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Monitoring perishable goods along the distribution process

Perishable goods need accurate and real time monitoring at every step of the distribution and transport chain from producer to consumer. Collecting data during this distribution process is crucial to guarantee the product quality meets the standards set by the producer to ensure the best customer experience. The most obvious application is for the distribution of goods that require to be kept within temperature and humidity thresholds at all times to ensure they do not perish.

IoT technologies can help to monitor such goods along the distribution chain starting at the moment of production, following on during transport and storage. It enables to be alerted in real-time when thresholds are in danger of being exceeded and offer valuable insights to producers and customers report over the distribution chain of a perishable item.

This experiment showcases how temperature & humidity are monitored periodically and send over using LTE-M towards to Maker. When a temperature and/or humidity threshold are exceeded, an asset state will be updated using an automation rule.

Prerequisites

Hardware

  • Sodaq SARA AFF R410M
  • TPH (temperature, pressure, humidity) sensor

Software

Setup

Hardware

Hardware schema

  • Insert the SIM card in the SIM card holder on the SODAQ AFF board
  • Connect TPH sensor to SCL/SDA (I2C socket)
  • Connect SODAQ Mbili to your computer through USB

Set up sketch

  • Connect the Sodaq SARA AFF board to your computer over USB
  • Open your Arduino IDE
    • Go to Tools > Board: and select the SODAQ AFF board
    • Under Tools > Port select the USB port to which your device is connected

Select board and port in Arduino IDE

  • In your Arduino IDE, open the example “Monitor_Goods” under File-> examples -> “arduino-ltem-rdk-master”.

Authenticate your device

  • Open the tab “keys.h” of the example sketch
  • Change the DeviceID and DeviceToken values with the values that can be found in the Authentication section of the Settings Menu of the previously created device in the Maker Application.

Authenticate your device

Run the example

Simply hit the upload icon in the Arduino IDE. This will save the sketch, compile it and upload it to your Arduino.

You can now watch the values change in Maker.

Next to that the LED located on the LTE-M RDK board, helps you identify the behaviour of the device.

LED sequence/timeline

Alternatively, you can open the Tools > Serial monitor of the Arduino IDE.

  • Make sure you select the correct COM port to listen (under Tools > Port )
  • When the monitor is open, make sure the Baud rate is set to 115000

Enable extended Debugging

Get more insights on how the behaviour of the LTE-M RDK, the modem and/or network by enabling the Debug function in the sketch. This can be done by changing the false statement to true in the function LTEmModem modem, as indicated in the screenshot below.

Enable extended Debugging

Next steps

Create pinboard

To visualise our data, we will create a pinboard. For more information on pinboards, please check how to use pinboards.

  • Select the “+ Create Pinboard” in the top right of the asset overview screen
  • Make sure you have checked the Assets you want to pin in this case _Temperature and Humidity_.
  • Select the Arrange pinboard icon (pencil) to enter the pinboard edit mode
  • Now click “+New pin”, select Control Chart _,_ select your prefered time scale and continue by clicking “Next”.
  • Select the LTE-M Kit as device, and Temperature as Asset, finalise by selecting “Pin”
  • Leave the pinboard editing mode by clicking “Save”; you will now notice that we display the last known temperature and also the historical data in a chart. Try this with humidity and/or reposition & resize the Controls.

For extra options to customise your controls, please check the Controls page.

Set up & configure automation rule

Rules give devices the ability to interact, and create automation. Specifically for this kit and experiment we have created some example rules that can be switched on and adapted to your specific needs:

  • Monitor perishable goods along the distribution process

Time to configure and setup rules! We will activate a provisioned rule.

  • In the Ground menu on the left of the screen, Select Rules
  • Select the rule Monitor perishable goods along the distribution process, and discover how this rule is assembled. Also adapt the temperature that fits your use case.
  • Close the rule window, now activate the toggle to enable.

That’s it! You were notified in the Maker application, by mail and/or push notification on your mobile phone!

For more information on rules, please check how to use rules.