DTN is the independant, trusted source of actionable insights for 2 million customers focused on feeding, fueling, and protecting the world. Customer-centric and employee-driven, DTN focuses on empowering agriculture, oil and gas, trading, and weathersensitive industries through continuous, leading-edge innovation. DTN is based in Minneapolis, with offices globally.

dtn.com

SeeHorse is a wearable monitor designed for horses. It measures temperature, heart rate, and respiration, and sends alerts if any of these to indicate the horse is under distress. It also tracks the horse so it can be found anywhere, and tracks the total distance travelled at all times.

The companion app features an avatar named "Seymour" who reflects in real time the movement of the horse wearing it.

seehorse.ca

JMB makes a livestock monitoring suite of devices. You mount the device of your choice on each of your cows, and the all-weather sensors detect if the cow is the right temperature, is eating properly, is healthy, and if it is in heat.

Data is sent to an all-in-one hub and then relayed to the cloud where it is presented to the farmer to make the right choices about taking care of his or her cattle.

cowmonitor.com/technology/

Libelium makes a whole host of IoT sensors, but this one is specifically designed for Smart Agriculture. It measures soil moisture, temperature, leaf wetness, solar radiation, atmospheric pressure, fruit diameter, wind, and light.

This device is not sold as a point solution, but designed to be extensible and sold B2B to specific application providers. Libelium has some competitors that are also using a similar model of distribution.

Current agricultural applications include a vineyard in Lebanon, kiwi production in Italy, and monitoring food sustainability in sub-saharan Africa to name a few.

libelium.com

John Deere has been leading the Ag IoT sensor movement for about a decade with their Intelligent Solutions Group. They were the first to have autonomous tractors, and have built IoT and sensor tech into just about every piece of farm equipment imaginable.

deere.com

Moocall is another intelligent monitor mounted to a cow's tail. I measures contractions to determine when she will most likely calf. It then sends a text and email an hour before birth along with ongoing notifications of status. Their are many other cattle IoT devices. Some talk to others to manage herd data, and one even detects if predators are nearby.

us.moocall.com

Rowbot solves a fertilizer issue in a unique way. Once corn reaches a certain height, it can no longer be fertilized since the canopy prevents the chemicals from hitting the roots. The RowBot autonomously traverses between the rows and measures fertilizer needs spot by spot, and applies it directly to the base of the plant. Multiple RowBots can be deployed and work continuously in unison.

rowbot.com

Eruvaka makes this device called PondGuard. It floats in marine farming ponds and monitors water quality and chemical presence, automatically aerates as needed, and sends notifications where intervention is required. It also has a novel audible voice alert to notify a farmer on location without their presence.

eruvaka.com

Spensa is an example of an Ag IoT company right here in the WHIN region. Spensa was founded about five years ago around a novel solution to pest management. The Z-Trap attracts insects with a pheromone where once inside they are zapped with a small electric shock and the device measures the bio-impedance of the bug, applies signal-processing, and transmits the count over a cellular transmitter to the cloud.

The data has multiple algorithms applied to it and has added all other trap data, as well as additional data sources like weather, temperature, and predictive analytics. A near real-time heat map of pest pressure is delivered through web and mobile to farmers, scouts, and consultants.

Spensa is developing a new camera-based trap IoT device, as well as a host of data insights with predictions, and a proprietary agronomic software platform to make sense of all of the data.

spensatech.com

Summit Precision of Remington, Indiana, is leading the way in cutting-edge livestock facilities. Their swine facilities in particular are state of the art. They are including a communications tool to make it easier to work among different companies with a common goal, a Quality Performance System based on lean manufacturing principles and process controls to create a standard of training documentation, pTRACK which traces and monitors pathogen-carrying agents, and a centrally-located wean-to-finish facility the creates its own tracking stress algorithms and gives alarms when problems occur out of the expected.

summitlivestock.com/swine

Biotown Ag from Reynolds, Indiana. Allen Furrer was an early adopter of IoT when QualCom was tracking devices using Ranger satellites before government released GPS in the 1990s. Allen, along with Brian Furrer, have been developing and implementing IoT techniques on their farming operation for years. They have tried things such as RFID readers on all equipment to track where and how fuel is being consumed, SCADA systems on flowmeters for volume, temperature, and throughput on their industrial digesters, and location, vibration, and more on pretty much every vehicle and piece of equipment on their operation. Biotown Ag is leading the way on how to farm smarter, and their organic material recycling and energy production through Honey Creek Legacy and GoodDaysWork.ag are an example for others.

biotownag.com

GISC brings to you AgHub to usher the digital revolution on to your farm in a easy to use and adaptable tool. AgHub is your independent solution to get the most out of your data in a simple, easy to use application. You can collect and securely store all of your farm's data with this tool. Through this centralized location, you can store and access all your farm, field, or entity information, 24 hours a day. Keep track of field-level operations to optimize production year-after-year. Easily share data and information with trusted advisors to maximize production across the farm, and get seamless integration from independent and unbiased partners: IBM's Weather Operations Dashboard and Main Street Data's Validator and Market Vision, allowing you to get real business insights that are data driven.

gisc.coop

Caterpillar is working with Chicago-based Uptake to help customers better understand the health of their equipment, as well as to monitor fleets. They are focusing on giving their customers insights to things like preventative maintenance and fuel efficiency. One of their customers, Pentaho, discovered they could save $30/hr in maintenance costs by running generators only as hard as the prediction recommended. This worked out to $650k/yr.

caterpillar.com

Airbus is applying IoT to both its products and the tools it uses in their factories. They are experimenting with a system where a worker on the floor, fondly called “Rosie the Riveter 2.0”, that can use smart glasses to assess a task then send that information to a robot. They are discovering increased manufacturing speeds and reliability in testing.

They also use RFID to track parts and tools, and will be collecting around 250GB of data per flight. They are working with IBM’s Watson team to process this data and mine for trends.

airbus.com

Siemens. German factories have been on the forefront of IIoT, and work closely with the government on these projects. Their newest plant uses sensors everywhere and is 75% automated. Employees mostly monitor processes.

They are also developing MindSphere, their own open, cloud-based IoT operating system to connect machines and physical infrastructures. It seems to be a direct competitor to GE's Predix.

siemens.com

MAN is a German automotive company that specializes in trucks. They have created "MAN Truck and Bus" to track most of the truck's raw data in real-time and translate that into a report to paying customers. It includes things like predictive maintenance, spotting engine faults or other potential failures, reduce downtime, and therefore save money for the fleet.

mantruckandbus.com

Limtronik takes it one step further. They are converting their electronics factories to house sensors that actually learn when and why a mistake in the assembly line occurs and make the changes necessary to avoid it in the future. Their evaluation environment is sandboxed and pushes the manufacturing techniques to actually create issues to make the line smarter faster.

limtronik-usa.com

Schaeffler makes wind turbines, and is adding sensors to their turbines in the field (sort of like their external power plant) that will monitor bearings and report conditions in real time. They are partnering with IBM to crossreference with wind forecasts and plan ahead to order parts to fix them preventatively when the wind conditions are optimal to do so.

schaeffler.com

B United is taking a novel approach to managing their quality control in transit. They have added GPS, pressure and temperature sensors to their beer tanks so they can monitor them while in flight. Craft beers can spoil if fermentation is affected before drinking. Their first test lead to zero waste for the first time ever.

bunitedint.com

Fisher & Company is using ERP software to connect supervisors better to the shop floor. They positioned iBeacons at work centers to communicate the status of employees nearby to smart glasses of the supervisors so they could monitor without interrupting the employees on the floor.

They are also experimenting with material-handlers wearing hands-free ring scanners to scan barcodes assisted with voice commands to create real-time inventory also sent to smart glasses faster and while using hands to move materials.

fisherco.com

Amazon is not only is building their own AWS cloud-based IoT software, but they are also experimenting with IIoT robots in their warehouses. Amazon has partnered with Kiva Systems to build robots to move pods (small racks) in the facilities autonomously. They operate for 60 minutes and then take themselves back to a charging dock for 5 minutes before working again. They are controlled by a centralized computer system and scan QR codes on the floor to determine their locations. They also include IR sensors for obstacle detection. As soon as a customer clicks “buy” online, a robot is immediately dispatched at the appropriate facility and even the right rack to move the product to the closest packing worker for shipment. Amazon IoT in the Warehouse

Amazon IoT in the Warehouse

Gehring is a 91-year old company that makes machines to hone metal. When a potential customer goes to their website to purchase a machine, they can actually look at that particular machine’s real-time data from it being set-up and working in the factory.

They can assess precision and efficiency to make sure it will suit their purposes. They use that same data feed internally to monitor productivity and gain more data to determine machine trends over time.

gehring.de

North Star BlueScope Steel has deployed wearables in helmets and wristbands to help managers track employee safety and spot hazardous scenarios. They also track health like temperature, pulse, and activity informing breaks. They also sense radiation and toxic gas.

northstarbluescope.com

GE is considered by many to be the number one leader in IIoT. They have even restructured the organization around IoT-driven digital strategy hiring Bill Run as Chief Digital Officer and opening a software development center in 2016 with 1,200 employees. Their goal is to connect 200,000 machines and eventually grow the Predix IIoT platform to 20,000 developers and 50 partners.

They recently partnered with flydubai to do some IoT testing on aircraft. They estimate that in the course of a year a plane will generate 10 billion data points! Crunching these numbers to find even a 2% reduction in fuel can mean $20 million in savings. They also recently applied the Predix platform to Emirates Airlines and gained 12 additional days of utilization due to monitoring for preventative maintenance.

GE is also opening up the Predix platform to others and continue to lead by example in the industrial internet of things.

GE IIoT

ITAMCO, from Plymouth, Indiana, is one of the most extraordinary gear shops in the world, delivering precision-machined components to OEMs the world over. They have done revolutionary things such as using Oculus Rift VR headsets to move through a virtual factory, used a MS Kinect to create a manufacturing showroom virtually, have experimented with tracking parts with a Google Glass headset, and have created the iBlue, the word’s first industrial bluetooth transmitter.

itamco.com

OATs Center. Open-Source Infrastructure for Real-Time Automatic Agricultural Machine Data Processing from Ag researchers Yang Wang, Sam Noel, James Krogmeier, and Dennis Buckmaster connects farm machinery via ISOBlue 2.0, and then allows that machinery to talk to one another through a cloud architecture powered by the Open Ag Data Alliance API. This system allows farmers to gain real-time data visualizations and analytics via apps across technologies and systems on their entire farming operation. The Open Ag Technology and Systems Group is devoted to bringing great open source projects to agriculture. Theye are farmers, professors, students, scientists, and engineers. They like to say that they love to code, solder, do math, analyze data, and have fun doing it.

oatscenter.org

Tate & Lyle of Lafayette, Indiana, makes food extraordinary. For over 150 years, they've been driven by their passion to create food people love. Because they're food people. It's not just what they do. It's what they love. Their deep technical expertise and passion drive the innovation and creativity that thrive within their business. Among food-based innovations, they are also employing some custom-designed sensors in the manufacturing plant. They have created an iBeacon, an array of 5 sensors mounted on five motors near the bearings. Acceleration among all 3-axes, and temperature are collected to monitor the motors. Data analytics can be useful for detecting changes in condition and more sophisticated arrays are being developed.

tateandlyle.com

Sensors and hardware are placed to send comprehensive data over the Commnet network to the Gemalto SensorLogic Application Enablement Platform, which transforms it into easy-to-use information employees can then access from virtually anywhere. For the first time, park employees have up-to-the-minute information at their fingertips indicating real time weather, fire, water and snow conditions. IP cameras and video can be used to locate visitors in emergencies as well as to enhance safety and minimize potential vandalism. Through a free app download for smartphones, tablets or other connected devices (supporting iOS, Android and Windows), visitors can broadcast updates to park rangers and employees when wildlife is spotted or help is needed, and they can receive SMS text messages with updates on changing conditions, fire risk warnings and road closures from floods or snow. If someone is lost or children wander away from campsites, park employees are notified immediately and geofencing tools can provide accurate location information to hasten search efforts, even sending immediate text messages to family when loved ones are found.

gemalto.com

After Valley View Elementary transitioned to their Program Improvement Plan (PI) in 2011-12, test results from students in Carnahan's class were not what she expected. The low scores came despite the school's new standardized English Language Arts and Math program. Carnahan crafted a technology-focused solution and pedagogy shift with the goal of creating more engaging lessons. She designed instructional objectives aligned to technology-enhanced activities in order to engage students with standardized course materials. She developed and modified curriculum content, then delivered using the interactive display and SMART Document Cameras. She built whole class, small group and individual game-based lesson activities, where students could contribute at the SMART Board or through their devices. And she captured formative assessment data on what each student understood, in real-time, helping to provide differentiated instruction. The students' overall scores on the California English Language Development Test showed a 70.8-point average improvement in their growth, with an average median improvement of 63 points.

education.smarttech.com

HabitatMap is a non-profit environmental health justice organization whose goal is to raise awareness about the impact the environment has on human health. Our online mapping and social networking platform is designed to maximize the impact of community voices on city planning and strengthen ties between organizations and activists working to build greener, greater cities. Utilizing our shared advocacy platform participants can: alert the public to environmental health hazards, hold polluters accountable for their environmental impact, highlight urban infrastructures that promote healthy living, identify future opportunities for sustainable urban development, and promote policies that enhance equitable access to urban resources.

habitatmap.org

An easy-to-use student transportation platform for visibility, safety, routing, and maintenance of school bus fleets. Samsara's mission is to bring the benefits of sensor data to the organizations that drive our economy—from transportation and logistics to construction, food production, energy, and manufacturing—and to improve the safety, efficiency, and quality of their operations. Samsara has emerged as one of the fastest-growing Internet of Things (IoT) companies, and as a leader in connected operations. Samsara's plug-and-play hardware and scalable cloud-based software are trusted by over 5,000 customers worldwide, from emerging businesses to Fortune 500 enterprises. Samsara has over 450 employees and growing, and is actively investing in new technology innovation for its customers.

samsara.com