28 WESTERN PALLET
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26 WESTERN PALLET
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The small, low-cost tracker was developed in the Telekom Open IoT Labs at Fraunhofer IML, where it was installed in 500 EPAL pallets. The low-cost tracker can determine location and retrieve movement, shock effects and temperature history. A waterproof sensor registers shock, position, tilt angle, accelerations and temperature of the pallet. The pallet reports automatically in case of deviations due to vibrations or temperature fluctuations. It automatically sends its current data to its own portal.
“We built the low-cost tracker specifically for EPAL as one of our first customers, with more than 500 million pallets in circulation in Europe alone, which has huge potential to digitize the supply chain,” said Ingo Hofacker, responsible for the IoT business at Deutsche Telekom.
Data, the new currency of logistics
Due to the robust and compact design, the trackers can be installed in virtually every load carrier. The data exchange takes place via the machine and sensor network of the Telecom, in professional circles called NarrowBand IoT (in short: NB-IoT). Due to its special properties, this narrow band technology is an ideal pioneer for the Internet of Things. It opens up a wireless future with secure, stable and robust connectivity that works virtually anywhere. Advantages of the new technology are low energy consumption, low costs and high penetration in buildings. The battery life is ten years. The data flat rate costs once ten euros for 10 years. Also, the use of licensed spectrum and 3GPP standardization ensures LTE-based security. This is an important step towards 5G. The global roaming capability of NB-IoT is also becoming increasingly important.
Experts estimate that well over a billion devices a year will go online in the coming years. Many of them will be used in the transport and logistics industry. The small devices in the pallets and containers will transfer billions of status data in the future. In addition, they can localize themselves and communicate with each other.
“The low-cost tracker makes carriers smart and boosts the data gold of logistics, which will be the key competitive advantage in logistics – scaling up to billions is a global standard with secure certification and authentication, such as a SIM card indispensable as in the long term guaranteed, stable networks, competitive prices and flat rates. This can currently only NB IoT, “says Prof. Michael ten Hompel, managing director of the Fraunhofer IML.
At the German Logistics Congress, from October 17 to 19, 2018 in Berlin, the partners demonstrated for the first time live the route of intelligent pallets in deployment.