Guaranteeing efficient delivery and fresh products with IoT.

The logistic services handling fish and seafood shipments require real-time monitoring and management, in both land and sea, to guarantee a fresh quality product on the shelves. Currently, the majority of fish and seafood transportation is handled by refrigerated trucks. As these vehicles traverse the European motorways to deliver their goods, time can be measured from hours to several days, but quickness and efficiency should always be a priority, since they can affect final quality and pricing. For example, during transportation, if the conditions of the refrigerated container change (due to power fluctuation, mechanical malfunction, etc), that could affect the quality of the product – even spoiling the entire shipment. 

To address the requirements of logistics services, we propose the Nautilus: an integrated end-to-end service for real-time remote tracking of refrigerated cabinet conditions. It provides asset visibility during the whole transit process which enables logistic services to react and adapt to incidents as they occur to prevent potential damage to the shipment. The solution provides custom-made devices that capture ambient data, global network connectivity for bilateral communication and applications that turn captured data into actionable information and business insight. The live monitoring will be provided either locally, through the interface of the device or remotely through the web portal of the monitoring framework. The outputs of the project will transfer technological expertise from industrial leaders to companies with limited resources in the SME sector. These tools are projected to cut logistics and unnecessary scrap costs from maritime logistics by at least 10%. 

An edge-cloud platform to monitor the transportation of sensitive commodities.

The partner behind the solution is the innovative Greek company Inform. A part of AustriaCard Holdings, they collaborate with governmental and financial institutions, as well as telecommunications and public transport organizations, to deliver digital security, information management, internet of things and embedded hardware solutions. With six production plants, 1.300 employees and around three thousand B2B clients in over 35 markets, they present the capabilities to carry the project through and deliver the projected outcomes by: (i) securely detecting, exchanging and storing the values of the security specifications for susceptible loads; (ii) designing consumable detection devices; and (iii) machine learning algorithms, allowing the entry of new specialized products large volume data management, and IoT device security in cold supply chain management. Nautilus will, ultimately, also create a new revenue stream for Inform.

The project has received around €850 thousand in financing from EEA Norway Grants to:

• Improve quality of services in the logistics chain;
• Improve visibility and transparency in the supply chain;
• Assist the audit trail for insurance claims;
• Advance data analytics to improve sales;
• Minimize unnecessary mileage and resources to transport spoiled goods;
• Reduce the carbon footprint and waste material in the logistic chain.

These objectives are accomplished through the project’s outputs:

1. 1. Development of an edge-cloud platform to facilitate monitoring of sensitive commodities
2. 2. Design and development of monitoring hardware device for sensitive commodities;
3. 3. Development of monitoring and tracking software to be deployed on the device and as an accompanying service;
4. 4. Advanced processes for auditing purposes.

The final product enables companies to control, protect and monitor their inventory, within their warehouses or at any checkpoint during its transportation. It’s a management solution for location tracking and environmental conditions monitoring, that enables visibility on high value, slow moving products, while it promotes efficient operations and cost-effective asset management processes. It is an integrated configurable and secure solution, which includes all the necessary infrastructure and telemetry equipment paired on your asset. The telemetry device, using a private global mobile network, transmits your asset’s operating data to a cloud-based user portal. The users, through the customer portal, get access to dashboards dedicated for your needs, insightful reports as well as current and historic data.

IDN assists the project with expertise in product development and IoT solutions, allowing us to plan a pilot setup for the project. To make it a truly market oriented solution, we organized a study visit with workshops and meetings from Greece to Norway, where the partner met representatives from the Norwegian fish and marine industry – one of the largest potential markets for a tool that monitors seafood transportation. Our sectorial expert will deliver specifications and requirements from the Norwegian operation so that key aspects can be considered in the product development phase.