Periodic Reporting for period 2 - OriginIoT (OriginIoT - Expediting Cellular IoT Device Development)
Reporting period: 2020-10-01 to 2022-02-28
Substantial pain points exist in the IoT industry. Start-ups, makers, design houses, integrators and other SMEs and large companies are developing solutions in this area to meet the demand. To win large IoT projects, these developers are pressured to deliver qualified IoT solutions quickly, efficiently and at a low cost. They need to invest resources to provide a functional end-device on time, otherwise, the IoT project may be procured from another developer in a competitive selection process.
Notwithstanding, the development of IoT devices is a challenging, multidisciplinary, cost-intensive and time-consuming task. A Cisco IoT industry survey (2017) is cited: over 60% of respondents admitted that they substantially underestimated the complexities of managing their own IoT initiatives. Even more alarming, the same survey also found that 75% of self-initiated IoT projects were considered a failure.
Creating an IoT device, ready for mass production, is one of the most challenging engineering processes there is. This is because many IoT products, while appearing sleek and simple, are extremely advanced engineering projects that span many historically disparate disciplines: electrical engineering, firmware development, mechanical integration, wireless networking, mobile app development, server and database design, etc. A key frustration in developing an IoT prototype is in the skillset required to create an interconnected program, which is different than that required for a hardware device to develop and maintain a web server, and vice versa.
Today, these challenges are faced by long and time-consuming integration activities, processes, fundamentally isolated from solution to solution; knowledge is not preserved from solution to solution, thus significant time and cost savings not realised.
This aim of this project is to introduce a game-changing solution to the market. The solution, generally termed OriginIoT™ is composed of unique hardware and software for expedited Cellular IoT development cycles, with the vision to reduce time-to-market drastically for the customer and providing a competitive, modestly priced solution, whilst benefitting OriginGPS, the innovation industry and the economic added-value of IoT-supported projects.
The general objective of the project is to deploy a certified solution and start to work with customers on IoT applications in order to validate our business plan and to expand the technical capabilities of the platform. The expected impact is a quicker time to market among IoT developers that will result in added value to the economy and to the growth of both OriginGPS and its customers.
Notwithstanding, the development of IoT devices is a challenging, multidisciplinary, cost-intensive and time-consuming task. A Cisco IoT industry survey (2017) is cited: over 60% of respondents admitted that they substantially underestimated the complexities of managing their own IoT initiatives. Even more alarming, the same survey also found that 75% of self-initiated IoT projects were considered a failure.
Creating an IoT device, ready for mass production, is one of the most challenging engineering processes there is. This is because many IoT products, while appearing sleek and simple, are extremely advanced engineering projects that span many historically disparate disciplines: electrical engineering, firmware development, mechanical integration, wireless networking, mobile app development, server and database design, etc. A key frustration in developing an IoT prototype is in the skillset required to create an interconnected program, which is different than that required for a hardware device to develop and maintain a web server, and vice versa.
Today, these challenges are faced by long and time-consuming integration activities, processes, fundamentally isolated from solution to solution; knowledge is not preserved from solution to solution, thus significant time and cost savings not realised.
This aim of this project is to introduce a game-changing solution to the market. The solution, generally termed OriginIoT™ is composed of unique hardware and software for expedited Cellular IoT development cycles, with the vision to reduce time-to-market drastically for the customer and providing a competitive, modestly priced solution, whilst benefitting OriginGPS, the innovation industry and the economic added-value of IoT-supported projects.
The general objective of the project is to deploy a certified solution and start to work with customers on IoT applications in order to validate our business plan and to expand the technical capabilities of the platform. The expected impact is a quicker time to market among IoT developers that will result in added value to the economy and to the growth of both OriginGPS and its customers.
We provide here a summary of the results and their exploitation and dissemination
In WP1 we expanded the FW functionality; all the basic firmware capabilities to enable commercialization have been added. Additionally developed capabilities and features can be delivered to existing customers via the FOTA procedure. Quality Assessment and code optimization, as expected from any novel development, several bugs were discovered and much exploration of core firmware elements was required during the first year of the project.
In WP1, complementary cloud tools were also developed. The cloud tools enable non-experts to work with the evaluation kit of the product without writing a single line of code and thus to immediately start PoC development. EU regulatory requirements pertain to complying with the European safety and environmental regulations; CE and ROHS, were achieved.
With regards to WP2, we completed conducted three field pilots with customers. We proved superiority in time-to-prototype and development costs in a smart city scenario with the city of Tel Aviv, a mobility scenario with Israel Railways, and a cargo tracking scenario with a large shipping company in Australia. The field demonstrations showed that the OriginIoT™ can provide a competitive and even superior technical performance (battery lifetime, operational wakeup mechanism, position accuracy and reliability of cellular connection), while maintaining extremely low development costs compared to the market alternatives.
In WP3 we took meaningful steps towards the realisation of the OriginLabs concept, a fully automated process for developing IoT products. We started by trying to make a zero-communication process with one of our trusted clients, we collected data from customers to optimize the requirements and we published an intuitive form with check boxes, fields to select from and free text to add their product details, all this info is followed up by the OriginIoT™ team.
We performed several commercialisation and communication activities under WP4; we arranged training for five of our existing distributors to help them sell the novel product and development methodology to customers. We achieved significant work with the EASME appointed coach towards the fine-tuning of our commercialisation plan. Due to Covid-19 travel restrictions and a general slow-down in business activities, we altered our dissemination and communication activities and changed the focus towards online marketing and sales. To cover the loss of potential leads from planned conferences that were cancelled, the company kept investing in upgrades to the website and ran Google AdWords campaigns to attract new leads. Finally, towards the end of the project, we completed a strategic planning process with an external consultant to fine tune our commercialisation strategy.
In WP1 we expanded the FW functionality; all the basic firmware capabilities to enable commercialization have been added. Additionally developed capabilities and features can be delivered to existing customers via the FOTA procedure. Quality Assessment and code optimization, as expected from any novel development, several bugs were discovered and much exploration of core firmware elements was required during the first year of the project.
In WP1, complementary cloud tools were also developed. The cloud tools enable non-experts to work with the evaluation kit of the product without writing a single line of code and thus to immediately start PoC development. EU regulatory requirements pertain to complying with the European safety and environmental regulations; CE and ROHS, were achieved.
With regards to WP2, we completed conducted three field pilots with customers. We proved superiority in time-to-prototype and development costs in a smart city scenario with the city of Tel Aviv, a mobility scenario with Israel Railways, and a cargo tracking scenario with a large shipping company in Australia. The field demonstrations showed that the OriginIoT™ can provide a competitive and even superior technical performance (battery lifetime, operational wakeup mechanism, position accuracy and reliability of cellular connection), while maintaining extremely low development costs compared to the market alternatives.
In WP3 we took meaningful steps towards the realisation of the OriginLabs concept, a fully automated process for developing IoT products. We started by trying to make a zero-communication process with one of our trusted clients, we collected data from customers to optimize the requirements and we published an intuitive form with check boxes, fields to select from and free text to add their product details, all this info is followed up by the OriginIoT™ team.
We performed several commercialisation and communication activities under WP4; we arranged training for five of our existing distributors to help them sell the novel product and development methodology to customers. We achieved significant work with the EASME appointed coach towards the fine-tuning of our commercialisation plan. Due to Covid-19 travel restrictions and a general slow-down in business activities, we altered our dissemination and communication activities and changed the focus towards online marketing and sales. To cover the loss of potential leads from planned conferences that were cancelled, the company kept investing in upgrades to the website and ran Google AdWords campaigns to attract new leads. Finally, towards the end of the project, we completed a strategic planning process with an external consultant to fine tune our commercialisation strategy.
The work in the project contributed towards the realization of the main step forward beyond the state of the art that the project introduces: A first solution for the development of cellular IoT products without needing to add embedded code programming. We have shown that the methodology to define edge device behaviour periodically from the cloud without the need for firmware development or changes is viable in at least three different pilot scenarios. This proof, along with the appropriate commercial and logistical activities will pave the way for the quick growth in sales and successful commercialisation.
In general, the expected impacts of this project have not changed. The targeted customers, the target market, the market segmentation, the competition, and the barriers to enter the market remain the same.
The impacts of this project are contributing to the development of the IoT industry. Demand for IoT solutions in all aspects of life is growing steadily. Governments, municipalities, utility companies, telecommunications companies (telcos), are requesting IoT solutions from the innovative tech industry. C-suite managers are aware of the IoT trend and seem to grasp the added-value in IoT implementation. In general, deployment of the IoT solution is beneficial for the service provider or manufacturer (the seller) and for end-consumers (the buyer).
We are continuing to remove many of the barriers that developers in the IoT industry today face; The result of the development process is a fully functional product, ready for certification and mass production without any further development efforts.
In general, the expected impacts of this project have not changed. The targeted customers, the target market, the market segmentation, the competition, and the barriers to enter the market remain the same.
The impacts of this project are contributing to the development of the IoT industry. Demand for IoT solutions in all aspects of life is growing steadily. Governments, municipalities, utility companies, telecommunications companies (telcos), are requesting IoT solutions from the innovative tech industry. C-suite managers are aware of the IoT trend and seem to grasp the added-value in IoT implementation. In general, deployment of the IoT solution is beneficial for the service provider or manufacturer (the seller) and for end-consumers (the buyer).
We are continuing to remove many of the barriers that developers in the IoT industry today face; The result of the development process is a fully functional product, ready for certification and mass production without any further development efforts.