of qualified Personnel

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Preventive Maintenance is one of the golden nuggets of IOT. How does this focus affect the deployment of personnel?

  • Efficiencty of personnel: more and better results
  • Challenge of scarcity of personnel
  • The challenges of the aging engineer

Efficiency of personnel: more and better results

There was and is a lot of attention what sensors can do for preventive maintenance: with preventive maintenance, huge costs of big repair costs are avoided by acting on time. One aspect in this way of thinking, was that existing personnel could work more efficiently. In old days, mechanics and engineers did their regular scheduled rounds of maintenance, where every device got similar time of attention, whether the device was in a bad state or not. Sensors measure the state of maintenance of devices real-time. As such, personnel can give attention to devices which really needs it. By using your existing personnel in this more efficient way, high personnel costs are saved because no other personnel would have been hired.

Challenge of Scarcity of personnel

When Preventive Maintenance became popular some years ago as one of the fields of Internet of Things, the world was still in the last phase of the economic crisis. Industry has in some ways still crisis thought: yes, personnel is hard to find. But they don’t make the connection that efficiency has changed in the guise of ‘cost saver’ to ‘benefit most from opportunities’. Because personnel is so hard to find, industry has to use the available personnel as efficient and effectively as possible. Besides, engineering for infrastructure isn’t a popular study any longer. So, engineers are even harder to find.

With preventive maintenance with the aid of sensors, personnel can give attention to the devices which really needs them.

The challenges of the aging engineer

There is more: most infrastructure has been built 20 years ago. Already, there’s the challenge that those engineers have moved on to other jobs. So, it’s very possible indeed that in a company, nobody knows how this infrastructure works exactly any longer. Last years, a new challenge has come up: those engineers are beginning to retire. That means that a pool of this specific knowledge is already decreasing and will even lessen more in the years to come. Therefore, it is very important to have measures for maintenance in place, before this knowledge has disappeared completely.

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5 Benefits of IOT for Asset Management

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Benefits:

  • A longer lifetime for your equipment with Preventive maintenance
  • Create the future. Better serve your client, with solutions which weren’t possible until now!
  • More satisfied customers
  • More control on your processes
  • Better Security

One of the most important areas for IoT is Preventive Maintenance. With the modern solutions, you can measure if assets are working properly. And if not, you can repair or replace them, even before those assets have created damage. Examples are:

  • Are the industrial motors running properly?
  • Is the oil pressure and quality still ok?
  • Are there any glitches in the electrical wiring?
  • How can I save on energy?

With IoT, you can give your equipment a longer lifetime and thus save on repair and replacement costs. Besides, you can spare on costs because you have grip on your processes. For instance: more efficiency on energy costs, better results through optimal deployment of employees

Your customers will become more satisfied with your services. With solutions which weren’t possible until now, products can ‘think’ for their users. In IOT, users raise the expectations and will be dissatisfied with devices which do not help them.

A dashboard helps you to view in one glance which assets are working properly and which are probably in need of repair or replacement. Further, you learn when, where and how intensely your assets are being used, so you use your assets more efficiently.

In a world of connected devices, security is very important. Hackers will try to break in: to steal, to cause harm or to shut down your devices. Without security, hackers can make their entry from anywhere: from one of your devices, but also an unsecured device from one of your employee’s at home. So, in the world of IOT, security of these devices is key.

IoT solutions

IoT solutions prevent accidents from happening and reduce the response time for maintenance. As results, your costs of maintenance will be lower and equipment will have a longer lifetime through Preventive Maintenance.

Sensor measurement solutions look for deviations in normal use. So, you can act upon the first deviations and before the device isn’t working at all. Examples are:

  • Monitoring the health of an industrial motor
  • Monitoring oil quality in chain mechanisms
  • Smart metering for saving energy

Clean sensor data required for sensor fusion and accurate decision making

Sensor data (audio, pressure, temperature, weight, etc.) have to be measured. However, most sensor signals are disturbed by:

  • Powerline interference and glitches.
  • Environmental factors (including: dust and other contaminants).

ASN Consultancy is the modern way of working of algorithm design to separate the wanted sensor signals from the undesirable unwanted signals. So, you can analyze and take action on clean and accurate sensor data.

Dashboard

Our tailormade dashboard solutions provide you all the information you need at one glance. So, you act on devices which are not working properly anymore. You can see the use of each device and can even predict the use in time, based on your history data. With this information, you can gain more efficiency or you can improve the satisfaction of your customers.

Security

With a world where everything is connected, security is very important. Because of its importance, its size and the results of an eventual disruption, infrastructure is an important target for terrorist and (future) enemy governments.

Do you want to learn more: https://www.advsolned.com/asn-condition-monitoring/

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Container thefts increasing; IOT Track and Trace helps

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Container thefts are increasingly common. “What should you do with such a thing?” headlines the newspaper article. Recently, the police found a number of containers that were once stolen. Tracy, the IOT track and trace device, can help you.

Why should someone want to steal a container?

So, why should someone want to steal a container? For an outsider, it might sound a bit strange. Customers see the container mostly as a kind of large, metal ‘box’ to dispose waste. For a container company, the hiring of the container means trust in your logistic solutions. But for a thief, a container means an easy to steal loot: it’s already packed and stands ready to pick-up!

Stealing is that simple: the scrap metal booty is already packed!

Stealing containers with scrap metal is especially popular. That does not have to mean that a container actually contains scrap metal or is completely full: the thief’s hope for loot is enough. Stealing a container is pretty simple: all the thief needs is a truck. He can put the container on the back with a cable or grab arm in no time. This theft means a major loss for companies: a container can easily cost 5 to 10 thousand euros, beside the eventual value of the cargo. And possibly the trust the customer has in you.

All that most companies do untill now is to share on social media camera images of their container or the truck that was stolen. Hoping to find the thief. Or at least to prevent a recurrence.

Tracy IoT helps: track and trace

• Perimeter detection

• Track and trace on container: Immediate theft signal

Perimeter detection

Tracy checks whether persons enter the site. When “strange” people enter the site, a signal is immediately triggered. Besides, Tracy monitors the movement of people and assets within the perimeter. Tracy uses Ultra Wide Band (UWB). One of the big advantages of UWB is its accuracy, so you know immediately where to look.

Track and trace on container: Immediate theft signal

When there are movements around a container, a signal goes off. If these are “strange”, for example at late times when nobody should be present, you can take immediate action. If the container is taken along anyway, it can be detected by the UWB signal.

Read more: https://www.advsolned.com/tracker-assets/

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