Category: Use Cases

This article is a translation of the german article Digitization project is launched by Ralph Scheyer.

iotAgrar

The project deals with new ways of transmitting and processing sensor data in horticulture and agriculture. The focus is on decentralized data storage (DLT) via the Internet of Things (IoT). To explore possible applications, a test installation based on a water meter is being set up on the campus of Geisenheim University of Applied Sciences in the experimental greenhouse of the LLH. The aim is to investigate whether a completely tamper-proof transmission path can be implemented using the technology employed. As a first application, the possible real-time visualization of the data via the GeoBox viewer will be tested.

Test installation

The test installation consists of a water meter with GPS module and pressure sensor. On a module developed by peerOs, the acquired sensor data is encrypted into the IOTA protocol and partitioned into the necessary data size. These data packets are then sent to an LTE gateway via LoRa radio and from there written to the Tangle. From this Tangle, which is to be understood as a standardized data interface, the real-time visualization of the data is then realized via the GeoBox viewer.

The digital water meter – basis of efficient irrigation

The installation of the mentioned technology is intended to demonstrate the benefit of digital water meters for efficient irrigation.

In the last few years, which have been characterized by drought, it has become apparent that it would be advantageous to be able to call up the current and past water consumption in irrigation systems online in real time. With most existing systems, it is not possible to draw conclusions about the amount of water consumed until the meter readings of the analog water meters have been evaluated at the end of the season. By documenting the meter readings digitally, an early response could be made to any overages of allocated water allowances. In addition, collecting real-time water use is the basic requirement for calculating and implementing irrigation recommendations based on a climatic water balance. In irrigation systems, depending on the number of irrigations running in parallel, the pressure in the system changes and thus also the amount of water available at a tapping point. The target value of an irrigation system can therefore not be defined by the pure runtime of the irrigation, but must be controlled by irrigation volume. Only by the exact collection of the given water quantity the calculation of the climatic water balance and thus the efficient use of the resource water becomes possible.

With the installation of a pressure sensor, one would additionally be able to collect real-time information about pressure conditions in the pipe system. This information could be used to weigh up whether it makes sense from a performance point of view to start another irrigation. It could thus be prevented that the pumps integrated in the piping system run outside their optimal range of action and thus make the irrigation energetically inefficient. By combining the water meter with a GPS module, it is possible to specifically allocate the measured water consumption to the respective crops and thus create a product-related water footprint.

In addition to the direct benefit of the test installation as a demonstration object for consulting, education and research, the focus of the undertaking is on network building. The knowledge and networks gained will serve as a basis for further developments in this field.

Original source

https://llh.hessen.de/unternehmen/technik-energie-und-bauen/digitalisierung/projekt-zur-digitalisierung-geht-an-den-start/

This article is a translation of the german article IOTAqua – Reduce consumption with smart water meter systems by Ralph Scheyer.

IOTAqua – Reduce consumption with smart water meter systems

Resource-saving use of water and energy is becoming increasingly important in view of advancing climate change. New, intelligent technologies are needed to make water use in agriculture and horticulture as efficient as possible.

As part of the “IOTAqua” project, the Landesbetrieb Landwirtschaft Hessen (LLH) is developing and testing a new water metering system. While in existing irrigation systems the amount of water consumed is often only an estimate over the irrigation period, the new water meter can be used to collect the exact irrigation amount in real time. The accurate documentation makes it possible to analyze the different needs of different crops and thus to target irrigation more precisely. With the documentation of the area-related water consumption over time, statements can also be made about the effects of climatic changes and the resulting changing water requirements of the individual crops. The project is funded by the Integrated Climate Protection Plan Hessen 2025 (IKSP).

The new water meter system is based on existing products. The ultrasonic water meter “Octave” from the company Lorenz, the control valve “1000 Series” from the company Nelson and the LoRa radio module from the company peerOS. The development and construction of the housing of the new system is done in cooperation with the company Lorenz, in order to adapt it in the best possible way to the requirements of agricultural practice. With the support of the company peerOS, the water meters will be installed at three locations in Hesse: in the Griesheim association area, on a horticultural farm in Frankfurt / Main and on the campus of the Geisenheim University of Applied Sciences.

With regard to data transmission, experience from the still ongoing cooperation project “IOTAgrar” can be used, in which new, secure ways of transmitting and processing sensor data are being tested. In order to ensure tamper-proof and cost-free data transfer, the IOTA data protocol is used within the framework of “IOTAqua” in addition to the energy-efficient radio standard “LoRa”. The distributed ledger technology (DLT) used by IOTA, which was already convincing in the previous project “IOTAgrar”, creates a decentralized data interface. The acquired data can thus be connected to the GEObox viewer for visualization. Once the LoRa radio infrastructure is set up, this opens up the integration of further sensors into the system. An important step towards complete documentation in the cultivation of sustainably produced food.

Original source

https://llh.hessen.de/umwelt/klimaschutz/mit-intelligenten-wasserzaehler-systemen-den-verbrauch-senken/

This article is a translation of the German IOTA Beginner’s Guide by .

IOTA Bittorrent – A P2P file sharing system

Since I cannot and do not want to translate the entire research paper, I only briefly describe below what this research paper is about. Please follow this link to get direct access to the document (PDF).

In a research paper titled “IOTA-BT: A P2P File-Sharing System Based on IOTA,” researchers Li-Yuan Hou, Tsung-Yi Tang, and Tyng-Yeu Liang of the National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology in Taiwan describe a technically improved version of the peer-to-peer file-sharing platform BitTorrent using the IOTA Tangle.

The researchers describe BitTorrent’s shortcomings, such as the risk of a single point of failure and the threat of cyber attacks (Sybil u. Eclipse attacks). Since IOTA technology prevents Sybil or Eclipse attacks, among other things, they want to make the BitTorrent framework work on IOTA’s mainnet and thus solve these problems. The newly created P2P file sharing service offers higher security and better public availability.

The obtained test results with IOTA 1.0 (IRI nodes) show that IOTA-BT is an efficient P2P file-sharing environment with higher security because it can effectively reduce the number of unnecessary transaction requests and decoding, among others.

Finally, the research gives an outlook on IOTA 2.0 with the implementation of true decentralization, the elimination of the PoW mechanism (yet to be determined), and the introduction of smart contracts. Once the IOTA 2.0 upgrade is released, the researchers would like to expand the IOTA-BT application into a P2P file trading system using smart contracts.

Sources

https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/9/10/1610/pdf

Original source

https://iota-einsteiger-guide.de/iota-bittorrent.html

This article is a translation of the German IOTA Beginner’s Guide by .

Home Assistant Platform

Software developer Lukas Hetzenecker demonstrates an example of integrating IOTA technology into a smart home control system in his blog post.

His smart home is based on the open source Home Assistant platform, where developers can advance the automation of their homes by creating applications such as digital light switches and making them available to other smart home pioneers. Home Assistant is a modular system. This means that users decide for themselves which applications to install. There are currently over 1,000 installable components available, including a module to integrate Amazon’s Alexa. Mini computers such as the Raspberry Pi serve as hubs for the smart home software.

On the Medium platform, he describes the integration of the IOTA Tangle into his smart home using the example of a digital door opener. For sensitive applications such as digital keys, it is enormously important to be able to define the authorization to open the door properly. This is possible with the help of the Tangle. With the DoorOpener app, users can place the command to open the door in the Tangle. When the user triggers this command on the smartphone, the application forwards an encrypted message to the smart home system. The big advantage here is that the system can flawlessly determine the authenticity of the request without the need to connect to the Internet. The home server only needs to be accessible to the IOTA feed. In this way, Hetzenecker achieves a very high level of security with his system.

For applications that need to be controlled from the outside, the Home Assistant server can be connected to the Internet. However, this carries its own risks. The combination of Home Assistant and IOTA solves this elegantly and removes all security concerns.

Update Apr ’20

The Home Assistant platform has officially integrated IOTA, see here.

More Details

Original source

https://iota-einsteiger-guide.de/home-assistant-plattform.html

This article is a translation of the German IOTA Beginner’s Guide by .

Deposy

The project Deposy (short for deposit system) wants to achieve with an IOTA-based deposit system that all plastic waste of our throwaway society is sorted according to its composition (PP, PS, etc.) and returned to the industry for recycling. Plastics are very expensive for processing manufacturers and the current recycling system does not allow for the reuse of plastics that have already been used because, as a rule, all types of plastic are disposed of in a mixed way by the consumer. Because of this mixed waste, which is very difficult to recycle, about 80% of plastics are incinerated in power plants today.

With a financial incentive and a QR code on each plastic product, the project aims to encourage proper disposal at sorting machines so that the recycled plastic waste can be turned back into pure granules for the manufacturing process.

Main goals of the project

• Less plastic waste in the environment, for example reducing microplastics in rivers, lakes and oceans
• A significantly higher recycling rate and thus contribute to the reuse of plastic
• A significant CO2 saving
• Create financial incentives for an additional source of revenue (plastic waste collection)

Deposy is a project of the association BIOTA e.V. (i.G.), which promotes the application of new technologies, especially the distributed ledger technology of the IOTA Foundation, which contribute to the protection of the environment and the climate.

Details about Deposy, how to become a supporting member of the association and how to support the team can be found on the website of the project.

More Details

Official Homepage

Original source

https://iota-einsteiger-guide.de/deposy-recycling.html

This article is a translation of the German IOTA Beginner’s Guide by .

Zühlke – Machine-as-a-Service

On October 1, 2019, the IOTA Foundation announced a close partnership with the company Zühlke. The aim of the partnership is to develop and advance innovations in the field of Machine-as-a-Service technology for industry.

The Zühlke Group serves customers from various industries – from mechanical & plant engineering to medical technology and the financial sector – and can rely on experience from more than 10,000 software and product development projects. As a service provider for innovation projects, Zühlke combines business and technology expertise to create solutions that inspire customers. The company develops commercially successful products, services and business models of the digital future – from the idea to the realization and operation. Furthermore, Zühlke helps to find, develop and evaluate new ideas beyond familiar ways of thinking and proceeding.

While the collaboration will initially focus primarily on the German mechanical and plant engineering sector, Zühlke and the IOTA Foundation are eager to realize projects for the Asian and British markets as well. Both partners also see opportunities in the supply chain, financial services, insurance, healthcare and consumer goods sectors. Zühlke is one of the first companies of its kind to enter the distributed ledger technology space and brings a 50-year history of successful projects to the joint initiative.

More Details

IOTA and Zühlke Partner up to Accelerate Machine-as-a-Service Solutions – IF

Original source

https://iota-einsteiger-guide.de/zuehlke-machine-as-a-service.html

Accessec GmbH – Car Wallet

The accessec GmbH is a German tech security company that has developed a car wallet for the car. In this demonstrator cars can automatically and securely buy fuel or charging services with IOTA tokens.

In the demonstrator itself, an IOTA wallet is integrated into a vehicle. This wallet automatically interacts with the point-of-sale terminal (POS) without human intervention. The wallet can automatically initialize services, such as authorization to start charging the battery. When charging is complete, the amount to be paid is then sent directly to the merchant.

During development, great emphasis was placed on security from the beginning, and a detailed threat and risk analysis of each component was conducted. This is one of the reasons why porting and integrating the Car-Wallet / PoS solution into any car control unit or PoS charging station is easily possible. This demonstrator also enables the automatic payment of many other services. Anyone who wants to know more should visit the website and contact accessec GmbH if necessary.

More Details

https://accessec.com/car-wallet

This article is a translation of the German IOTA Beginner’s Guide by .

Use Cases

+CityxChange: European Smart City Consortium – IF

OBSR Foundation: Smart City Projects (Asia) – IF

Lidbot: Waste management – IF

Powerhouse Trondheim: Sustainable energy traceability – IF

peerOS: System platform for smart cities – Homepage

Smart Cities

In the coming decades, more and more people will move to urban areas. Already today, more than 50 % of the world’s people live and work in cities. That is why cities play a central role in meeting the challenges of climate change and demographic change. It is a matter of providing the right resources at the right time within the city – whether it is food, energy or consumer products. Energy and water supply, mobility and communication technologies are becoming increasingly interconnected. They interact with each other to meet people’s needs. Cities with such smart infrastructures are called “smart cities.”

The collective term “smart city” describes ideas and concepts aimed at making cities more efficient and thus more climate-friendly as well as more livable through the use of modern technology. To achieve these goals in growing cities, products, services, processes and infrastructures are needed that are supported by highly integrated and interconnected information and communication technologies. That means systems need to understand in real time how billions of processes come together, how they interact, and what needs to be done to make it all work. Computers must learn what people need, like, do, and how they move from one place to another.

In the smart city, the entire urban environment can be equipped with sensors. An “Internet of Everything” is created that can make all the collected data available. City dwellers and the technology that surrounds them interact permanently with each other.

The following areas can benefit from intelligent networks in a smart city:

Governance, politics and administration

Smart Governance aims to make local measures as well as planning and decision-making processes more transparent and to ensure citizen-oriented political decision-making through strong involvement of citizens in urban development processes.

Mobility and infrastructure

Smart mobility is characterized by being energy-efficient, with low emissions, safe and cost-effective. Existing infrastructure is improved by using information and communication technologies to create intelligent traffic management systems.

Energy

Smart energy is the intelligent networking of energy generation, energy conversion, energy storage, energy transmission and consumption control. The increasingly decentralized energy supply with local energy converters such as wind, solar, hydro and biogas power plants must also be integrated.

Environment and resources

Sustainable use of renewable resources and minimal use of non-renewable resources, smart water management and waste management.

Economic attractiveness

Smart economy refers to the increase in economic productivity through networking of a wide variety of actors at local, regional and global levels.

Citizen-friendly administration

Digital public administration, e-services for citizens.

Buildings

Building management, access authorizations, intelligent building technology, waste management.

What makes IOTA the ideal partner for a smart city?

IOTA is made for smart cities because of its broad variety of partnerships. IOTA also has important experience in the development of digital energy and data markets. IOTA combines in its technology everything that smart city ecosystems need. By combining real-world sensor data collection, smart contracts, zero-fee transfer of data and value, high scalability, and immutable storage in the Tangle, the technology has all the properties needed to become the backbone of any smart city.

Original source

https://iota-einsteiger-guide.de/smart-cities.html

This article is a translation of the German IOTA Beginner’s Guide by .

Use Cases

ElaadNL: IOTA Smart Charging Station – IF

ENGIE Lab CRIGEN: Smart energy ecosystem – IF

Smart Energy

The energy industry is undergoing a massive transition to decentralized clean energy and smart grid decentralization. Additionally the sector is moving towards the Internet of Everything.

Blockchain entered the energy industry in 2016 to enable the exploration of decentralized energy systems. Due to the technology’s lack of scalability, stakeholders are now exploring alternative distributed ledger technologies beyond traditional blockchains. The IOTA Tangle has now become the focus of these stakeholders. The IF is developing the Tangle as a new standard for and with the industry, enabling smart transformation across the energy sector with this technology.

Original source

https://iota-einsteiger-guide.de/smart-energy.html

This article is a translation of the German IOTA Beginner’s Guide by .

Use Cases

Future Farm: Using the Tangle for smart agriculture – IF

iotAgrar: Digital water meter

IOTAqua: Smart water meter system

Smart Farming

Today’s farmers already have a number of digital technologies at their disposal, such as specialized software solutions for data analysis, computer-controlled machines, various sensors (soil, water, light, humidity, temperature), different communication and positioning options (mobile, LoRaWan / GPS, satellite). With these technologies, farmers can monitor their field conditions without having to enter the field itself and make strategic decisions for the whole farm or for a single area.

With the IoT, the next technology revolution is upon agriculture. IoT will become the driving force of smart agriculture in the future. For the first time there is the possibility of smart machines (robotics, drones, sensors) communicating with each other to perform data-driven processes autonomously. In a repetitive cycle, with the help of installed IoT devices, all data will be collected, processed and analyzed. This allows farmers’ new smart management systems to respond more quickly to emerging issues and changes in environmental conditions. This gives farmers better control over the process of raising livestock and growing crops, making the entire production chains more predictable, efficient and cost-effective.

General Use cases

Precision agriculture

Throughout the field, sensors collect various data and send it to the cloud. The measurements provided can be used to accurately map and analyze environmental conditions. With this data, an intelligent system with superhuman accuracy can give crops the exact treatment they need. Decisions are made per square meter or even per plant, rather than for an entire field. Plant growth and any abnormalities can be monitored individually to effectively prevent disease or infestation. By taking these precise measurements within a field, farmers can also increase the effectiveness of pesticides and fertilizers, target them or even forgo them.

Precision Farming

As with precision agriculture, smart IoT sensors allow farmers to better monitor the temperature, health, activity, nutrition, and needs of individual animals. Owners of large farms can use wireless IoT applications (ex. collar sensors) to monitor the location, well-being, and health of each animal. This information can be used to identify sick animals so they can be separated from the herd to prevent the spread of diseases.

Smart greenhouses

In current greenhouses, environmental parameters are often adjusted through manual intervention or a semi-automatic control mechanism. This often leads to energy loss, increased labor costs and production losses.

IoT-controlled smart greenhouses can use various sensors to intelligently monitor the climate and remotely control irrigation, lighting, and fertilization systems without the need for manual intervention. This allows environmental parameters to be measured and adjusted according to the specific requirements of each crop. This collected data could be stored in a cloud-based platform for further processing and analysis with minimal effort.

Agricultural drones

Both ground and aerial drones are already being used by some farmers, as drones capture multispectral, thermal and visual imagery while in flight. The collected data provides farmers with insights into a whole range of metrics. For example, plant health indices, plant counting and yield prediction, plant height measurement, plant canopy mapping, chlorophyll measurement, nitrogen content in wheat, drainage mapping, weed pressure mapping, etc. The analysis of this collected data is a real added value for any farmer. This is a great help to make a decision for the use of pesticides and fertilizers. However, with the help of IoT, many processes could be carried out autonomously or the collected knowledge could be resold.

Management system

A productivity management system typically includes all IoT devices and sensors installed on site, as well as a powerful dashboard with analytics and integrated billing / reporting capabilities. These systems also provide monitoring and remote control capabilities and allow for intervention in most operations.

Summary

Smart farming offers real potential for more productive and sustainable agricultural production based on a more precise and resource-efficient approach.

The IoT combined with a smart network of sensors, actuators, cameras, robots, drones and other connected farming devices, enables an unprecedented level of control and automated decision making. This IoT-driven agriculture is paving the way for the so-called “third green revolution,” following the revolutions in plant breeding and genetics. The “third green revolution” is now taking over agriculture.

In the future, this smart agriculture will show that the use of pesticides and fertilizers will decrease, while overall efficiency will increase. IoT technologies will enable better traceability of food, which in return will lead to increased food safety. This will also benefit the environment, for example by using water more efficiently or optimizing animal treatments.

What about IOTA?

This third green revolution relies on the IoT and the combined application of data-driven analytics technologies, M2M communication. Tamper-proof data trading is exactly what IOTA will enable in the IoT. IOTA technology offers smart machines the ability to autonomously exchange data or value with each other via the IoT, and data can also be stored in a tamper-proof manner or offered for sale on data marketplaces. Who could be a potential buyer for the collected data? This could be another farmer from the same region with similar environmental conditions or a chemical company that wants to further develop pesticides and fertilizers.

I am sure that in the future there will be one or the other IOTA project in agriculture. It will not remain only with Tangle Sheep. 🙂

Original source

https://iota-einsteiger-guide.de/smart-farming.html